Ready for the World Award

The Ready for the World Award is given to a faculty member who has worked in exceptional ways to enhance intercultural and international awareness among undergraduates.

JOSETTE RABUN and STAN RABUN have been instrumental in establishing and continuing the College of Architecture and Design’s exchange program with the Polytechnic University of Krakow in Poland. The program began in 1989, when the professors took 18 American students to Krakow, and will celebrate its 20th anniversary next year. The thriving exchange program has resulted in more than 400 students, both American and Polish, having an opportunity to study abroad for a full semester. The Rabuns’ nomination calls them “dedicated educators teaching students to develop a worldview that recognizes, understands and celebrates the complexity of cultures and people.”

RICHARD SAUDARGAS, director of the undergraduate psychology program, has led the charge to infuse psychology courses with multicultural content. Because so many first-year students take introductory psychology, he uses the course as a chance to introduce multicultural psychology and underscore the university’s commitment to the Ready for the World initiative. Saudargas was instrumental in developing a set of readings based on multicultural research from China, Korea, Australia, Tanzania, Canada, Bangladesh and other countries. He also spearheaded the department’s first cross-cultural psychology course and its first study-abroad program in Greece.