Associate Vice President for International Education and Global Engagement Selected for Award for Excellence

Indiana University of Pennsylvania's Associate Vice President for International Education and Global Engagement and Executive Director of the American Language Institute Michele Petrucci has been honored for excellence by the Pennsylvania Council for International Education.

Petrucci is the 2024 recipient of PACIE's David Portlock Award for Outstanding International Educator, which recognizes international educators who have exhibited evidence of ongoing mentoring of colleagues in the field, exemplary leadership in international education on their campuses, and consistent contribution to the field as seen in presentations, papers, publications or other academic enterprises. The award will be presented in October at PACIE's annual conference in Philadelphia.

"Dr. Petrucci has been a champion for international education for decades and for promoting its importance to our students and to our community," IUP Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Lara Luetkehans said. "She is a leader in the field nationally and internationally while also fully committed to creating the most welcoming and enriching experience possible for our international students during their time at IUP and to supporting our students who take advantage of study abroad opportunities all over the world. This is a very well-deserved honor."

Petrucci has been active in the field of international education for more than three decades. She joined IUP's American Language Institute in 1997 and then was promoted to lead IUP's Office of International Education in 2003.

In fall 2023, IUP saw international student enrollment increase by 23 percent, for a total of 494 international students from 60 countries. This follows a 2 percent increase in international enrollment from fall 2021 to fall 2022 and is at its highest point since 2019. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, IUP had the greatest number of international students in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, welcoming more than 1,000 international students annually for study at IUP.

Enrollment in the American Language Institute is up by more than 72 percent, with a total of 69 students. For the past 40 years, IUP's ALI has provided intensive English programs for students from all over the world who want to improve their language proficiency and cultural understanding of the United States.

The Pennsylvania Council for International Education is the state's leading advocate and authority on global education in Pennsylvania and supports global competence for students at both the kindergarten through grade 12 and post-secondary levels.

"Of course, I am absolutely honored to receive this year's PACIE Portlock Award for Outstanding International Educator, but this achievement could not have occurred without the hard work and support of excellent colleagues over the past 27 years at IUP, colleagues who are equally committed and passionate about international education," Petrucci said.

"For me, it is essential that all students in Pennsylvania, regardless of age or type of institution, have deep and sustained engagement with international education whether it's learning another language and culture, hosting an international exchange student, or ultimately, studying abroad. Pennsylvania and its citizens are enriched by these experiences and the students benefit personally, academically and for many, professionally."

In June, Petrucci and Emma Archer, director of IUP's International Student Scholar Services and the American Language Institute, were recognized by the Institute of International Education with certificates of appreciation from the Scholar Rescue Fund Alliance "with deep gratitude for your extraordinary efforts to preserve the life, ideas, and work of a threatened scholar from Afghanistan by providing a safe academic haven at IUP."

Over the past nine years, Petrucci has secured more than $2 million in funding from the US Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs-International Research and Exchanges Board for the Fulbright Educators program, which brings selected international primary and secondary educators who are Fulbright recipients in their home countries to the United States for months of study and outreach in western Pennsylvania school districts (Indiana and Pittsburgh). More than 150 educators have been hosted by IUP since the program began, and 10 of the educators have returned to IUP for graduate study.

During the spring 2024 semester, Petrucci helped the University of Miyazaki, an IUP partner, to receive $1 million from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology for a five-year collaboration that extends the current eight-week virtual English language instruction and an in-person experience at IUP for UoM students and provides funding for IUP students to complete an eight-week virtual Japanese language instruction and a two-week in-person experience at the UoM in Japan.

Petrucci is a 2022 recipient of the IUP School of Graduate Studies and Research 's Outstanding Achievement in Public Service and is additionally proud of her two Fulbright International Educator Awards (Japan in 2005 and India in 2018).

In addition to hands-on work with international students at IUP, including as a doctoral reader, Petrucci and her team coordinate scores of study-abroad experiences for IUP students all over the globe.

In addition to directly working with students here and abroad, the Office of International Education does extensive outreach and educational programming for the IUP and the area community, including International Unity Day, International Lunch Hour, and International Education Week, which includes a naturalization ceremony for new citizens.

The Office also offers the Conversation Partners program, which matches international students with American partners in an effort to promote global awareness, multicultural interaction, diversity, and friendship; and Culture Café, which brings together international and American students and provides opportunities to talk about each other's languages and cultures, for networking, and to socialize with fun activities in an informal environment.

Petrucci and her team also work with IUP's National Achievement Scholarship Office and qualified students to help students secure international scholarships and awards, including Boren Fellowships, Fulbright awards, Freeman-Asia awards, and Gilman scholarships. Through their efforts, nine international students have secured an Emergency Student Fund Award from the Institute of International Education Emergency Fund since 2020.

After completing her bachelor's degree at Kenyon College (English literature and studio art), she lived, studied, and worked in Southern Africa for nearly seven years, teaching in Botswana as a Peace Corps volunteer (one year) and then moving to South Africa, where she completed her master's degree in English literature at the University of KwaZulu Natal and then worked at Technikon Natal.

With her PhD in English (Composition and TESOL) from IUP, Petrucci has been a frequent presenter at NAFSA: Association of International Educators, AIEA, ISEP, and TESOL, from which she received two professional awards: the TESOL Professional Development Scholarship and the Albert H. Marckwardt Award.

Over the years, she has actively contributed to the international education field and most recently served as a Fulbright board member: Greater Pittsburgh Chapter mentor for five international educators through the NAFSA Executive Internationalization Leadership e-Institute. She was one of six American scholars selected for the NAFSA Global Dialogue Fellows Partner (US and Sub-Saharan Africa), serving from 2015 to 2020, and was a member of the AIEA Senior Adviser Program in 2017 and 2018.

She has been awarded multiple, funded international education professional development opportunities: Israel University study tour, International Education Expert: US Embassy Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; EAIE-AIEA TransAtlantic Dialogue; Eduespaña Higher Education Familiarization Tour; Australian Familiarization Tour (Queensland); and ISEP Asia Tour.

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