Johns Hopkins' vast international scope is hardly a
secret or a new development. Since its inception, the
university has reached out to the world not only to recruit
faculty and students but to bring knowledge born at Hopkins
to every corner of the globe.
In the 1920s, for example, JHU helped pioneer medical
training in China at Peking Union Medical College. Sixty
years later, the Hopkins-Nanjing Center opened its doors to
offer an international studies program in China jointly
administered by Nanjing University and Johns Hopkins'
School of Advanced International Studies. Today, the
various university divisions conduct hundreds of research
and training programs on every continent. To add to this
list the university's ongoing Antarctic geological research
project would still be only (pardon the pun) the tip of the
iceberg.
Wanting to offer a comprehensive view of its
international breadth, the university recently launched a
Johns Hopkins Around the World Web site
web.jhu.edu/aroundtheworld.
The site, which went live on Sept. 14, provides a
gateway to all JHU activities that have an international
dimension, whether it's a School of Public Health research
project in Zaire or a Classics Department study-abroad
program in Rome.
The 17-member JHU International Affairs Coordinating
Committee approved and commissioned the creation of the
site, which was developed by the Office of Design and
Publications.
Pamela Cranston, a member of the IACC and vice provost
for academic affairs and international programs, said the
intention is to provide a single, easy-to-use portal to
find JHU departments, centers and programs with an
international component and to better demonstrate Johns
Hopkins' global reach.
"While we are a relatively small university, we have
an enormous international presence, and we wanted to convey
that," Cranston said. "The information contained in the
site was previously available but hard to find. You had to
know where to look and what you were looking for."
Specifically, the site acts as a clearinghouse of
dozens of links to pre-existing pages cross-referenced into
five areas: Academics, Global Research, Students and
Alumni, Global Health, and Resources and Services. Not only
an entryway to JHU campuses and centers located abroad, the
site also features links to such pages as the School of
Engineering's international outreach activities, the Office
of International Student Affairs for the Peabody Institute
and the Center for Talented Youth's Distance Education
program.
Each month, the site's home page will highlight a
specific international program or initiative. Currently, it
features the Center for Global Health, which bridges the
international work of the schools of Medicine, Nursing and
Public Health to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis,
malnutrition and other threats to health, especially in
developing countries. The center currently sponsors 436
international research projects, conducted by 150 faculty
in more than 100 countries.
Thomas Quinn, director of the Center for Global Health
and a member of the IACC, said that the site is a wonderful
new resource for visitors and Johns Hopkins affiliates
alike.
"This new site provides unique information about the
international scope of Johns Hopkins University, which is
greater than most other universities because of the
diversity of the faculty and the educational programs
here," Quinn wrote in an e-mail from Uganda.
Cranston said that she fully expects the Around the
World site to grow over time. She hopes that by January
2008 it will include a searchable database and interactive
map, similar to the one offered on the Center for Global
Health's site, that will allow users to click on a country
or region and get such details as the number of Johns
Hopkins alumni living in a specific area, a list of all
nearby JHU-affiliated centers and even what universities in
that area offer collaborative programs with Johns
Hopkins.
She said that the site, though still only weeks old,
has already drawn a significant number of hits and a good
deal of positive feedback.
"I think people already have a strong sense of how
global Johns Hopkins has become," Cranston said. "We hope
this site will allow us to communicate that fact even
better."
To check out the site, go to
web.jhu.edu/aroundtheworld.
To suggest an addition, contact Cranston at pcranston@jhu.edu.
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