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We are so pleased when we get an invitation to provide an intercultural learning or assessment intervention; however, on a campus of 50,000 students and 10,000 faculty and staff, CILMAR staff cannot personally fulfill every request--nor should we. There are voices which can speak much more meaningfully about the importance of intercultural learning to various subject areas. We rely heavily on champions in each college and many programs, along with our colleagues in the Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging. 

Listen in as CILMAR's director Kris Acheson-Clair talks about CILMAR's role as a mentor to mentors in order to fulfill our mission.

Mentorship: It's how we do our business.

Kris Acheson-Clair, Director of the Center for Intercultural Learning, Mentorship, Assessment and Research

CILMAR'S DECISION TREE

A graphic organizer describing CILMAR's decision-making process

In the image to the left, you can see the decision-making process that our staff uses to decide next steps when we receive a request.

When a request is made for CILMAR staff to provide an intercultural learning (ICL) intervention, a sequential process begins:

  • CILMAR leadership will make a determination as to whether the request is within CILMAR's mission and whether CILMAR staff have the bandwidth to take on the request. If so,
  • An ICL specialist will meet with faculty or staff to conduct a needs analysis to learn what the specific ICL needs are within the context. 
  • The ICL specialist and the faculty or staff member will discuss options for an ICL intervention.
  • An ICL specialist will demonstrate for faculty/staff the use of the chosen ICL activities and assessments with a group of learners.
  • At a later date, the faculty or staff members will be invited to co-facilitate the chosen intercultural intervention.
  • Faculty or staff will then be given ownership of the ICL intervention to use without a CILMAR staff member being present.

In a best case scenario, faculty and staff would then offer staff development opportunities to mentor others in their unit in the use of the ICL tools implemented during the classroom intervention. CILMAR is always looking for champions and early adopters who want to bring ICL to their college, department, or unit. For more information, please e-mail cilmar@purdue.edu. 

In general, CILMAR is looking for avenues in which ICL can be scaled up at Purdue University using the train-the-trainer approach rather than a one-off, "special speaker" model.  

For faculty and staff who desire to embed intercultural learning in the academic curriculum

CILMAR's lead intercultural learning specialist Dr. Aletha Stahl is available for consultations concerning curriculum revision. She can be contacted at stahl23@purdue.edu.

For faculty and staff who wish to become an ICL champion

CILMAR offers programs for faculty and staff interested in adding an extended mentorship in ICL to their portfolio.  It is recommended that interested faculty and staff begin by considering the Growing Intercultural Leaders program or the Intercultural Pedagogy Grant.

Updated April 22, 2022