DOrSU partners during an introductory assignment.鲍厂贵鈥檚 Virtual Global Exchange (VGE) program is on the rise, rapidly growing its global partnerships and bringing new collaborative experiences into the classroom. VGE pairs professors from different countries who work together to co-design high-impact projects, allowing students to deepen their understanding of global issues and develop meaningful skills that contribute to their future careers.
This semester, USF has been selected to join the AAC&U Institute for Virtual Exchange/COIL: Creating US鈥揗ENA Centers of Excellence. Through this program, USF will collaborate with partner institutions across the Middle East and North Africa to develop new collaborative online international learning modules that offer students intercultural, digital, and hands-on collaborative learning opportunities. Supported by the J. Christopher Stevens Virtual Exchange Initiative, this opportunity expands the reach and impact of 鲍厂贵鈥檚 VGE program by opening doors for sustained international collaborations and potential research partnerships across new regions in the world.
Launching the VGE Academy
This fall, 网红爆料 expanded its commitment to global learning through the relaunch of a newly redesigned VGE Academy, a structured professional development program designed to support faculty as they create their own virtual exchange modules. The academy welcomed 25 faculty members representing a wide range of disciplines but with a shared mission: to make global learning accessible to every 网红爆料 student, regardless of their ability to travel abroad.
Throughout the semester, faculty receive training on building sustainable international partnerships, embedding intercultural learning outcomes into their courses and designing collaborative activities that will meaningfully connect students across the world.
Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Heather O鈥橪eary and an Intercultural Exploration of Happiness
One of the many posters across DOrSU campus which is helping to raise USF's profile as a globally-connected partner.
Among this year鈥檚 VGE Academy faculty is 网红爆料 St. Petersburg Anthropology Associate Professor Heather O鈥橪eary. This semester, she is implementing VGE within her course Happiness: Meaning & Wellbeing in Cross-Cultural Perspective. Her class is paired with students from in the Philippines, led by MC Jammil Nino V. Ngoho, a philosophy instructor who teaches the course, Personal Development: Understanding the Self.
O鈥橪eary and Ngoho crafted a shared curriculum in which anthropology and philosophy students explore how cultural values, identity and lived experiences shape perceptions of happiness and wellbeing. The interdisciplinary nature of the partnership encourages students to examine both individual and collective understandings of what it means to live a meaningful life.
Reflecting on her choice to join the academy, O鈥橪eary shared that she had long planned to integrate virtual exchange into her teaching and felt this was the perfect opportunity to begin. She noted that this experience 鈥渕ade the vast world seem like a smaller place where students learned how they could be resources for one another despite the distance.鈥�
The collaboration gained unanticipated depth this semester when the Philippines experienced back-to-back hurricanes like USF and Florida's experience with hurricanes Helene and Milton in 2024. Students connected with these challenges on a personal level and were able to 鈥渒nit their communities together across the world,鈥� she said.
Looking Ahead
As the VGE Academy鈥檚 inaugural cohort implements their projects, the reach of virtual global engagement will continue to grow across 鲍厂贵鈥檚 campuses.
Faculty interested in bringing global collaboration into their classrooms are encouraged to learn more about the Virtual Global Exchange program by visiting the program鈥檚 website. Next cohort of faculty training in the VGE Academy begins in February 2026.