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Follow on Google News | HBCU Online Graduates Need an Employability Boosting International Edge TooStudents earning online HBCU degrees must have the same international edge as if they attended a SAGE Consortium member school.
By: IERC Education Foundation “We wish them the best of luck because of their potential impact on the achievement gap, but my concern is that thousands of students who cannot attend a bricks and mortar school will miss out on the global literacy and employability benefits of the postsecondary intercultural learning experience we are offering via the SAGE Consortium” says Steven W. Jones president and CEO of IERC Education Foundation (www.iercef.org) IERCEF has made much of the statistics that profile U.S. student’s international mobility. White students make up 64 percent of college enrollment, but 82 percent of study abroad, while African American college students comprise 13 percent of those enrolled, but comprise only a record-breaking four percent of those who studied abroad according to the most recent figures. First Lady Michelle Obama’s George Washington University graduation speech told the seniors… “This class of graduates in particular has a leg-up, because at GW, you’ve already been trained to think in this way (globally). Nearly half of the undergraduates here study abroad…and yes, serving abroad (global engagement) will make you stronger, more competitive and a more valuable asset for a career in the public or private sectors”. “I know Mrs. Obama wants HBCU graduates to have the same “leg-up” or international edge. This imbalance is why there is an IERCEF, why there is a SAGE Consortium model, why we will be attending the HBCU Week conference (9/12-14)” adds Mr. Jones. During the recent (8/23) NC SAGE Consortium meeting at Livingstone College: IERCEF, InteRDom (www.interdominternship.org) With all that is going on concerning international educational opportunities for HBCU students, no wonder the recent concern for online. As Mr. Jones candidly acknowledged, “We have spent a lot of time, personal resources and energy developing what we felt was the correct response to an alarming imbalance in a global society, the SAGE Consortium Model. We believe in and support the “New Narrative” as articulated by Education Secretary Arne Duncan who praised the NC SAGE Consortium as did Gov. Bev Perdue (D-NC) earlier this summer. It’s all about aggressively increasing access, retention, degree-attainment and career-level success for students attending HBCUs and indeed all Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs), thus closing the opportunity gap and raising the bars. An online experience, expands postsecondary reach, but must give its graduates an international edge and what the First Lady called a “leg-up” or else those graduates will be competitively disadvantaged in a global society by race. IERC Education Foundation’s SAGE Online is an answer. # # # IERC Education Foundation: promotes study abroad through advocacy for the Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad Foundation Act. IERCEF also develops study abroad programs via direct design or strategic partnerships with a specific focus on students of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Community Colleges and Public High Schools for the purposes of increasing: the proportion and demographic mix of U.S. students (and their institutions) End
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