UF's College of Design, Construction and Planning celebrates international education

November 13, 2009

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The University of Florida College of Design, Construction and Planning will showcase its commitment to international education with a gallery exhibit Nov. 16-21 as part of International Education Week.

The event will kick off with a public reception at 5 p.m. Monday in the gallery of the Architecture building.

An initiative of the U.S. Department of State and U.S. Department of Education, International Education Week is part of an effort to promote programs that prepare Americans for a global environment. William Tilson, architecture professor and assistant dean of international studies and service learning, said DCP has been doing this for years.

“The exhibit is really our contribution to supporting and promoting international studies,” Tilson said. “We all feel that an international experience is critical to general education and professional development.”

The exhibit will display international education initiatives in teaching, research and service from all parts of the college. One of the features will be the work of UF’s Solar Decathlon team.

The Solar Decathlon is a competition that requires teams to design and build a self-sufficient home, using solar energy as the only energy source.

Because the U.S. competition was so well-received, Solar Decathlon Europe was created as an international competition for universities from all over the world. UF is one of only two U.S. teams competing, and the final phase of the competition will be held June 21-28, 2010, in Madrid.

The Vicenza Institute, an education and research center in the Veneto Region of Italy that is celebrating its 25th anniversary, and the Preservation Institute: Caribbean, the longest running international study program in the college, will also be showcased.

According to Tilson, the exhibit will also contain previews of the exciting programs to come.

The department of interior design recently signed a cooperative agreement with Lund University in Sweden for study abroad, exchange and research. The college now has 28 active agreements with universities world-wide, and more than 10 percent of students participating in study abroad.

“We haven’t had to convince people, either,” Tilson said. “They believe in that, both the students and the parents. And we have an increasing number of people participating, too.”

Kevin Thompson, professor of landscape architecture, runs the Landscape Field Schools program, which offers summer study-abroad opportunities to students in the Southeast Asia and Australasia region. Thompson said that study-abroad helps combat homogeneity.

“The greatest benefit of the international educational experience may simply be that it places the student in unfamiliar contexts,” Thompson said. “Outside our geographically and culturally familiar realms … we become more acutely aware of the defining influences in the often subtle and even elusive characteristics of place and landscape. With a deeper understanding of the influence these cues have on our perceptions of place, we can respond more appropriately to them, which in turn makes us much better designers in the end.”

According to Abdol Chini, director of the Rinker School of Building Construction and program coordinator for the international exchange program with Polytechnic University in Hong Kong, international education also helps students become better people.

“They learn about the educational system in another country, and about other cultures,” Chini said. “One disadvantage that our students often have is that most of their life they’ve spent time in just Florida. International exchange program is an effective way to provide them a diverse and multicultural educational experience. It helps them have a better understanding of the world and international relations.”

Tilson is looking forward to all of these experiences coming together in the exhibit.

“It’s the first time we’ve done this,” he said. “It’s as good for us as it is for anybody coming to see it. I think there is an impressive range and variety of programs. And I think, even internally, people will be surprised at that.”