Written by Colin McEvoy | March 8, 2024 | SHARE
Cheryl Matherly was invited to write a piece for Trends & Insights by NAFSA: Association of International Educators, which serves more than 10,000 members and international educators worldwide
Cheryl Matherly, Vice President and Vice Provost for International Affairs at Lehigh University’s Office of International Affairs (OIA) was featured among the thought leaders invited to write a piece for the most recent Trends & Insights online publication by NAFSA: Association of International Educators, which serves the needs of more than 10,000 members and international educators worldwide and is the leading organization committed to international education and exchange.
In her article, Matherly discussed Lehigh’s strategic plan, Inspiring the Future Makers, and its call to grow the university’s engagement with the city of Bethlehem and the Lehigh Valley, both to strengthen the region and to further establish Lehigh as a global partner that will prepare graduates to address real-world problems.
“The Inspiring the Future Makers strategic plan embraces Lehigh’s pivotal role in the region. It also presents an opportunity to reexamine and redefine the value of internationalized institutions,” Matherly wrote. “Specifically, it allows us to rethink how internationalization contributes to a university’s value as an anchor institution.”
Trends & Insights pieces are written by respected leaders in the field of international education and from our extended community, according to NAFSA. These articles highlight social, economic, political, and higher education system trends affecting international higher education.
In Matherly’s piece – which is entitled "Making It Together: How Internationalized Colleges and Universities Contribute as Community Anchors" – she makes note of the economic impact anchor institutions have on their communities.
In the 2022-23 academic year, international students contributed $40.1 billion to the U.S. economy, she wrote. In the Lehigh Valley specifically, international students enrolled at educational institutions contributed $79.4 million to the local economy, supporting 783 million jobs, with $57.6 million and 673 jobs supported by Lehigh University alone.
Matherly noted that higher education institutions are key for strong entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystems, since they possess robust research bases, industry-university collaborations, entrepreneurship education, talent access and development programs, technology transfer, idea incubators, start-up accelerators, and venture capital resources.
She discussed Lehigh’s partnership between Lehigh and Technische Universität (TU) Dortmund, a technical university in the Ruhr region of Germany. In collaboration with Lehigh’s Baker Institute for Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Lehigh and TU Dortmund held a symposium in October to discuss how both institutions can leverage their long-standing relationship to positively impact innovation and entrepreneurship in both of their communities.
“The symposium addressed best practices for universities to advance regional innovation, emphasizing that the research that drove this innovation also required that local higher education institutions welcome, support, and retain international talent,” Matherly said.
OIA engages regularly with NAFSA and its members. Matherly and other OIA officials regularly attend NAFSA’s Annual Conference & Expo, and Stacy Burger, Director of Global Partnerships and Strategic Initiatives at Lehigh, will be presenting at this year’s conference in May.