Drawing on Gifts of International Students to Develop International Partnerships

It was Tuesday of the first week of classes for the fall 2012 term. At two o’clock in the afternoon, swamped with student petitions to register for classes and balancing myriad administrative issues, I found a young man with an unfamiliar accent standing on my office threshold. “I don’t have an appointment, but might you have a moment? My name is Carl. This is my second day in the states from Norway, and I heard about the honors program and would like to join.” A few days exist in an educator’s life that one can consider change moments, and that particular Tuesday proved to be one for me. Carl, a sophomore transfer student from the American College of Norway, demonstrated the rare confidence to reach out, and in doing so he has transformed honors education at our institution. Carl has served as an invaluable catalyst for our honors college to form an unprecedented relationship with the Norwegian Nobel Institute (NNI). The NNI supports the five-member panel that comprises the Nobel Committee and annually awards the Nobel Peace Prize. The possibilities of this relationship are only now coming to fruition: in the words of poet Robert Browning, “The best is yet to be . . .” (“Rabbi ben Ezra” 2). Extraordinary experiences unfold in Carl’s story, but it also provides honors directors with sage advice: drawing from the gifts of international students and inviting them into the honors community can play a dramatic role in internationalizing honors. Carl’s exemplary involvement provided intercultural understanding and an appreciation of global citizenship among students in our honors college and the larger campus community. His participation triggered a progression of events that ultimately created an institutional partnership with the NNI. The support that enabled Carl to acclimate into honors education and the strategies we collaboratively used to build an international partnership are arguably replicable on any campus. Carl’s story suggests how other institutions might maximize unique opportunities for engagement with their own international student population. Before explaining Carl’s contributions, this essay contextualizes the possibilities of engaging international students by reviewing the current statistics regarding international students in the United States

Partners in Peace: A Sketch for a Link between the Nobel Peace Prize and NCHC

In a plenary address at the 2023 NCHC annual conference in Chicago, the former Vice Chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee issued a challenge for honors students and educators to use their voices and positions of local leadership to promote peace. The call for peace advocacy extended in Chicago resonated with the large audience, as leadership development represents a high-impact practice that many honors programs embrace. As national and international conflicts produce increasing polarization and divisiveness that seep into our campuses and local communities, the urgency for honors students to hone critical thinking and practical skills needed for citizen leadership and peacemaking magnify. Nobel Peace Prize laureates are diverse and interdisciplinary exemplars that honors educators can utilize as they seek to inspire and instruct students who strive to fulfill the Chicago challenge. Drawing content from the history and laureates of the Nobel Peace Prize, we provide two tested educational modules designed to illuminate a wide lexicon of strategies and practices that leaders employ in their pursuit of peace. We share best practices gleaned from eight years of honors curricular and co-curricular program development, enriched by consultation with leaders from the Norwegian Nobel Institute, the Norwegian Nobel Committee, and the Nobel Peace Center. A link of mutual value exists between NCHC member institutions and the legacy of Alfred Nobel, which we call Partners in Peace. The models offer easy adoption logistics for NCHC institutions of any composition. We conclude with future possibilities, a few poised for adoption by NCHC’s International Education Committee

Honors Alumni Re-Activation through Interpersonal Engagement: Lessons Learned during COVID

The 2020–2021 academic year presented many challenges to honors educators, including their ability to support honors education as a community of opportunity in virtual learning environments. This study considers how remote learning platforms emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic illuminated previously underutilized resources, such as alumni. Authors describe programming that emphasizes opportunities for interpersonal engagement between students and alumni and maximizes potential for relationship building and communal longevity. Intersections for alumni/student virtual connection in classrooms are identified, as are co-curricular events and recruitment initiatives for prospective students. To assess impact, a survey instrument was designed according to a conceptual model of student engagement and satisfaction level and distributed to enrolled honors students. Beyond simply assessing the value students experience in the moment, researchers also evaluate how virtual experiences with alumni motivated students to attend similar events, promote such events to peers, and engage as alumni participants post-graduation. The survey provides an opportunity for students to share free responses; and subsequent content analysis of student response identifies common themes. Results reinforce current literature, suggesting that alumni participation in the curricular and co-curricular life of an honors community illustrates the value of human capital. Alumni provide a motivational force that challenges students to critically reflect on issues such as vocational discernment, networking, embracing undergraduate experiences, and resiliency. Authors conclude with ideas on future collaborations between honors alumni and students

Social Work and Police Partnership: A Summons To The Village Strategies and Effective Practices

This report addresses the social work/law enforcement relationship and the role of police and other human service agencies in dealing with community problems. Traditionally, law enforcement and human service agencies share the most difficult portion of the others’ client caseloads but there has been little interagency communication or cooperation. Effective intervention and prevention requires more than police action and goes beyond the capability of any single agency. Social service has always been a key part of policing while serving victims of crime and offenders has been a major emphasis of social work. Law enforcement and social work have served the same target groups but with varying success. The community now demands that both institutions combine resources and skills to reach those in crisis and victims of crime. Problem oriented community policing is still a work in progress but there is consensus on four elements: prevention, problem solving, partnerships and organizational change. Using these elements as a foundation, this document describes police/social work partnerships that serve as a community response to crisis situations signaled by calls for police service. Heretofore, community policing has focused on developing relationships with individual citizens through foot/bike patrols, dispersed “community policing” sub-stations and neighborhood improvement. Building partnerships with human service agencies has received far less attention. Social work/police partnerships are the next logical step in the development of community policing. They meet the mandate to work together for the benefit of the whole community and to deal with chronic repeat calls for service. These calls signal a serious problem usually involving multiple forms of abuse and indicate the need for summoning the entire village to provide effective intervention and preventive services. The study was conducted to learn about the development, operation and impact of social work/police partnerships on recurring domestic violence and associated deep-rooted police service delivery problems. This document describes effective practices of five successful social work/police partnership models. Chapters I and II give the background of the problem. Chapter III describes five successful partnership models and Chapter IV provides a composite of critical effective practices gleaned from the study sites. Chapter V outlines steps for assessing the problem. Chapter VI and VII are designed to serve as a project development checklist for program planning, implementation and assessment of effectiveness

Breast cancer detection using automated whole breast ultrasound and mammography in radiographically dense breasts

PurposeMammography, the standard method of breast cancer screening, misses many cancers, especially in dense-breasted women. We compared the performance and diagnostic yield of mammography alone versus an automated whole breast ultrasound (AWBU) plus mammography in women with dense breasts and/or at elevated risk of breast cancer.MethodsAWBU screening was tested in 4,419 women having routine mammography (Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00649337). Cancers occurring during the study and subsequent 1-year follow-up were evaluated. Sensitivity, specificity and positive predictive value (PPV) of biopsy recommendation for mammography alone, AWBU and mammography with AWBU were calculated.ResultsBreast cancer detection doubled from 23 to 46 in 6,425 studies using AWBU with mammography, resulting in an increase in diagnostic yield from 3.6 per 1,000 with mammography alone to 7.2 per 1,000 by adding AWBU. PPV for biopsy based on mammography findings was 39.0% and for AWBU 38.4%. The number of detected invasive cancers 10 mm or less in size tripled from 7 to 21 when AWBU findings were added to mammography.ConclusionAWBU resulted in significant cancer detection improvement compared with mammography alone. Additional detection and the smaller size of invasive cancers may justify this technology's expense for women with dense breasts and/or at high risk for breast cancer

Genomic analysis of urogenital and rectal Neisseria meningitidis isolates reveals encapsulated hyperinvasive meningococci and coincident multidrug-resistant gonococci.

OBJECTIVE: Invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) outbreaks in men who have sex with men (MSM) have been associated with meningococcal colonisation of the urethra and rectum, but little is known about this colonisation or co-colonisation with the closely related gonococcus. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) was employed to explore these phenomena. METHODS: Meningococci isolated from the urogenital tract and rectum (n=23) and coincident gonococci (n=14) were analysed by WGS along with contemporary meningococci from IMD (n=11). All isolates were obtained from hospital admissions in Brighton, UK, 2011-2013. Assembled WGS were deposited in the PubMLST/neisseria database (http://pubmlst.org/neisseria) and compared at genomic loci common to gonococci or meningococci. RESULTS: As expected, most meningococci from IMD were encapsulated and belonged to hyperinvasive lineages. So too were meningococci found in the urogenital tract and rectum, contrasting to those asymptomatically carried in the nasopharynx where such meningococci are rare. Five hyperinvasive meningococcal lineages and four distinct gonococcal genotypes were recovered, including multiresistant ST-1901 (NG MAST-1407) gonococci. CONCLUSIONS: These data were consistent with a predisposition for potentially virulent encapsulated hyperinvasive meningococci to colonise the urethra and rectum, which suggests their involvement in MSM IMD outbreaks. The coincidence of multiresistant gonococci raises wider public health concerns