International Programs

Oregon State University has become a Peace Corps Master’s International partner, and will participate in an innovative program that allows a graduate student to get a master’s degree while also doing a full 27-month service project in the Peace Corps.

The program, the first of its type set up at a college or university in Oregon, will allow students to earn one of three graduate degrees in the OSU College of Forestry. The initial program should provide a model for other colleges at the university to develop participating degrees in the future, university officials say.

For the last 40 years, Crossroads International has provided friendship, hospitality and language assistance to countless international students and visiting scholars and their families at Oregon State University. From providing conversation partners to locating families willing to extend friendships to incoming international scholars, the organization makes difficult transitions more comfortable and friendly.

Each year, Crossroads presents an international film festival that not only reflects the organization’s dedication to cross-cultural communication and understanding, but which is the organization’s primary fundraiser. The 2009 Crossroads International Film Festival will feature films from India, Africa, Dominican Republic, Bhutan, Uruguay, Europe, Middle East and the United States, on four consecutive Sundays in February at the Darkside Cinema, 215 SW Fourth Street in downtown Corvallis.

Last year's excursions to the remote hill country of southwestern El Salvador promised to be excellent adventures for Scott Crook and Aparna Shrivastava. The OSU students' mission - to build clean-water systems with coffee farmers living high in a hidden rainforest - would test their engineering skills and slake their thirst for new experiences. They never expected the project to change their lives.

"It completely transformed my belief in me," says Shrivastava, a junior in mechanical engineering from Tigard, Oregon. "It changed my perspective about what I can do for the world."

Crook echoes her sentiment. "It made me realize the incredible things you can do in the world," says the civil-engineering sophomore from Salem.

The El Salvador Water Project is one of several initiatives of the OSU student chapter of Engineers Without Borders USA (EWB-USA) - a nonprofit humanitarian organization that partners with communities across the globe to solve quality-of-life problems.

It was a frigid winter night on Chile’s central coast, and Christina Murphy was standing in the surf in her wet suit with a night vision monocular, getting pummeled by waves. She was counting her research subjects — nocturnal, carnivorous crabs of the species Acanthocyclus gayi that hide in algae or rock crevices — unaware that she would later regard the experience as one that cemented her love for her work.

Murphy, an IE3 intern and 2008 International Degree alumna, will return to Chile in March 2009 and use her research and international experience as a Fulbright scholar.