Colorado State to Host International Professionals on Feb. 5 for Lessons in Sustainability

In their home countries, they’re engineers, national economists, bankers, agricultural researchers, assessors and inspectors.

On Feb. 5 at Colorado State University, they will be students of sustainability.

The group of 18 mid-career professionals, known as Humphrey Fellows, will visit Colorado State as part of their tour of the United States through the Institute of International Education, an organization that fosters international cooperation. The program assigns the students for nine months to universities throughout the country, but they will make a special trip to CSU to learn about some of the university’s most groundbreaking sustainability efforts.

During the visit, students will tour the Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory in the College of Engineering and talk with Carl Hammerdorfer, director of the Global Social and Sustainable Enterprise master’s degree program in the College of Business; Dr. Barry Beaty, director of the university’s Supercluster on infectious disease; and Michelle Betsill, political science professor who has just published a book on non-governmental organizations.

The students represent countries from around the globe including Serbia, Colombia, Israel, Afghanistan, India, China, Brazil and Madagascar.

"These professionals are here to learn practical applications of sustainability that can help them in their jobs as well as help their nations thrive," said Jim Cooney, associate provost for the Office of International Programs at Colorado State. "We are honored that the Institute of International Education chose Colorado State as part of the students’ education."

The Institute of International Education, a U.S. Department of State-sponsored program that was founded in 1919, administers 250 programs worldwide including the Fulbright Program. Larry Edward Penley, president of Colorado State University, is a member of the institute’s Rocky Mountain Regional Advisory Board.

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