As Earlham historian and Quaker scholar-in-residence Tom Hamm writes in his book Earlham College: A History, 1847-1997, Earlham’s first formal study abroad program began in 1956 with French professor Mary Lane Charles. She was supported by trustee Dorothy Peaslee with funding, and took 15 students to France. They began with studying languages in Geneva, Switzerland, before landing in Paris. All lived with French families during this time. In the next four years, Charles would take two more groups to France. Faculty also led trips to Italy, Mexico and Scandinavia, with plans for additional trips to Russia and Japan. Once former President Landrum Bolling began his administration in 1958, the study abroad program blossomed, and is now a viable part of academic departments and other parts of the college experience.
Earlham’s rich legacy in international education programs was preceded by the enrollment of Canadian Quaker Edwin H. Dorland in the 1860s and Chuzo Kaifu, a Japanese student from the Friends Tokyo School, in 1890, who became the first international students to enroll at Earlham.
“Of course, that was the beginning of our connection to Japan,” said Hamm, “which has remained strong down to the present day.”
Over the years, Earlham has been honored to host a variety of international students, from Japanese students in 1890 and again in the 1930s and ‘40s, to German students before Kristallnacht and reverberations of World War II, to more recently, Palestinian, Syrian and Israeli students.
For each program Earlham offers and each international student who enrolls, the college reports to the Institute of International Education’s Open Doors program. The institute recently recognized Earlham with the Seal of Excellence for having contributed reporting for 75 consecutive years.
That seal of excellence from Open Doors “shows that we are the gold standard in our field,” said Roger Adkins, executive director of Earlham’s Center for Global Education. “The 75-year recognition demonstrates a longstanding commitment across many generations of leadership and staff,” they said. “Most schools have a study abroad program and do this reporting, but not many have done it for 75 years running.”
Today, Earlham offers dozens of study abroad programs all over the world in locations such as New Zealand, northern India, Iceland, Ghana, Turkey, Scotland and Japan. International students now number 143, a far cry from the 12 enrolled 75 years ago.
Jennifer Lewis, Earlham’s senior director of off-campus programs, completes the international study abroad report, which includes off-campus study, credit-bearing international programs, credit-bearing internships and non-credit-bearing international activities. It’s both these reports and incoming international student and scholar reports that the recognition and Seal of Excellence honors.
“It’s important to note that this 75-year history of Earlham’s coincides with the entire time Open Doors has been active,” said Adkins.
Founded in 1919, the Institute of International Education conducts an annual census of international students in the U.S. For the first 30 years, IIE and the Committee on Friendly Relations Among Foreign Students carried out this effort jointly. IIE’s first independent publication of the results of the annual census reported on data for the 1948-49 academic year. That publication was renamed the Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange in 1954-55, and since then, Open Doors has had a long history as the comprehensive information resource on international students and scholars in the U.S. and on U.S. students studying abroad.
Since that rebrand, Earlham has been right there collecting data and has always participated.
“This is a report that every program does, so for us to be recognized for excellence for more than seven decades, it demonstrates our commitment to global education across the board,” said Lewis. “This is something that Earlham pays lip service to, but it demonstrates quantitatively our values and commitment.” ■