PULLMAN, Wash. – Recognizing the increasing importance of a global learning and research environment for students and faculty, Washington State University is engaging in a multitude of strategic international partnerships, including one signed earlier this month with Brazil's Agency for Graduate Education.

 

"Brazil represents one of the strategic countries where WSU is building and enhancing existing partnerships for research collaborations, student exchange programs and enrollment opportunities that enrich our diverse student population” said WSU Provost Warwick Bayly, who signed the agreement with President Jorge Almeida Guimarães of the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES).

 

The forum was convened as part of the summit visit of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.

 

"President Obama’s "100,000 Strong in the Americas” and President Rousseff’s "Science without Borders” initiatives will ensure a robust exchange of students and faculty between the two countries,” said Provost Bayly.

 

WSU is one of 18 U.S. institutions engaged in a year-long program with the Institute of International Education on developing a strategic plan for building partnerships with institutions in Brazil. Vice Provost and Associate Vice President of International Programs, Prema Arasu, and two of WSU’s "Science Without Borders” Brazilian undergraduate students were on hand for the signing and attended the Brazil-U.S.: Partnership for the 21st Century Forum at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington D.C.

 

The signing capped a successful campaign that included a visit by Arasu, and WSU Honors College Assistant Dean Jessica Cassleman, who traveled to Brazil in mid April as part of the program to meet with potential partner campuses, learn about Brazilian higher education and establish student internships and exchange programs.

 

The delegation went to São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasília, Campinas and Piracicaba to meet with faculty, students and officials from public and private institutions, the Fulbright Commission, CAPES and the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq). The delegation engaged in several high-level policy events, including a U.S.-Brazil Partnerships Roundtable in São Paulo. The roundtable discussion on the challenges and opportunities in expanding U.S.-Brazil educational relations included WSU’s Arasu, Jeffery Peck from City University of New York and representatives from two Brazilian institutions including the Pontifical Catholic University of Sao Paulo.

 

WSU Professor Gustavo Barbosa-Canovas, who re-visited the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (University of Campinas, UNICAMP) in March to further his research collaboration and coordinate preparations for the 16th World Congress on Food Science and Technology with Professor Glaucia M. Pastore, said "UNICAMP, which is described as the ‘MIT’ of Latin America, has programs in food systems, plant sciences and bioenergy, among others, that would be very complementary to WSU’s priorities.”

 

Arasu and two of WSU’s "Science Without Borders” Brazilian undergraduate students also witnessed the signing and attended the Brazil-U.S.: Partnership for the 21st Century Forum at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington D.C.