About
The American Council on Education’s (ACE) Internationalization Laboratory (ACE Lab) is a highly reputable and results-driven process to guide colleges and universities through the required steps to develop an institutional plan for comprehensive internationalization. The ACE Lab is led by a team of internationalization experts, with a wide range of backgrounds and experiences, who work closely with participating schools to formulate goals for internationalization tailored to their respective institutions. LMU is honored to be a part of Cohort 17 of the ACE Lab, along with 17 other institutions of higher education around the world.
Building Sustainable Internationalization through the ACE Lab
"As an inaugural SIO, the ACE Lab process has been a wonderful way to get our campus involved in productive conversations around internationalization and to think together about how to move our university forward in an efficient and sustainable manner. The expertise of the ACE advisor and peer review team were critical components of this process and our cohort meetings provided learning opportunities that assisted us at various stages along the way to the final Lab report.”
Roberta Espinoza, Ph.D.
Motivation for Participation
LMU joined the American Council on Education Lab (ACE Lab) as a result of Provost Poon's, vision for internationalization, making it a top priority for our university, building on our President Timothy Law Snyder’s vision for “Global Imagination.” As part of his commitment to global learning and engagement, Provost Poon created a new office, Global-Local Initiatives (GLI), with an inaugural Senior International Officer position, currently held by Vice Provost Roberta Espinoza. In joining the Lab, we sought to gain greater knowledge of all the internationalization efforts on campus to create an action-oriented strategic international plan to strengthen our visibility as a globally influential university and inform decision-making to promote internationalization as an essential feature to integrate throughout all departments and units.
Key Outcomes
We achieved several key outcomes through our Lab journey. First, the Lab facilitated discussions on internationalization (IZN) throughout the campus community and brought awareness to the newer GLI office and staff, highlighting IZN as a priority for campus leadership. Second, the Lab provided a centralized review of previous IZN efforts so we could assess where we stand and create an intentional, sustainable strategic plan for the future.
There were several tangible outcomes from the Lab process. One outcome was starting to align the institutional structure of the Vice Provost for GLI’s office to better coordinate campus internationalization efforts. This included a name change (from GLI to Global-Local Affairs) and the hiring of a Director of Operations and an Academic Programs Liaison, in addition to appointing GLA Faculty Fellows connected with the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) to support integration of internationalization across the curriculum. These various positions serve as GLA representatives in global learning campus conversations. Another key outcome was the creation of the Global Engagement Directory as a central and accessible place to record international efforts by faculty and staff. There is a demonstrated passion and energy for global learning at LMU, and the Global Engagement Directory helps account for intentional as well as random acts of internationalization across the campus.
Recommendations
LMU’s Lab process had five overall recommendations, including establishing shared understandings of IZN, promoting and strengthening global learning opportunities, and more. The most impactful recommendation was to build out the proper sustainable structure, as this is foundational in creating a reputable office within which we can incrementally achieve all the other recommendations.