A Note of Thanks to Everyone Who Helped Me with my Dissertation

One week ago I participated in commencement at Loyola University Chicago and recieved my Doctorate in Cultural and Educational Policy Studies, Comparative and International Education.  It was a long nine years to complete this degree and there are many to thank and I wish to specifically thank everyone who helped me with my dissertation and those acknowledgements follow:

THE NATIONAL SECURITY EDUCATION PROGRAM AND ITS SERVICE REQUIREMENT:  AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF WHAT AREAS OF GOVERNMENT AND FOR WHAT DURATION NATIONAL SECURITY EDUCATION PROGRAM RECIPIENTS HAVE WORKED

I would like to acknowledge everyone who has assisted me throughout my doctoral studies over the years.  I would first like to acknowledge my adviser, Dr. Noah Sobe, for agreeing to serve as my adviser and for his patience and feedback during the many courses I took with him and as I completed my dissertation.  Additionally, I would like to thank Dr. Robert Roemer and Dr. David Ensminger for agreeing to serve on my dissertation committee.  I truly appreciate all of their time and assistance as I navigated this process!

A very special thanks is due to my friend and colleague Dr. Kevin Gormley at the National Security Education Program for his encouragement dating back to a lunch meeting in Los Angeles in 2009 to our phone conversations and e-mail communications throughout 2010 and 2011 about my project.  This dissertation would not have been possible without Kevin’s support and assistance!  I also wish to thank the many staff members at the National Security Education Program including Dr. Michael Nugent, Judy Collier, Roy Savoy, Katie Davis, Alison Patz, and Stuart Karaffa for their approval of my project, their time in reviewing my survey instrument and providing valuable feedback at our meeting back in November 2010 and their assistance in launching my survey instrument.  I also wish to thank Genie Lomize, Treasurer of the Boren Forum, and Dr. Philip Lyon, Former Executive Director of the Boren Forum, for their support of my dissertation and for Dr. Lyon’s continued support and time to meet at the National Security Education Program Office in November 2010 to review and provide feedback on my survey instrument.  A note of thanks is also due to Christopher Powers, Director of the Boren Awards for International Study at the Institute of International Education for answering my e-mail questions about historical program dates.  I hope that the National Security Education Program, the Boren Awards for International Study and the Boren Forum will find some value in the results of my dissertation.

I also want to thank all of the National Security Education Program Alumni (Boren Scholars and Boren Fellows) who took time out of their busy schedules to complete my survey instrument!

Additional gratitude is offered to many colleagues in the field of international education who provided resources and feedback as I worked on my dissertation.  This list of individuals includes the following:  Dr. Gary Rhodes and Dr. Miloni Gandhi from the Center for Global Education at the University of California, Los Angeles for taking time out of their busy schedules to review and provide feedback on my dissertation proposal and survey instrument; Mickey Slind for sending me her personal collection of primary documents related to the early years of the National Security Education Program (they will always have a home in Bury Book International Education Library & Archive); Elizabeth Mandeville for sending me a valuable  primary document pertaining to the early years of the National Security Education program; Stephanie Kirmer for taking the time out of her schedule to meet with me and provide a statistics tutorial and for lending me one of her publications as I worked on the data analysis portion of my dissertation; Kyle Flynn for helping me better understand the statistical analysis of my results; and, Dr. Louis Berends for his friendship and support throughout our studies and time at Loyola University Chicago and beyond.

Further acknowledgement and thanks is due to my supervisor Christine Gramhofer at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.  Her support for time off to work to research and write my dissertation was truly helpful and greatly appreciated!

Thank you to my mother Vicky and Sam, father Jim and Mary Ellen, and my mother and father-in-law Therese y Don Carlos for their encouragement and continued support over the years and their enthusiasm as I neared my goal.

Finally, but most importantly, I wish to thank my wife Ana and children Gabriela, Andrés y Lucas for their patience, assistance, support and faith in me.  The nights away from the family while attending classes and the days and nights away from them while writing my comprehensive exams and, in particular, this dissertation were truly difficult.

I could not have completed my research without the support of all these wonderful people!

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ABSTRACT – “The National Security Education Program and its Service Requirement: An Exploratory Study of what Areas of Government and for What Duration National Security Education Program Recipients Have Worked” a Dissertation by David Comp, 2013

If you are interested in reading my dissertation and are unable to locate it electronically then please feel free to e-mail me and I will send it to you as an e-mail attachment.

David J. Comp

Loyola University Chicago

THE NATIONAL SECURITY EDUCATION PROGRAM AND ITS SERVICE REQUIREMENT: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF WHAT AREAS OF GOVERNMENT AND FOR WHAT DURATION NATIONAL SECURITY EDUCATION PROGRAM RECIPIENTS HAVE WORKED

ABSTRACT

The National Security Education Program, established under the National Security Education Act of 1991, has had a post-funding service requirement in the Federal Government for undergraduate scholarship and graduate fellowship recipients since its inception. The service requirement, along with the concern that the National Security Education Program was and remains funded by the United States Department of Defense, was very controversial in the early years of the program and remains a concern for some faculty and scholarly organizations to this day. Questions arise about whether the National Security Education Program is successfully achieving government objectives of employing National Security Education Program Alumni in critical areas of federal service and how long National Security Education Program Alumni are working in such positions. The research question of this study is: In what areas of government and for what duration (retention) have National Security Education Program Alumni worked? This research project surveyed National Security Education Program Alumni from the first ten years of the program as a means to answer the research question. The project was a quantitative endeavor and the results demonstrate that the National Security Education Program is successful in meeting the goals, both past and present, set forth in the legislation for the scholarship and fellowship initiatives of the program.

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“The SAGE Handbook of International Higher Education” (2012) edited by Darla K. Deardorff, Hans de Wit, John D. Heyl, and the late Tony Adams

So far, this week has been pretty good. 

Not only did I receive an e-mail about a potential evaluation/assessment project but I received the following book (hard cover) in the mail (benefit of JSIE Editorial Board membership) on Tuesday:

The SAGE Handbook of International Higher Education (2012) edited by Darla K. Deardorff, Hans de Wit, John D. Heyl, and the late Tony Adams.  I have been wanting to read this publication ever since SAGE asked me to review and provide feedback on the prospectus and table of contents back in 2010. 

I also succesfully defended my dissertation yesterday (final manuscript by April 1st) and I will now be able to read this book and do a more formal review for IHEC Blog.  

It will also be a lovely addition to my Bury Book International Education Library & Archive!

 

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IHEC Blog’s Facebook Page Reaches 1,000 Followers

Earlier this week, IHEC Blog’s Facebook page reached 1,000 Followers. Thanks to all who have come along for the ride and for those of you who have yet to join the fun you can certainly do so at https://www.facebook.com/IHECblog.

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Top 17 IHEC Blog Posts of 2012

Long time readers of IHEC Blog have noticed a variety of changes here over the years.  One noticeable change has been in the way I post.  Like many, my life is crazy busy.  I have a family of three young children, a full-time job, trying to finish my dissertation, on the editorial board of the Journal of Studies in International Education, I edit and publish IHEC Blog as well as manage several related internet properties, and occasionally I try to find some time to relax.  As a result, my blog posts have changed over the years and often times I only have enough time to embed a video that may be of interest to readers.  I also have significantly decreased the number of times I post to IHEC Blog (from a high of 282 posts in 2009 to 61 posts in 2012).  Despite all of this, IHEC Blog had a good year in terms of readership and when analyzing the various analytic tools and data available to me (and factoring out SPAM, bots and other non-interested visitors) it appears to be a worthy endeavor.

Following are the top 17 most visited IHEC Blog posts in 2012.

Studying Abroad over Thanksgiving Break?

Future Conference Sites of U.S. Based International Education Organizations

Quotes by U.S. Presidents on the Importance of International Exchanges and the Fulbright Program

Tips for Getting into the International Education Field

Portrayal of Exchange Students in Movies and on TVin the U.S.

At What Age Can Someone Study Abroad?

Describing International Education in 134 characters

The Climate for Innovation

A List of all the Free International Education Resources I Utilize

List of Movies/Television Programs where the Characters go Abroad

How Studying Abroad in Florence, Italy and a Vacation in Mexico Lead Kevin Systrom to Start Instagram

We need students. For each student you bring us, we give you a 100 euros commission

The internationalization of Room 404 [a 3rd grade class at The University of Chicago Laboratory Schools]

Bibliography of Select Articles & Resources to Help International Educators Establish a New Media Presence

Question about Advanced Degrees for International Educators

French Fries, French Dressing, French Bread and to drink, Peru

The Middle, episode: “Foreign Exchange” (s02e05)

If you are interested you can link the top posts of 2011, 2010 and 2009 (didn’t produce a list for 2008).  You’ll notice some overlap between the years with popular posts.  Perhaps a Top 10 (or Top 23) all time most popular post compilation is due…but that won’t happen until things slow down!

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My Interview with Brooke Roberts of Inside Study Abroad

Back in the summer of 2011 I was able to connect with Brooke Roberts of Inside Study Abroad via Skype for an interview.  You can read more about the interview on Inside Study Abroad!

 

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International Higher Education Consulting Project Work and Services Going on Brief Hiatus

Things for me and International Higher Education Consulting are a bit on the busy side to say the least.  Family life (three young children in school who all love playing soccer), work, dissertation, to name a few of the bigger things, are demanding so much of my time right now that I am unable to dedicate any time to focus on side consulting project work and related activities.

I will return to normal programming soon and perhaps refocus International Higher Education Consulting into something bigger and better or I might just go away for a bit and dream it all up again…

You can still find me micro-blogging over on IHEC Blog‘s Facebook page if you want to join the fun!

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Germany as a Study Abroad Destination for U.S. Students in STEM Disciplines

If, like me, you are interested in the historical side of international education you may find an article I had published in the Fall/Winter 2010 issue of Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad to be of interest.

Some interesting historical points of interest from the article follow [see article for proper citations]:

“Data from 1835 indicates that approximately 4% of all students enrolled at German universities were international students from abroad and the number increased to 8% in 1904.”

“A number of historians and scholars estimate that between 6,000 to 10,000 American students studied in Germany between 1815 and 1914.”

“Perhaps the most famous American to study in Germany during this period was W.E.B. Du Bois from 1882 to 1894.”

“The account of German academic life in 1888 was rather critical about the physics laboratories and described them as inferior to those found at universities in the United States.”

“The Office of Military Government and the United States Department of State launched a foreign policy program in 1947 that was to bring close to 10,000 German citizens to the United States to learn about democratic principles.”

“By 1948, the first American Fulbright students, teachers and faculty were heading to European ally countries and in 1952 German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and U.S. High Commissioner John J. McCloy signed the Fulbright Agreement between the Federal Republic of Germany and the United States of America thus establishing the German-American Fulbright Commission.”

“During the 1960–1961 academic year almost 9% or 24,00020 of all students enrolled at German universities were international students from abroad and of these students approximately 1,575 were American. Within five years, during the 1965–1966 academic year, the total number of American students enrolled at German universities increased approximately 52% to 2,392 students.”

 

Full citation of the article: Comp, D.  (2010, Fall/Winter).  Germany as a Study Abroad Destination of American Students in the Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) Fields.  ”Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad”, Vol. XIX, 191-203.

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A Thought on the Problems I see with Researching Outcomes from Study Abroad

Many IHEC Blog readers and colleagues know that I am very interested in the scholarly side of the field of international education with particular research interests focusing on U.S. students studying abroad. While my research interests have been changing over the last several years I’m still very interested in the micro level outcomes that study abroad programs have on students. The following two articles published in International Education Forum (former journal of AIEA) in 1997 not only sparked my interest in the scholarly side of the field but put forth a framework that as guided my thinking since.

Stimpfl, Joseph R., and David Engberg. “What to Know Before You Go: Creating a Comparison for Research on Study Abroad Programs,” International Education Forum, 17 no. 1 (1997): 7-21.

Stimpfl, Joseph R. and David Engberg. “Comparing Apples to Apples: An Integrated Approach to Study Abroad Program Assessment,” International Education Forum, 17 no. 2 (1997): 97-109.

In my opinion, it is a flawed research design to compare study abroad programs without calling attention to the difference between the programs. Study abroad programs share some characteristics but there are huge differences between programs. Can we really compare the student experiences on a six to twelve month homestay immersion program in China with courses taught in Chinese by local faculty/instructors to the student experiences of a three to six month program in Spain with courses taught in English by home institution faculty in our research/assessment activities?

There is not a clear set of categories that allow us to relate study abroad programs. Other research and work has been done in this area, most notably the work Lilli Engle and John Engle on study abroad levels and classification of program types, but nothing is currently being utilized in the field and research.

A question that comes to my mind when I read research studies on study abroad is:  How do the factors that affect change relate across study abroad programs?

What are your thoughts on this?

Previously posted to IHEC Blog on January 11, 2010

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My Declining Presence at International Education Conferences

Over the past few years my attendance at international education conferences has dwindled.  I have missed the past three Forum on Education Abroad conferences (my last one was Portland in 2009) and the past two NAFSA: Association of International Educators conferences (my last one was Kansas City in 2010) and the past four CIEE conferences (my last one was Toronto in 2007).  I did manage to make it to the CIES conference in Chicago in 2010 to present but my time at the conferences consisted of arriving 30 minutes before my presentation and leaving 30 minutes after it ended so I really can’t say I attended the conference (my only CIES conference I have seen).  I only presented at the Chicago CIES conference.  This also sums up the amount of time I spent at the 2011 NAFSA Region V conference in Champaign, Illinois as I was also in and out of the conference venue only to present and say hello to a few friends and colleagues.  I did attend the entire 2010 U.S. Summit for Global Citizen Diplomacy in Washington, D.C. and it was a worthwhile event.

There are several reasons for this decline such as dissertation conflicts, lack of funds (almost all of my previous conference participation was self-funded) or lack of support.

I do hope to attend the 2013 Forum on Education Abroad conference as it will be in Chicago and perhaps the NAFSA conference in St. Louis in 2013.  CIEE 2012 in Shanghai is definitely out for me but who knows about 2013 in Minneapolis!?!?!

I will attend the annual conference of the Partnership in International Management (PIM) in Lima, Peru in late October (in many ways PIM has become my new NAFSA) and later this month I will attend the Peer Schools International Educators [group of top business schools in the U.S.]  meeting at Stanford Graduate School of Business for a couple of days (in many ways Peer Schools has become my new Forum although on a much, much smaller scale] so I’m not totally out of the conference/meeting circuit…it’s just changing!  Last month I attended my first Chicago NAFSA Roundtable meeting since I worked in the Office of International Affairs at The University of Chicago seven years ago.

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