Global Reach

Turmoil from recent wars and tragedies causes millions to be displaced from their homes every year. This year is no exception with the intensifying conflict in Ukraine, forcing millions of refugees to find safety elsewhere. Not only do these refugees need shelter, but they also need education and the opportunity to have new life experiences in different countries. 

The Kent State University Board of Trustees approved the establishment and registration of a Community Benefit Company in Rwanda, Africa, during the Board’s regular quarterly meeting held May 25. Kent State has realized an immediate need to establish a private limited company, designated as a not-for-profit Community Benefit Company, that can serve as a strategic starting point for engaging in the African continent’s expanding higher education market.

The horrific images of the massive explosion that rocked Beirut, Lebanon, in August 2020, motivated Kent State University officials to reach out to help. Their thoughts immediately turned to Lebanese American University (LAU) in Beirut and its School of Architecture and Design, with which Kent State’s College of Architecture and Environmental Design has been cultivating a relationship for the past several years.

Although Kent State alumna and current graduate student Lydia Lisowsky has never visited Ukraine, she feels a deep sense of obligation and responsibility to help those who have been injured in the war. The Kent State community helped Lisowsky pack and donate medical supplies on the Kent Campus and in the larger Kent community to send to Ukraine. 

Two significant environmental issues our nation faces today include invasive plant species and a lack of sustainable materials. Invasive plant species are detrimental to host environments for multiple reasons. Kent State students are working to turn invasive plant species into a sustainable material that can help protect the environment through the 2022 Biodesign Challenge, a course and national competition to create sustainable solutions to real world problems.

Born from inside Kent State’s Wick Poetry Center, “Dear Vaccine” gives citizens a chance to process the pandemic through poetry. The poetry center collaborated with the University of Arizona to expand on poet Naomi Shihab Nye’s poem “Dear Vaccine.” The poem became a catalyst for respondents around the world to share their own poems.

In an impressive close to her undergraduate career, Kent State University Honors College senior Mallory Woods was recently awarded the prestigious Fulbright English Teaching Award (ETA). A native of Fairview, Pennsylvania, Woods is completing a major in translation with a Spanish concentration and minors in economics and Italian studies while also finishing a certificate program in teaching English as a foreign language. 

Although Kent State alumna and current graduate student Lydia Lisowsky has never visited Ukraine, she feels a deep sense of obligation and responsibility to help those who have been injured in the war. Lisowsky recently began a campaign to collect medical supplies on the Kent Campus and in the larger Kent community to send to Ukraine. 

Moira Armstrong, undergraduate in the College of Arts and Sciences and research assistant on the Queer Pandemic Project, collaborated with Molly Merryman, associate professor in the School of Peace and Conflict Studies, to compile digital, video-based oral interviews for the Queer Pandemic Project in a partnership between Kent State University, Goldsmith’s University of London and Queer Britain. These interviews feature people in queer communities across the United Kingdom, discussing the COVID-19 pandemic and how it has impacted their lives as queer people.