2020 award recognizes leadership in international education

Associate Professor Dr. David Knight (Engineering Education), who serves as the founding Director of Research for the academy, was selected for the Alumni Award for Excellence for International Education for 2020.

Dr. Knight led the growth of the Rising Sophomore Abroad Program (RSAP), an innovative model combining a global engineering course and study abroad program for first year engineering students. RSAP was also recognized with a Senator Paul Simon Spotlight Award for innovative international programs in 2019 by NAFSA, the Association of International Educators.

 

Congratulations, 2020 doctoral graduates!

We celebrate the success of Academy graduate fellows Jamie Davis, Kirsten Davis, Desen Ozkan, and Ashley Taylor, who completed their doctorates this semester. This is officially the first cohort of fellows to become alumni of the Academy for Global Engineering. We look forward to staying in touch with our alumni as they take on new opportunities and become external affiliates of the Academy for Global Engineering at Virginia Tech.

 

Kirsten Davis named 2020 Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant

Congratulations to Kirsten Davis for being named 2020 Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant by the Graduate School. Davis has been an active member of the Rising Sophomore Abroad Program research group and served as a graduate assistant for RSAP.  Dr. Kirsten Davis recently defended her dissertation, “Pursuing Intentional Design of Global Engineering Programs: Understanding Student Experiences and Learning Outcomes” in the Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech. Davis’s research on how students develop global competencies aims to inform more intentional design of global experiences. According to Professor David Knight:

Kirsten's research really tries to unpack what students actually learn during their study abroad experiences and how specific elements of program designs might contribute to different learning opportunities.  Her work should help international program planners be more intentional about their decision-making around program design and assessment techniques.

32 engineering students at stone building in Morocco.
Kirsten Davis (left) with engineering students during the 2019 Rising Sophomore Abroad Program track that traveled to Spain and Morocco.

Dr. Davis's research draws from multiple forms of data including interviews, focus groups, student journals, and surveys and covers a diverse set of global experiences including study abroad and international research experiences. Davis’s curiosity about how engineering students learn global competencies grew out of direct experience in industry and conducting research overseas. Prior to returning to graduate school, Kirsten worked for several years as an IT analytics engineer in the private sector. Her doctoral research brought her to Australia for several months; she also studied in Austria as an undergraduate engineering student. While her primary research focuses on the design and assessment of global engineering programs, Dr. Davis also studies the development of systems thinking skills in engineering students. She was honored in January 2019 with the Harold Josephson Award for Professional Promise in International Education by the Association of International Education Administrators. Davis completed an M.S. in Systems Engineering while pursuing the doctorate in Engineering Education at Virginia Tech. She holds a B.S. in Engineering & Management from Clarkson University and an M.A.Ed. in Higher Education from Virginia Tech.