CALS Global Opportunity Initiative cohort cultivates collaboration in Ethiopia
During the program’s fourth capstone trip, Virginia Tech faculty forged new research collaborations with Jimma University to address shared agricultural and health challenges.
The roasted earthiness of fine java filled the air as a small group of Virginia Tech faculty members watched the Ethiopian coffee ceremony being reverently performed for them.
It was readily apparent to the cohort as they gathered at a small stakeholder farm in the lush, high-altitude village of Ilala, that this was exactly the sort of thing they traveled halfway across the world to witness.
Not the ceremony specifically, but a new and unique cultural experience that can’t be had back home in the United States.
The trip served as the capstone experience of the 2024 Global Opportunity Initiative (GOI), a program launched by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ CALS Global in 2018 to give the college’s faculty the opportunity to form working partnerships with colleagues around the world.
“This is our fourth iteration working together to tackle the challenges we share and learning how we can strengthen agricultural and health learning, research, and extension,” said Tom Thompson, director of CALS Global. “The partnerships we’ve established across Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, and Ethiopia – all of the amazing places we’ve visited as part of the initiative – have been invaluable and resulted in new collaborations and friendships.”
Themed “community-engaged higher education,” the 2024 program sent fellows on a yearlong whirlwind of capacity-building and learning workshops split between Virginia Tech’s Blacksburg campus and Washington, D.C., culminating in a two-week trip to Ethiopia. There, they partnered with colleagues at Jimma University’s College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine to visit farms, field and laboratory research institutions, food processing facilities, elementary schools, and government offices.
“Many of these challenges are not unique to Ethiopia,” said Dickson Otieno, who now works in CALS Global after collaborating with GOI faculty on a previous capstone trip to his home country of Kenya. “Equitable access to education and food and declining soil health, among others, are mutually beneficial issues to tackle.”
The five faculty members representing CALS in the 2024 cohort contained varied fields of expertise – Erika Bonnett and Erin Ling of Virginia Cooperative Extension, Chanita Holmes of the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Carlin Rafie of the Department of Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise, and Hannah Sunderman of the Department of Agricultural, Leadership, and Community Education. They were joined by Carla Phillips Savage and Sophie Wenzel from the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, which has partnered with CALS Global on the GOI since 2019.
Each participant gained something unique from the experience, whether it was new research partners across the Atlantic or a new perspective on agricultural and health issues that extend beyond the boundaries of North America.
New continent, new partnerships
Erin Ling
Department of Biological Systems Engineering | Virginia Cooperative Extension
“In addition to experiencing a new and beautiful place and learning about Ethiopian culture, I appreciated getting to know our colleagues at Jimma University. Jimma University's motto of ‘We are in the community’ resonated with the work I do here with Virginia Cooperative Extension, particularly when we are able to involve students in applied research and Extension program development and delivery. I recently submitted a proposal focused on irrigation water management in an international setting with several colleagues.”
Carlin Rafie
Department of Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise
“The national health system in Ethiopia employs community health workers extensively to expand local healthcare services. I’m now investigating the feasibility and impact of incorporating community health workers into programs conducted by Extension educators. In addition, I found I had a distant connection to Jimma University in that its College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine was founded through a joint venture between Ethiopia’s Ministry of Education and Oklahoma State University, which is my alma mater!”
Hannah Sunderman
Department of Agricultural, Leadership, and Community Education
“I participated in GOI to connect with other community-oriented scholars and practitioners both at Virginia Tech and in Ethiopia. Specifically, much of the work at Jimma University on community engagement and experiential learning aligns with my research and teaching – facilitating experiential learning, studying how people make meaning of experiences, and student development research – all focuses of Jimma. I was also delighted by the hospitality of our hosts. Many university officials, staff, faculty, and students devoted countless hours to preparing for our visit and hosting us.”
Join the 2026 GOI cohort
The GOI is held every other year, with the next program taking place in 2026. Applications will open in November of 2025. Faculty members interested in becoming more involved in global engagement can learn more about the initiative and register at CALS Global’s program webpage.
