Lindsay France/University Photography

Rebecca Stoltzfus, M.S. '88, Ph.D. '82, professor and director of the Programs in International Nutrition and Global Health at CHE, participates in a panel on Global Programs at Cornell March 4.

The number of programs and students involved in hands-on international work is growing at Cornell, from its global health minor and international agriculture work to the Johnson School's Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise.

As part of the 21st annual meeting of the President's Council of Cornell Women, March 3-5, whose theme was Cornell's global presence, women in the Statler Amphitheater learned March 4 how Cornell's global programs have expanded in recent years, particularly in applied research, business consultation and global health.

Other sessions focused on international rankings, networking and volunteer opportunities, Cornell's Language House and Cornell in Qatar.

The growing attraction to global work among Cornell students, said Rebecca J. Stoltzfus, professor of nutritional sciences and director of Cornell's Global Health Program and its Program in International Nutrition, is because, she believes, that "Through media communication there's more exposure to these issues [of global inequities], and when you combine that with what's going on in the life of 18- to 22-year-olds, trying to figure out what they want to do with their lives … that's a pretty intriguing combination," she said.

Beth Medvecky, assistant director of the Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development (CIIFAD), said that students doing international work glean insights not usually available on campus. For example, Perla Parra, M.P.A '11, had noted: "It is possible for a company to pursue profitability without sacrificing environmental and social responsibility." Parra learned this, she said, while working with Intaba Fruit processing in South Africa through Cornell's Student Multidisciplinary and Applied Research Team (SMART), where students conduct fieldwork with a company or community in a developing country.

Medvecky said that in CIIFAD, students design products based on coursework and travel overseas to test them. "They get the feedback immediately and find out that whatever it is that they had developed isn't quite cutting it."

Often redesigning the product in close consultation with the local people is an important part of learning. "Students have the opportunity to see how what they think is going to work actually plays out," Medvecky says.

From a business perspective, Monica Touesnard, associate director of the Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise, said that the "lens of sustainability" that her program promotes gives her MBA students a competitive advantage over other business students.

While these programs tend to focus on graduate students, Stoltzfus noted that the global heath minor established in 2006 allows undergraduates to gain international experience.

Its required eight weeks of field experience in an underdeveloped country is often one of the students' favorite parts, she said. "We speak about personal growth, transformation, new perspectives and new ways of seeing ... becoming friends with people from a very different culture and a very different socio-economic status. That's often transforming in a person's life," Stoltzfus said.

PCCW is an organization of several hundred highly accomplished alumnae working to advance women students, faculty, staff and alumnae as Cornell leaders. PCCW advises Cornell presidents on ways to improve women's standing and mentors students and raises money for scholarships, faculty grants and women's athletics.

Elizabeth Simpson '14 is a writer intern for the Cornell Chronicle.