Signs all over the campus of Davidson-Davie Community College say, “The future is you. Together we will create the future together. The future is here.”
The mission of the community college thus includes preparing “students for enhanced career and educational opportunities within a changing global community.”
In 2021, Davidson-Davie was one of five recipients of the Senator Paul Simon Award for Comprehensive Internationalization, recognizing excellence in integrating international education throughout all facets of student’s educational experience.
“Global education offers a passport to the world at Davidson-Davie Community College,” says NAFSA, an association of international educators. “Despite limited resources, the college has become a leader in international education among North Carolina’s 58 community colleges.”
The commitment to international education has spanned presidents of the community college from Mary Rittling to Darrin Hartness and now Jenny Varner.
“I am so lucky to be part of a college with such a long history of and strong commitment to international education,” says Varner. “I talk all the time about how our past informs our future, and international education is becoming one of those legacies that is part of who we are — and part of who we always want to be.”
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International Education
“International Education is an important aspect of the Davidson-Davie experience,” says the community college’s website. “Students, faculty, and staff are afforded many opportunities to broaden their knowledge of other countries and cultures,” including cultural events, travel abroad, and a pathway to become a scholar of global distinction.
“The Davidson-Davie International Education program empowers students with awareness and knowledge of other countries and cultures, acquaints them with international and global problems, provides them the ability to work effectively in global or cross-cultural environments, and teaches an appreciation of diversity, respect, and concern for all peoples.”
Sarah Wright has been the director of international education at Davidson-Davie since 2023. She often jokes that she has the best job in the world.
“I get to help people learn, travel, plan, and attend cultural events. I get to help people see that global is much closer to home than they think and help students see that global competence really is a necessary employment skill,” says Wright.
This spring, the community college is offering more than 40 cultural events, including events about the education system in Mexico, social Irish dancing, and African drumming.
Next week, Davidson-Davie is hosting farming students from Denmark. “We will be able to show individuals around our campus and area in much the same way that we take our students to other countries,” Wright says. “We are looking forward to the role reversal. It has been exciting and educational for us to think about our college, academics, and region through the eyes of students from Denmark.”
Yearly, Wright says the community college takes students to visit with partners at the University of Bordeaux’s Institute of Technology.
Katja Brown, who works in the history, religion, and philosophy departments at nearby High Point University, was attending a concert featuring Irish music at the community college when she heard about an upcoming trip to Japan. She signed up.
“Community colleges change lives in general,” says Wright, “and our study abroad programs provide additional life-changing opportunities for so many students and community members.”
Passports come first
Brown has traveled to more than 30 countries, but for many students the first step in their international education journey is applying for a passport.
In 2021, Davidson-Davie was among 40 institutions selected from nearly 200 to be part of the inaugural cohort of the Institute of International Education (IIE) American Passport Project.
“At a time when COVID-19 was impacting all aspects of international education, these institutions demonstrated the drive to restart international initiatives,” says IIE. “The selected institutions provided the innovative programming, engagement efforts, advising, and support for those students they have identified with the goal of sending them on a study abroad program during their college experience.”
The goal of the project is for 10,000 more U.S. students to have a passport by 2030.
Davidson-Davie is the only community college in North Carolina to be part of the IIENetwork, a “global membership association supporting the strategic advancement of international education.”
Then comes the travel to places far and wide
Since 2013, Davidson-Davie has offered opportunities for students and members of the community to travel together all around the world to “experience other countries firsthand, work with diverse groups of people, and better understand the interconnectedness of the modern world.”
Past trips include Switzerland, Italy, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Peru, China, London, Portugal, Central Europe, Cuba, Japan, Argentina, Greece, France, Guatemala, South Africa, and the Dominican Republic.
In 2025, the community college will travel to Costa Rica, Ireland, and Japan.
EdNC tagged along on the trip to Japan.
Japan 2025
Our trip to Japan included early college students, community college students, Davidson-Davie graduates, faculty, and community members. It included moms traveling with their daughters and a family.
In January 2025, the group started taking a humanities class on Japan together, taught by Michelle Williamson, one of the trip leaders who teaches English at the community college. In the weeks leading up to the trip, Williamson covered travel logistics but also history, religion, art, and contemporary culture.
Her class preparing us for the visit to Hiroshima stands among a handful of classes in my life I will never forget. One of the students had learned in high school that Major Thomas Ferebee — the bombardier on the “Enola Gay” who dropped the atomic bomb “Little Boy” on Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug. 6, 1945 — was born in Mocksville. That connection to North Carolina brought home the interconnectedness of both war and peace for all of us.
A van, two flights, two bullet trains, countless subways, a handful of busses, a streetcar, a ferry, and a lot of walking exposed us to the challenges and opportunities of public transportation from Tokyo to Kyoto to Hiroshima.
Other highlights included a tea ceremony and calligraphy class with a sensei, a trip to Miyajima Island, and lots and lots of shopping.
Two students on the trip were recipients of the U.S. Department of State’s Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship, a competitive merit-based scholarship.
Raine Spencer has loved all things Japan for as long as she can remember and hopes to live and teach in rural Japan someday.
Axel Roca is a photographer. Here you can see the trip through his eyes.
International students
According to a press release, Davidson-Davie Community College “not only welcomes its new and returning students but opens its doors to students from across the globe.”
Each year a handful of international students choose Davidson-Davie, and currently 51 students from around the world are on a waitlist to attend pending visa approval, says Keisha Jones, vice president of student affairs at the community college. Jones was on the trip with us to Japan and calls travel her love language.
Since 2011, Davidson-Davie has also hosted Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistants (FLTA) from around the world. Currently, there are three teaching assistants at the community college for the academic year: Neriman Yeniay, teaching French; Fabiola Contreras, teaching Spanish; and Orla Casserly, teaching Irish.
FLTA “offers educators from over 55 countries the opportunity to develop their professional skills and gain first-hand knowledge of the U.S., its culture, and its people,” according to the Fulbright Foreign Student Program. “U.S. campuses enhance their teaching of languages and expose students to a true understanding of people of different nations.”
The Scholars of Global Distinction Program
Launched in 2013 at Davidson-Davie, “the mission of the Scholars of Global Distinction program is to develop engaged global citizens who are prepared to be successful in our increasingly interdependent world,” according to the community college. “The program was established for students who want to explore the impact of culture, ethnicity, race, globalization, industrialization, environmental sustainability, and access to natural and human resources through the courses they choose to take and the extracurricular activities in which they participate.”
Students who earn the distinction, according to Davidson-Davie:
- Complete 15 credit hours in courses designated as having globally intensive content with a grade of A or B,
- Attend a total of eight international cultural events, ideally at least two per semester,
- Participate in 30 hours of global experience through travel abroad or a domestic intercultural experience, and
- Complete an e-portfolio reflecting participation and growth in global learning opportunities.
“As more faculty globalize courses, more students will have the opportunity to earn this distinction,” says Davidson-Davie. “By infusing global content and an international perspective to their course material, instructors are providing students with a world-class education.”
‘Global is Local’
The Global is Local program at Davidson-Davie Community College is a collaboration with the Davidson-Davie Apprenticeship Consortium, and UNC World View, a program at UNC Chapel Hill that “equips K-12 and community college educators with global knowledge.”
On Oct. 3, 2024, Davidson-Davie educators had an opportunity to engage with global and local industry representatives, Scholar of Global Distinction students, and UNC Chapel Hill faculty to think about skills and competencies required by local industries for the global workforce and learn more about resources to foster students’ educational experiences and readiness for a globally interconnected world.
The return on investment in international education is clear from a site visit to EGGER, a state-of-the-art particleboard manufacturing plant located near the community college.
The Austrian company selected Lexington, North Carolina as its first North American site because of “the supply of resources, especially the most important resource wood, is sourced locally, and good infrastructural connections create optimal logistical conditions. The state of North Carolina is known for its long tradition of furniture production, which also guarantees the availability of qualified employees,” says a press release.
According to the EGGER website, “At full build-out, the project will involve an investment of approximately $700 million and create an estimated 770 direct jobs. The facility contributes to the regional economy through the purchase of wood byproducts from sawmills in and around the state, and through work with a range of local suppliers for additional services.”
Davidson-Davie’s investment in international education is also an investment in “a network for continuous improvement in teaching and learning for global workforce readiness.”
The return on investment can be seen in both the local and global economy.
