Manoj K. Dora

Graduate student Manoj K. Dora was born in a poor village where people die of starvation and people sell their children for a meal. In this squalor, he dreamed of helping families launch small businesses to provide for their needs. Today, enrolled in Vanderbilt’s Graduate Program in Economic Development (GPED), his dream seems possible.

“GPED classes helped me to refine and articulate my plans,” the native of India says. “I am more confident about my plans now with the strong network I established during my stay here at Vanderbilt.”

For more than five decades, dreams like Dora’s have flourished at Vanderbilt’s GPED program and taken root in countries around the world. In 1954, Vanderbilt established the Summer Institute on Economic Development to teach international students how to help developing, low-income national economies and countries. Funded by the predecessor to the U.S. Agency for International Development, the program was located at Vanderbilt not only because of the university’s reputation, but also because of its location in the South. The aim was to show that there were pockets of America that faced similar issues to developing countries. Some 200 participants attended the three years of the summer institute, which led to the year-round degree program in the College of Arts and Science, the Graduate Program in Economic Development.

In the years since, more than 1,300 students from 125 countries have received degrees. (To put that in perspective, the United Nations has 192 member countries.) “It puts Vanderbilt on the map of the world,” says Suhas Ketkar, PhD’73, interim director of the program and professor of economics.

Some students have returned to their home countries to create programs like that Dora hopes to institute in India. Others have gone on to careers in public service. Finance minister, ambassador and bank governor are among the positions held by program graduates. Others have worked for international organizations such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund or regional development banks. Still others have entered academia. A handful work in the private sector.

International and Influential

Süreyya Serdengeçti, MA’86, worked at the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey. When the bank recommended he pursue further education, he enrolled in the GPED. Returning to Turkey, he worked his way up to governor of the Central Bank, retiring in 2006 when his term expired. He lectures in economics at a university in Ankara and is director of a think tank.

“The quality of the education together with the international environment made the classroom experiences a delight,” he says. 

In 2005 Serdengeçti returned to Vanderbilt to speak to students, marking the long reach of the program and its vibrant network of alumni. That, says the program’s director, is one of the enduring effects of the GPED.

“We have a large group of alumni with whom we keep in touch,” Ketkar says. Of the 1,300 GPED graduates, the program maintains contact with more than 850 around the world. “We recruit new students largely on word of mouth. We have a number of graduates who have, over time, risen to important positions in their respective countries and they carry the Vanderbilt name with them.” 

Marie Kelley, Director Suhas Kethar and Mouzon Siddiqi.

Ideas that Impact

That helped draw Dora to the program. His ideas to impact his community were built upon the work of Mohammad Yunus, PhD’71, microcredit founder, 2006 Nobel Peace Prize recipient and an alumnus of the program. 

Ketkar himself holds a Vanderbilt degree in economics. His wife, Kusum Wadhawan Ketkar, MA’75, PhD’80, attended the program before earning a Ph.D. Ketkar taught at Vanderbilt after graduation, then went to Wall Street where he focused on emerging markets. Business travels took him around the world where, by merely being a Vanderbilt graduate, he would often be entertained by GPED alumni. After retiring from Wall Street, he returned to Vanderbilt to teach. 

Tatiana Mihailovschi-Muntean, MA’02, calls GPED “an unforgettable family. The existence of such a program is the most beneficial aspect of my experience,” she says. “It gave all of us a great opportunity to study and enjoy our stay in the U.S., and to gain invaluable educational and cultural experience. Honestly, those two years in Nashville were one of the best times of my and my family’s life.”

Mihailovschi-Muntean worked for the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova when she came to GPED. After graduation, she pursued her doctorate and is currently an assistant professor at Trent University in Canada. “The GPED program is one of the best for international students,” she says. “Everything is well-organized, and everybody is extremely helpful, friendly and welcoming.”

The first master’s class, 1956-1957.

Hospitality From Day One

Ketkar says the friendliness that students find when arriving can be attributed to Mouzon Siddiqi, program coordinator, and Van Marie Kelley, program secretary. The two women meet students at the airport, maintain a list of suitable off-campus apartments and even help students move furniture in a truck that Siddiqi purchased for just that reason. Siddiqi’s husband, Sultan Siddiqi, MA’70, is occasionally pressed into service to help a student navigate the Social Security office, enroll children in school or find halal meat (meat permitted by Islamic law). 

For Siddiqi, the issue is personal. Her husband came to Peabody College from Afghanistan to pursue master’s work without the benefit of a program like the GPED. “He found his way to the campus on his own. However, there was a university-owned, furnished house available to share with another student,” Siddiqi says. “After we married, I returned to Afghanistan in 1970 with Sultan for two years. The Afghans were incredibly hospitable, and it meant so much to me as a foreigner.”

For Kelley, the support and help they provide is just the right thing to do. “They come here from around the world,” she says. “We just want to make them comfortable and help them get set up and settled as much as possible before their classes begin. I know I would appreciate the same if I was in their situation.”

Both women also see their roles as impacting the world without leaving Calhoun Hall. “I like to feel that setting a good example of love and understanding will go abroad and help make the world a better place,” Kelley says. 

Siddiqi refers to the alumni as her children, and says she hopes to continue to have a positive effect. “It will never match the impact that our students have had on my life,” she says. “I would be a different person—my world would be much smaller—if I had not had the marvelous opportunity to work in the GPED.”

photo credit: Lize Rixt

Today’s ViF program has adapted to contemporary students’ needs and gives them a more global view of France and its people, says Associate Professor of French Virginia Scott, who served as professor-in-residence for summer 2008. “A critical topic among people who teach French is ‘why French?’” Scott says. “Because of global trends, many students want to study Spanish, Arabic or Chinese.” 

That shift has challenged ViF to find new relevance and appeal. Key to meeting that challenge has been the establishment of a resident director of the program in France. Maïté Monchal, who became the resident director in 2005, is credited with revitalizing the program and instituting new initiatives.

The ViF team, from left: Alice Cheylan, financial manager; Manu Meize, administrative assistant; Virginia Scott, professor-in-residence summer ’08; and Maïté Monchal, resident director.

ViF is Vanderbilt’s oldest study-abroad program. Begun in 1961 by the College of Arts and Science, ViF cultivated language fluency and cultural understanding. While those aspects remain, ViF now strives to be international, innovative and focused beyond cultural exploration. 

Stepping Stones 

Cannon Kinnard, BA’08, spent a semester with ViF, refining his French during a four-month internship at La Provence, the newspaper in Aix. Providing internships is a recent ViF innovation. They enable students to put a practical edge on their language skills and gain international work experience. ViF students also have done internships at Ballet Preljocaj, Marseilles’ children’s hospital and Aix schools.

Following his internship, Kinnard became the first ViF student to spend a semester at the Institut de Sciences Politiques (Sciences Po), a Paris university. Vanderbilt and Sciences Po now have an agreement to exchange up to five students annually. 

Today, Kinnard is pursuing graduate studies in journalism at New York University (NYU). “The head of admissions at NYU said he was impressed I’d worked at a newspaper abroad,” Kinnard says. “My experience in France was mind-opening and a fluid study in cultural differences.”

Living and Learning Language

Exposing students to different experiences has long been a hallmark of ViF. Marion West Hammer, BA’69, remembers her ViF days fondly. “It showed me a whole new culture,” says Hammer, now a Memphis, Tenn. middle school teacher of French and English. While in Aix, she lived with an older couple and became part of their extended family. “It helped me to be more open to the different ways people think.”

Although ViF students no longer board with local residents, they do interact with them. “Now we rent apartments around the city. Each has three or four ViF students and one or two French students,” Scott says. “The native speakers tie our students directly to student life. At the same time, the students form life-long bonds with each other and the city.” To provide a complementary view of life, several nights a week, students eat dinner with local host families. 

Senior Corinne Hartong spent summer 2008 falling in love with Aix. “The people I have met evoke all the elements that I now associate with the culture of Provence: colorful exuberance, respect for provençal traditions, love of cuisine and lively, long meals, and care for the earth,” she says. “The stories told at the dinner table by my host family offered me first-hand insight into their deeply-rooted love of the language and culture of Provence.”

The program’s life-changing impact was spoken of often during the first ViF alumni reunion, which took place in Aix in June 2008. More than 50 past participants, including three pioneers from the first session in 1961, traveled to France to celebrate the program, share memories and discover the ViF program that today’s students experience. They participated in activities alongside current students, enjoying trips, language and cooking classes, and long, laughter-filled dinners with host families. 

Senior Rachel Hanemann helps alumni attending the ViF reunion brush up on their French.

Cultural Strengths

In its 40-plus years, the program has evolved, but some aspects of ViF remain consistent. Students still attend classes taught by French faculty at the Vanderbilt Center located in a historic building in Aix. They experience trips to Nice, the Luberon, Avignon, the Pont du Gard and Marseille, plus excursions to museums and theater performances, French cooking classes and a week in Paris. Fall and spring sessions draw students with some level of proficiency in French although they do not need to be French majors. The summer session includes non-French speakers. 

In a new partnership initiated by Monchal, those students with greater proficiency can take classes alongside native French speakers at the Université de Provence in Aix. “MaÏté capitalized on our long history in Aix by creating internship opportunities, as well as relationships with the University of Provence so that our more proficient students may take courses there,” Scott says. “Her work makes it possible for our faculty in French to serve as professors in residence, teaching and doing research, instead of administrating.”

Reunion attendees assemble on the famous Cours Mirabeau in the center of Aix-en-Provence.

Citoyens du monde

For junior Fabiani Duarte, the program opened his eyes to “the power of communication, of connecting with people at a basic human level and the amount of respect, candor and human connection that engenders,” says Duarte, who used his French this summer while working as a congressional aide. “It’s important for Americans to be citizens of the world, to be able to communicate on a basic level with people.”

Increasingly, ViF serves students with interests in disciplines other than language. ViF includes a summer dance component and a two-week music program in which the Blair School of Music collaborates with the European Academy of Music. In spring 2009, the program will explore an alliance with a center for Islamic studies in Aix. This link could attract religious studies students who want to study Muslim faith and culture.

To reinforce the relevance of French and French culture internationally, ViF has added a spring semester week of study in the North African nation of Tunisia, where French is spoken. “Marseille is the gateway to North Africa and French-speaking countries there,” Scott says. “French isn’t just France, and we want to distinguish ourselves by having our students experience the greater Francophone world. By refining and recreating ViF, we’re able to create new niches for ourselves and our students.”

Say Nashville and language, and some people immediately think of a Southern drawl. But say Vanderbilt and language, and scores of scholars, diplomats and business executives around the world think of Spanish and Portuguese. 

Vanderbilt is one of a handful of U.S. universities offering a comprehensive course of study in Spanish and Portuguese, says Cathy Jrade, Chancellor’s Professor of Spanish and chair of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. That comprehensiveness emphasizes both cultural knowledge and fluency, with the result that the department’s graduates can now be found all over the Spanish-speaking world. In addition, a unique, more than 60-year connection to the Portuguese-speaking country of Brazil has made Vanderbilt one of the top centers in the United States for Brazilian studies. 

“Many of our undergraduates combine Spanish as a double major with other fields—premed, engineering, economics, political science,” Jrade says. The globalization that links North America through business, industry and immigration to its Spanish and Portuguese-speaking neighbors has placed the department at the forefront of learning and resources. 

Undergraduates focus on Spanish and Portuguese language study coupled with exploring the traditions, culture, history and literature of the nations that speak those languages. They are encouraged to study abroad and immerse themselves in the language and culture. Students can opt for one of several tracks in the Spanish and Portuguese program, including majoring exclusively in either language or both. 

That marriage of language and culture makes the program successful, according to Emanuelle Oliveira, assistant professor of Luso-Brazilian literature, who teaches classes on the culture of Brazil. “You can’t understand a culture if you don’t go deeper than just learning the language,” says the native of Rio de Janeiro. “The arts and literature of a country represent its soul.”

Skylar King, BA’05, credits her study-abroad semester in Chile for preparing her in both language and cultural understanding. King parlayed her double major in communications studies and Spanish into a job marketing public service and living abroad programs through an Austin, Texas, nonprofit. “Speaking the language deepens and widens your experience with other cultures,” says King, who recently led an alternative spring break group from Indiana University to Costa Rica. “It enriches you.”

Prominence in Portuguese

Although Vanderbilt’s emphasis on Spanish is not surprising, the university’s strength in the study of Portuguese is more unusual.  According to the Modern Language Association, 52 percent of foreign language students nationwide study Spanish. Less than 1 percent study Portuguese, although that figure represents a 22.4 percent increase since 2002. The gain acknowledges Brazil as the 10th-largest economy in the world; overall, one in three people in Latin America speaks Portuguese, and nearly 250 million people worldwide, including those in Angola, Cape Verde, East Timor, Mozambique, Portugal, and São Tomé and Príncipe.

The College of Arts and Science has three full-time faculty teaching Portuguese, a rarity among U.S. universities. Those scholars, along with a longtime partnership with Brazil, make Vanderbilt one of the top five U.S. institutions for the study of Brazil today. 

The foundation for leadership in Portuguese came under the direction of Chancellor Harvie Branscomb, fresh from a trip to South America. He saw offering Spanish and Portuguese as a way to position Vanderbilt as a national institution. Under his direction and using a grant from the Carnegie Corporation, Vanderbilt founded the Institute for Brazilian Studies in 1947. In the 1950s, interest and expertise in things Brazilian led to the founding of Vanderbilt’s Center for Latin American Studies, which eventually became the Center for Latin American and Iberian Studies (CLAIS). In the 1960s and ’70s, Vanderbilt professors taught at Brazilian universities. The College of Arts and Science’s landmark graduate program in economic development attracted Brazilian students, who returned to their county to serve in positions of prominence in finance and government. 

Vanderbilt is also a leading research center for Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula studies, home to the international Brazilian Studies Association (BRASA), and holds an extensive collection of reference materials. “Our Brazilian collection is one of the best in the country,” says Marshall Eakin, professor of history and executive director of BRASA. “We have materials that aren’t available anywhere else, including Latin America.” Those materials draw scholars and researchers from around the globe.

Good to Be No. 1

While the undergraduate program prepares students for a variety of careers, the graduate program focuses on educating academics and scholars. More than 50 students apply for the four to five slots available annually. Graduate students from both the U.S. and abroad, already fluent in Spanish, Portuguese or both, attend Vanderbilt to prepare for academic careers via specializations that are immersed in the rich culture, literature, industry and business of Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula. Competitive and comprehensive, the program was recently ranked as the country’s most productive graduate program in the area of studies by The Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index.

Vanderbilt’s comprehensive approach has led its graduates to teach at top-tier institutions such as Notre Dame, Michigan, Dartmouth and Florida. “As a university, we accrue value through the placement of our graduates,” Jrade says. 

That sense of value runs both ways, according to Juan Vitulli, MA’05, PhD’07. Now an assistant professor of Spanish Golden Age literature at the University of Notre Dame, Vitulli says Vanderbilt nurtured his aptitude for scholarly research and teaching. “The Spanish and Portuguese program offered me a great chance to develop my academic interests. When I entered in 2003, I didn’t know what my future would be. I just came to do my M.A. In less than four years, I completed my doctorate and obtained an excellent job,” Vitulli says. “When I started at Notre Dame, I was well prepared to get the balance between teaching and research.” 

Artwork by Nishan Akgulian.