SAIS is a proven leader in international affairs higher education. To maintain our global position, we have been involved in a strategic planning exercise that envisions the future of SAIS and sets out a plan to achieve our ambitions in Washington, D.C., Bologna and Nanjing.
Dean Jessica P. Einhorn will be communicating the full extent of this initiative in the coming months, but what we can tell our alumni and friends is that a key theme throughout the plan will be to deepen their role in the life of SAIS across the board.
The initiative will rely on four focal points to enhance SAIS’s leadership position: Admissions and Career Services, Financial Aid, Infrastructure and “The SAIS Experience.” Admissions and Career Services
We have always been proud to reflect the diverse communities of the world, with current students representing 65 countries and alumni living in more than 140 nations. As international affairs becomes a more complex field, recruiting students from a broader range of educational and professional backgrounds—including business, engineering, journalism and public health—is increasingly important.
In Career Services, SAIS is upgrading its performance by focusing student ambitions from the moment they arrive and by marketing the school to employers so they appreciate all the advantages of a SAIS graduate.
Over the past two years, support from JHU trustee and SAIS Advisory Council member Bill Carey has enabled our Admissions and Career Services offices to invest in staff, employ new marketing tools and bring outstanding leaders from the public and private sectors to speak on campus. Financial Aid
Going forward, SAIS will be devoting considerable effort to boosting fellowship and internship support. Without significant increases in this area, we will be hard pressed to compete with leading peer schools and to attract the very best talent.
This is why we have devoted this year’s annual fund entirely to fellowship support. We also will be working to add fellowships such as the one established in the past academic year by JHU trustee Marjorie Fisher in memory of her father, renowned businessman and philanthropist Max Fisher. And to create a lasting legacy and show its commitment to SAIS, the wonderfully entrepreneurial Class of 2007 designated its class gift as a newly endowed fellowship. With 55 percent class participation, the students raised nearly $30,000 toward their $100,000 goal. Infrastructure
As student and faculty needs evolve, the school’s infrastructure must keep pace in order to ensure that our students remain well connected with faculty, staff, each other and the world. Along with upgrading technology to create a more socially cohesive environment and support learning inside and outside the classroom, we need to upgrade available meeting spaces. The goal is to create a more open environment, where students can meet, study and socialize.
Progress on this front has begun with the acquisition of the seventh floor in the Bernstein-Offit Building at 1717 Massachusetts Avenue. A $2 million gift from Johns Hopkins trustee and SAIS Advisory Council member David H. Bernstein facilitated the expansion, providing room for much needed classrooms and academic program offices. This floor now houses the International Economics, International Development, International Policy and African Studies programs. ‘The SAIS Experience’
SAIS students come to their respective campuses for two or more 13-week semesters. But there is much more to life at SAIS than what happens during class time. Every year more programs offer intersession trips, where students spend the winter break working with local and international organizations. Strategic Studies organizes “staff rides” to battlefields and other significant sites, allowing students to relive history and learn how these events affect the decisions of today’s leaders. We are looking for new and interesting ways to increase co-Curricular experiences that connect the ideas and analytical tools acquired in the classroom to the people and places that students study.
Summer internships remain essential to students’ experiences at the school, as well as to their careers. Financial assistance for internships from longtime SAIS supporter Gretchen A. Osgood was complemented in 2006 by a Starr Foundation grant that enabled curriculum-related trips to Asia for programs across SAIS. Led by faculty, students concentrating in African, Asian and Latin American studies were offered the opportunity to apply the knowledge gained at SAIS to real-world situations. Programs such as these help make SAIS a more cohesive community.
Our alumni will be vital partners in helping the SAIS community thrive as we look forward to increasing alumni involvement far beyond today’s level. We need alumni to assist students in finding and affording internships to start their post-SAIS careers, to support efforts to improve our infrastructure, to help us expand our programs outside the classroom and to work with us to face the financial challenge of securing resources to fund our distinguished faculty and highly qualified applicants.
This will be an exciting process, and we look forward to having you join us.
|
