Fuentes Meets with the National Academy of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine
Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine – Vilma Fuentes, Ph.D., Program Director for FSU's Ukraine Task Force and the Visiting Scholars Partnership Program, recently returned from Ukraine, where she met with the National Academy of the State Border Guard Service (NASBGSU) leadership to discuss collaborations between Florida State University, the Learning Systems Institute (LSI) and the academy.
"We continue to cooperate with leading U.S. universities. That is why international partnerships and academic mobility remain important directions for the development of the borderline. During the meeting with the academy's management, Vilma Fuentes emphasized the importance of continued cooperation. In particular, it was about supporting veterans, the development of English language learning, as well as sharing experience among students and joint participation in grant projects," said the National Academy of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in a statement posted to their Facebook page.
While on campus, Fuentes also conducted three sessions with students, faculty and staff. One session, attended by approximately 200 cadets, shared policies and procedures to prevent sexual harassment at U.S. universities. In a session with 20 philology students, Fuentes practiced English while sharing resilience resources developed by the FSU Institute for Trauma and Resilience. In a final meeting with about fifty faculty and staff, she introduced Dr. Nicholas Mazza's work on poetry therapy.
"FSU faculty and administrators have done much to advance teaching, research and scholarship together with Ukrainian academics over the last few years," said Fuentes. "Face-to-face interactions, such as my recent visit to the NASBGSU, help advance this international partnership further. We will be implementing several new avenues of collaboration with peers in Khmelnytskyi in the coming months."
The Ukraine Task Force was established in 2022 as part of FSU's broader internationalization strategy. Ukraine was deemed a country of particular interest because it provides members of the university community with an excellent opportunity to research a unique environment not available anywhere else. Through partnerships with Ukrainian higher education institutions, FSU can also participate in grants and applied research related to urban reconstruction, mental health, military veterans' reintegration, therapy interventions, workforce development and the containment of disease. As a highly educated country in Eastern Europe with a long and impressive history of producing top scientists, Ukraine also presents FSU with an excellent opportunity to strengthen its fundamental science research in fields related to quantum, nuclear energy, superconductivity and rare earth minerals.
LSI strives to lead the way in creating innovative educational solutions that seamlessly connect theory with practice. Through advanced research, we develop industry-leading methods and implementation strategies to enhance systematic learning at all levels and in all environments. For more than five decades, LSI has been committed to driving measurable improvements in the performance of both individuals and organizations.