International partnerships bring three visiting faculty members to VCU

By Mike Porter

Eliete Sampaio Farneda, Pedro Poyato Sanchez and Hong "Michelle" Zhang hail from different corners of the globe, but the international faculty members are currently teaching at Virginia Commonwealth University as part of VCU’s collaborations with 15 universities around the world.

“The partnership initiative, by being structural and sustained, allows us to build meaningful bridges, supporting our research and service missions in ways that go far beyond the incidental,” said R. McKenna Brown, executive director of the Office of International Education and former director of the VCU School of World Studies.

VCU International Partnerships VCU Qatar Beijing Foreign Studies University Curtin University of Technology Fudan University Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research-Chandigarh St. Petersburg State University The Hebrew University of Jerusalem/Hadassah Medical Center University of Córdoba University of Guadalajara University of KwaZulu-Natal University of Messina University of Oxford University of São Paulo University of the West of England

Relationships formed through the partnerships are supported by the Office of International Education and the School of World Studies.

“Quality scholars like these help us to recruit students,” said Osama Alami, interim director of the School of World Studies.

Hong is a visiting professor of Chinese language from Beijing Foreign Studies University.  While at VCU, she is teaching Chinese 101 for the School of World Studies this fall. Next spring, she’ll teach Chinese 102 and an honors course titled “Economic Observations of a Changing China.”

“Students here need to get a chance to learn other ways of teaching, beyond American teaching methods,” Hong said. “This has been a good experience for my students and for me.”

Sampaio Farneda, visiting from the University of São Paulo, is teaching Brazilian Portuguese at VCU. She is also working with Nicholas Farell, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Chemistry, and Tony Brinckwirth, director of the World Studies Media Center, to develop a Portuguese language program for VCU students through the University of São Paulo’s language center.

“This experience is offering me personal growth and enrichment. I find the students to be very friendly and VCU offers many resources not found at other universities,” Sampaio Farneda said. 

Poyato Sanchez is a visiting professor of Spanish from the University of Córdoba. His area of expertise is history and theory of cinema and Spanish film. He is teaching two film courses during the fall semester and is organizing a Spanish American Film Festival between VCU, the University of Córdoba and the University of Guadalajara in Mexico.

“I’ve found that an American student is more open to learning new things than a typical student in other parts of the world,” Poyato Sanchez said. “But American students are very tired because a lot of them have to work to afford the cost of going to school.”

During his tenure, VCU President Eugene P. Trani, Ph.D., has established significant linkages with 15 international universities.

Brown said the relationships between VCU and its international partners will continue to strengthen and introduce new and better courses of study.

“I see it growing. One of the principal anchors will be through curricular development so by hosting our partnership colleagues here for a semester or a year not only improves the quality of the language and culture instruction we provide but leads to the development of new programs," Brown said.