HIGH-IMPACT PRACTICES AND EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING

SU set the impactful goal of becoming the Maryland public university with the greatest percentage of students with study abroad and study away experiences. In an effort to turn SU’s goal into action, President Lepre traveled to Austria and South Korea to grow partnerships and demonstrate the University’s commitment to ensuring students have a world of opportunities.

Building upon a 30-year partnership with the American Institute of Foreign Study (AIFS), SU has expanded its efforts to increase student enrollment around the world. President Lepre and Dr. Brian Stiegler, SU assistant provost for international education, traveled to Salzburg, Austria, to meet AIFS Executive Director Emily Merson at their Global Education Center.  SU aspires to increase the number of students studying on AIFS study abroad programs world-wide by a factor of four in the coming years. 

The new SU In Austria program hosted at the AIFS Center in Salzburg joins other new SU In Global Campuses hosted at SU partner universities around the world.  For the first time in AY 2023-24, SU students are studying abroad during every academic term at SU In Austria, SU in Scotland, SU in Spain, and SU in Costa Rica. Approximately 100 students from SU’s College of Health and Human Services and the Fulton School of Liberal Arts have completed full-time internships abroad through AIFS Abroad’s Global Experiences internship program.

SU also marked the celebration of a 10-year partnership with Chonnam National University (CNU) in Gwangju, South Korea. President Lepre traveled to South Korea to meet with CNU President Jung Sungteak in recognition of a program that has seen more than 100 CNU students study at Salisbury and dozens of SU students – mostly from the Fulton School of Liberal Arts and the Perdue School of Business – have traveled to Gwangju.

Faculty are actively involved in the exchange as well.  Doctoral students from the Korean Education graduate program at CNU teach Korean language classes on the main campus in Salisbury, and  SU professor Dr. Art Lembo is in residence on his Fulbright award teaching and conducting research at CNU in fall 2023. 

The first SU students spent full semesters studying away for academic credit through the National Student Exchange.  In the past year, SU students have studied in Alaska, Louisiana, Florida, and the U.S. Virgin Islands through this new partnership that exposes SU students to the diversity of the cultures of the U.S.A.

In the spirit of fostering innovation and progress, SU launched the Strategic Innovation Fund, demonstrating the institutions commitment to advancing SU’s Strategic Plan and Salisbury Seven initiatives. 

This impactful new initiative actively engages the University’s vibrant community, including students, faculty and staff, encouraging them to submit proposals for seed funding. These proposals serve as the catalyst for projects that hold the promise of making a tangible impact on our institution and the broader community.The Strategic Innovation Fund serves as a dynamic and versatile platform, purposefully designed to nurture innovative ideas and 

projects spanning a wide spectrum of possibilities. It empowers individuals to cultivate new interdisciplinary research, facilitates the forging of crucial community and industry partnerships, provides vital support for student recruitment and retention initiatives, contributes to the enhancement of operational efficiency, and propels other high-impact ventures requiring initial financial backing.

This initiative acknowledges that innovation takes many forms. 
It can be the birth of fresh, groundbreaking ideas or the ingenious adaptation of existing strategies to further bolster SU’s mission.

Students participating in the Presidential Citizen Scholars (PCS) Program are tasked with completing sustainable community engagement projects each year that directly benefit the greater Salisbury community through collaborative civic partnership. During the spring semester, a trio of students conducted a project that focused on bioremediation in Salisbury to help protect the waters that run into the Chesapeake Bay.

“Gray” infrastructure, such as parking lots and roadways, exacerbate the issue of urban runoff on the Delmarva Peninsula as excess oil, acids and sediment pollutants settle on roads, sidewalks, roofs and parking lots. These harmful materials are then washed into drains that lead directly to the bay.Recent SU graduate Charles Laird ’23 and seniors Christopher Machalek and Emma Tarquinio partnered with the Blind 

Industries and Services of Maryland, an organization dedicated to providing career and training resources to blind and visually impaired residents, to address urban runoff issues at their office in northeast Salisbury. 

The project resulted in the removal of 16,000 square feet of impervious surfacing, which was repurposed by a local pavement company to reduce waste. In-fill soil was added, the area was seeded with grass seed, and rain barrels were installed to ensure rainwater from the roof helps to water the plants and grass surrounding their building. In addition to its environmental aspects, the project also will mean a financial benefit for the Blind Industries and Services of Maryland, which will see a reduction in its annual taxes for the reduced amount of impervious surfacing on its property.