Mary Paz Alvarez traveled to Europe as a Global Perspectives Program scholar
Image 1. Mary Paz Alvarez posing on an art installation and seating area made from used pallets during her travels to Europe with the GPP..
CPULD is proud of PhD student, Mary Paz Alvarez, for being selected for the Global Perspectives Program here at Virginia Tech. Along with fifteen students, and two VT faculty members, Mary traveled to Switzerland, France, and Italy during May 2022. Per the graduate school website, the Global Perspectives Program (GPP) is an example of a program through which VT graduate students are prepared to be global citizens. The purpose of GPP is to enable VT’s graduate students to “examine differences in academic practices and to develop innovative and effective approaches that foster international awareness and education. The program provides firsthand experiences that help each participant acknowledge the differences around the world and embrace a perspective beyond their own country of origin.”
Mary told us that all of her colleagues on the trip were from different academic backgrounds, but that all have an interest in working in higher education. She went on to explain that “the main goal of the trip was to learn about the higher education structure and differences between higher education within Europe and comparing it to the United States. We also wanted to expand our views of higher education beyond the scope of Virginia Tech and think about ways to incorporate what we saw into our own teaching experiences. Additionally, we each have our own individual learning goal - mine was learning about students with disabilities and their experiences in higher education in Europe.”
Through these travels, Mary quickly recognized many differences in the European higher education. “There are differences in higher education before higher education even begins,” she told us. “Europe has a different system for their students while they're still navigating high school - they can begin learning about vocational or University subjects and begin specializing at a younger age. In the US, students are not provided a specialized education until they are in College. One of the largest differences is that Europe has the Bologna Process where students go through 3 years to earn their Bachelors, 2 years for their Masters and 3 years for their PhD - and students have to complete their masters in order to move into a PhD.”
Mary further explained that “in the United States we typically expect 4 years to complete a bachelors, 2 years for the masters, and an undefined amount of time for the PhD. In Europe, PhD students are also seen more as instructors and workers at the university instead of students. They have a different balance between research and teaching than what we see in the US. Also, in the US, PhD students have to take course work which is not the norm in Europe. In the US, PhD students have different levels of involvement, and there is no standardization of these engagement levels; it fully depends on the individual student.”
Image 2. Mary attending a lecture by Dr. Alexander Hasgall, Head of the European Union Association’s Council for Doctoral Education on the future of “Higher Education in 2030.”
Her GPP travel included visits to universities, laboratories, libraries and more. Mary especially enjoyed her visit to SUPSI in Switzerland because it reminded her of the Pallet Lab in CPULD where she works. In her words, “visiting SUPSI in Switzerland was especially impactful since the institution focuses on applied sciences where students can work hands-on in labs and there is a blend of industry, student research, and learning. Our own packaging program would fall into a similar category since students have to take labs and do relevant industry projects in order to earn their degree - other European universities had a more theoretical approach to their programs, but I personally enjoy teaching and learning in labs so seeing those types of spaces is always motivating.”
Mary also enjoyed her visit to the University of Basel’s library. She told us that visiting the “library was super interesting - the library and conservation team pulled out some incredibly significant documents that are being stored at the University such as original hand-written Bible annotations by Erasmus, original maps of Paris from the 1600's, and many more documents. It was interesting from the standpoint that these documents are older than the United States and each documents impact on our world's history. The role of libraries are unique at each institution, and I had never been to a library that was dedicated to document conservation and preservation before.”
Image 3. Mary attending a tour of the University of Basel’s newly constructed Biozentrum, a leading, worldwide institute for molecular and biomedical research.
Mary learned a lot from the Global Perspectives Program. However, meeting others with the same passion for higher education and realizing that all issues are global issues are what she valued most about her travels. “The best part of the trip was establishing and growing my own global network. It's refreshing to leave your institution and see that your institution is not the only group struggling with modern issues; most issues are truly universal and global. Talking with faculty, law makers, and other students reinforced how universal higher education is. Talking with students and exchanging our stories and goals was a priceless experience. It's exciting to come out of a trip with so many new friends and colleagues from all around the world all being united by one topic: wanting to teach our future generations. It definitely reinvigorated my own vision in academia and the impact that we can individually have.”
Image 4. Mary Paz Alvarez during her travels to Europe with the GPP.
