International Educator - May/June 2015 - 29

are different, and it was my experience studying out of
the country that taught me that."
It was a lesson, he says, that evolved as he spent time
in Cairo. "It became more comfortable to ask awkward
questions to get to know people who were different," he
says. "People asked me about America or being a person
of color in America. We began to build trust, and the more
we got to know each other, the more trust there was and
the more fast the relationships became."
That, he says, made him comfortable enough to accept
an invitation in the 1980s to be part of an international
study group on leadership; members from Germany, Japan, and the United States met every six months to talk
about education, healthcare, and leadership.
"It was a similar experience as the one I had as a college student," he says. "The more time we got to know
the cultures of those other countries, we understood the
problems those countries were facing and the challenges
they had, we could propose solutions, and we appreciated
our similarities and our differences."
Named one of America's Best Leaders by U.S. News &
World Report in 2008, Hrabrowski has also been called
one of America's 10 best college presidents by Time and
one of seven top American leaders by the Washington
Post. He's been honored with awards from countless
institutions, holds more than 20 honorary doctorate
degrees, and cofounded the Meyerhoff Scholars Program, along with authoring two books. All the while,
UMBC has grown and flourished, becoming a topranked university that attracts students from all over the

INTERNATIONAL EDUCATOR M AY + J U N E .15

world-who are encouraged by their university president
to study abroad.
"We like giving people alternatives," he says, recognizing that international study isn't possible for everyone due
to different circumstances. "We have a number of courses
that are taught internationally and that allow students to
take them through Skype with people in other countries.
They see each other in the classes, which are taught by
people from two universities, and they text people from
other countries for work. So even the kid who can't go
overseas and has to work in the evening can still have an
international experience."
And that, he says, is critical. "It was important to me
not just in my career, but in my life," he says of his summer
in Cairo. "It helped me understand how important it is to
not make myself and my country the center of my thinking, but that we were one of many nations and groups
thinking about our problems and answers. I learned to
not be quick to judge. And the students who do that are
never quite the same."
"T.S. Eliot wrote that you can have an experience and
miss the point," he continues. "If you never have the experience, you never get the point. It's so important to
understand what it means to immerse yourself in another
culture. Students come here from other places and I'm
always pulling them into different things. They ask me,
'How did you learn to be so comfortable with us?' I tell
them I've been to their country or I've been an exchange
student. I know what it means to feel awkward and different from other people."

UMBC

Freeman
Hrabrowski,
president of
the University
of Maryland
Baltimore County,
with students.

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