Representatives from the St. John’s Staten Island campus and Wagner College were on hand mid-May in Staten Island to sign an agreement allowing students from both schools to get a taste of the other’s study abroad programs.
However, this is not St. John’s first collaboration with the Staten Island based Wagner. In March 2007, St. John’s and Wagner co-sponsored the first annual graduate school fair at the College of Staten Island.
The two institutions hope to cooperate with each other further in the future with joint academic and service learning events.
This new venture will begin during the Spring 2008 semester, allowing Wagner students to study abroad for a semester and take part in service learning activities at the St. John’s Rome campus.
In addition, St. John’s students will be allowed to partake in Wagner’s Expanding Your Horizons program, similar to SJU’s Discover the World.
For this program, held between the fall and spring semesters, students will study in different locations around the world.
Winter 2008 locations include Puerto Rico, Israel, Italy, Peru, Greece, Argentina, Bangladesh, Kenya, Vietnam and France.
The newly formed St. John’s-Wagner alliance has so far been met with a favorable response from St. John’s.
“We’re very happy to be joining with our neighbor, Wagner College, in this venture,” Rev. Michael J. Carroll, C.M., St. John’s Executive Vice President for Mission and Branch Campuses, said in a press release. “Wagner is an extremely well-run and well-respected institution and, in these times, schools need to be effective in getting our message out. And, we have to do it together.”
Wagner College has expressed similar feelings of optimism.
“The missions of both schools are so close,” said Dr. Richard Guarasci, President of Wagner College. “We’re both committed to developing the whole person and to serving the community and I feel that this is the beginning of a long-term relationship between the two.
St. John’s is no stranger in trying to provide students with a more global experience. An over 30-year-old agreement with Japan’s Kokushikan University, for example, allows students from both schools to participate in a cultural exchange; St. John’s students are given the opportunity to spend a few weeks in Japan while Kokushikan students come to New York City.
In December 2006, St. John’s formed a partnership with Vietnam’s Hanoi University of Education.
One of the initial joint efforts in this agreement was the collaboration between both schools’ Psychology Departments. This deal also focuses on promoting the development of education, research, student exchange and other activities.
