Cranwell International Center to move to Harper Hall
For 28 years, the former residence of William Cranwell and his family has served as home away from home to Virginia Tech’s international community.
This summer, the Cranwell International Center will move to a more central campus location in Harper Hall on West Campus Drive.
“Our international undergraduate student population has doubled in just the past three years,” said Vice President for Student Affairs Patty Perillo. “Moving these programs and services to a central campus location and creating the Virginia Tech Global Village is a critical part of the university’s strategic initiatives in international engagement. All our students will benefit from access to immersion in rich cultural experiences.”
The move represents the first important step in the development of a vibrant international living and learning community.
The Cranwell International Center and the planned Virginia Tech Global Village at Harper Hall will provide both international and domestic students an opportunity to experience a rich hands-on learning environment while, deepening their knowledge and competency around global politics, international economic development, foreign languages, and cultural fluency.
The vision of the Virginia Tech Global Village is a cornerstone of initiatives built into “A Plan for a New Horizon: Envisioning Virginia Tech, 2012-2018.”
Guru Ghosh, vice president for outreach and international affairs, says it’s vital for the university to intensify its focus on the international arena.
“Engagement across borders is imperative,” said Ghosh. “The Global Village at Harper Hall will provide a new focus of hospitality and support for undergraduate and graduate students as well as international scholars who come from abroad to study in Blacksburg.”
Programs offered at Harper will include English conversation groups, cultural enrichment, advocacy and support, and visa and immigration advisory services. As the global village grows, it will assist students to more fully develop their international competency, by offering greater accessibility to faculty, mentoring between upper division and first year students, and engagement in global activities including scholarship, research and outreach.
The new location will simplify campus arrival and check-in at the nearby Student Services Building on Washington Street. The move will begin after commencement when the Cranwell staff relocates to the first floor of Harper.
The Cranwell International Center serves approximately 2,800 international undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and scholars from more than 120 nations. The Cranwell House, located at 417 Clay Street, SW, first began serving Virginia Tech’s international community in 1986.
Given the Cranwell family vision and commitment to international scholars and students, the center will retain the family name.
Dedicated to its motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), Virginia Tech takes a hands-on, engaging approach to education, preparing scholars to be leaders in their fields and communities. As the commonwealth’s most comprehensive university and its leading research institution, Virginia Tech offers 240 undergraduate and graduate degree programs to more than 31,000 students and manages a research portfolio of $513 million. The university fulfills its land-grant mission of transforming knowledge to practice through technological leadership and by fueling economic growth and job creation locally, regionally, and across Virginia.
