On Campus
New dean on Cook Campus to expand global experience for students
When Lily Young scans a map of the world, the newly appointed dean of international programs and research for the Rutgers’ School of Environmental and Biological Sciences (SEBS) is likely envisioning the next locale to add to a growing list of study-abroad programs for her students.
Whether exploring bio-energy systems in Sao Paolo, Brazil, or researching climate change in Australia, SEBS undergraduate and graduate students will benefit from applying what they learn in the classroom to the greater community around them, says Young, a professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences on the Cook Campus.
Among Young’s initial goals as dean is to give undergraduate students a greater opportunity to internationalize their education through a semester or a summer abroad. “The big picture is that the world is very small right now. There’s the increasing likelihood that when our students graduate, they will find work in a multinational company,” she says. “Having had an international experience provides them with skills and a global outlook they otherwise may not have.”
Overseas study has traditionally been more the purview of arts and humanities students, who can use their time on foreign campuses to fulfill Rutgers requirements toward their major, the new dean notes. These experiences have been less accessible to students following the more specialized courses the sciences demand.
Young’s appointment became effective in September. SEBS Executive Dean Robert M. Goodman, said that in creating the post, he was looking to “internationalize the curriculum and provide more global learning opportunities for our students.”
In this first year, Young is building on existing programs while seeking to cultivate new ties with far-flung colleagues and universities.
At the University of Reading, England, for example, Rutgers students can take advantage of what Young describes as one of the best undergraduate meteorology programs Europe has to offer. At the University of Sao Paolo, five SEBS students participate in a yearly exchange, spending a week in South America during the fall semester and hosting their Brazilian counterparts in the spring.
Meanwhile, the dean has helped foster contacts in China, particularly at Shanghai’s Jiaotong University, where Rutgers students can pursue studies in plant biology, and at the South China University of Technology at Guangzhou, near Hong Kong.
Young has been instrumental in establishing and promoting several “2+2 programs,” under which foreign students spend their first two years in their native country and complete their remaining two undergraduate years on one of the Rutgers campuses – ultimately receiving degrees from both their home universities and Rutgers.
This two-way exchange is particularly important in today’s marketplace, Young says. “There are no barriers any more. There are technologies and research going on in other parts of the world that our students can benefit from, and vice versa.”
An environmental microbiologist who has been at Rutgers for 16 years, the dean has conducted extensive research into methods of biodegradation and bio-remediation: how naturally occurring micro-organisms in the environment can be used to clean up specific contaminants.
Young, a native of China, received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in bacteriology from Cornell and a doctorate from Harvard. In 1992, she came to New Brunswick to join Rutgers’ Biotechnology Center for Agriculture and the Environment and the Department of Environmental Sciences, which she chaired from 2002 until assuming her new position as dean of international programs.
The jets fly both ways, she points out: More and more students at SEBS come from Southeast Asia, Malaysia, India and other countries where parents are looking for a cost-effective education for their children. Young’s goal, she said, is to involve these foreign-born students in a community and recognize the value of their being here.
In addition to helping shape study-abroad programs for undergraduates, Young also is working with graduate students to enhance their global reach. Moreover, she is reaching out to department chairs to see where faculty members are conducting work, in hopes of broadening their international contacts.
“We’ve got activities going on all over the world. Part of my job is to put a face on this – collect the information, show where the different programs are going on, and help facilitate others,” she says.