Staff Professional Development in Beautiful Basque

North Carolina State University participated in the 2022 Staff Training Week at one of our partner universities, Universidad País Vasco / Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (UPV/EHU), a university in Northern Spain. Participants represented diverse institutions from across Europe and North America and were invited to present on topics related to student mobility and international education.

Becky Cibulskis, Program Coordinator from the Global Training Initiative, shared about the Developing Cultural Competence Student Certificate Program as a unique example of a virtual exchange program. Others shared brief presentations of successful programs related to the topics of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; Sustainable Development; and Virtual and Blended Exchange programs.

During the week-long staff mobility, Cibulskis traveled with the other participants to Donostia-San Sebastian, Vitoria-Gasteiz, and Bilbao-Bizkaia Aretoa. The Basque language, culture, and history were constantly displayed through city tours and other program activities. Cibulskis noted that the Basque flag was much more prominent than any Spanish identity on her tours. It’s clear that the area takes a lot of pride in its origin and history.

As the chair for the Office of Global Engagement’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council and a facilitator for diversity conversations on campus, Cibulskis was especially intrigued by the presentation about integrating indigenous perspectives in global programming from the University of British Columbia (UBC).

UBC Go Global aligns with the University’s innovative Indigenous Strategic Plan through a few initiatives, notably the Indigenous Global Connections tool. This tool maps information on our partner schools with Indigenous programming, those located on Indigenous territories and approximate carbon emissions for a round-trip to each destination. As NC State works to better acknowledge our history of displacement of native populations in our space, we hope to further support our own indigenous populations.

Cibulskis was delighted at the opportunity to travel internationally for a professional development training event and is proud to have represented NC State as one of only three US-based institutions. We are grateful for opportunities to engage with our partner universities in these innovative and important programs where staff are able to learn from each other. Thanks to Universidad País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea for hosting such a wonderful event. 

For any students considering UPV/EHU as their host university, please email Becky Cibulskis, rcibuls@ncsu.edu.

Erasmus+ International Credit Mobility seeks to connect international education professionals and initiatives from across Europe to global partner institutions for sharing knowledge.