Grant Awarded to Increase Linguistic, Cultural Understanding

An interdisciplinary team representing JMU's Office of International Affairs and the departments of foreign languages, literatures and cultures, integrated science and technology, and military science, received $251,759 from the Institute of International Education Inc. for Project Global Officer to increase linguistic and cultural understanding among ROTC students and to build the Swahili language program at JMU. Dr. Lee Sternberger, Dr. Guiliana Fazzion, Dr. Jennifer E. Coffman, Robert E. Pettit III and Dr. Brillian Muhonja are the grant investigators. 

Project GO is a collaboration of the National Security Education Program, the Defense Language Office, the military services and a dozen U.S. universities. The goal is to create "global officers," military officers with global awareness and language proficiency. "Two strengths led JMU to be selected for this project — its strength in Africana studies and Swahili in particular, and its Study Abroad Program in Kenya," explains Jan Gillis ('07) in "Building global officers." The program will prepare cadets and future Army officers with the communication skills they need to interact with people from various cultures.