Michele Justice on a rope bridge in Danum Valley, Sabah, Malaysia
10 Questions With… Michele Justice, director of the OSU Office of Global Opportunities (OSU GO) with the Division of Academic Affairs.
How did you originally get involved in working with international programs?
Looking back, my line of work seems innate to me. My father was in the Foreign Service, so we moved to a new country every few years – Thailand, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, India. I studied abroad as an undergrad (in Scotland and Wales) and completed my graduate degree in England, during which my field work was in Egypt. So international education is kind of baked into my life and outlook. When I returned to the U.S. after graduate school, I started a job in international student advising and taught archaeology and art history at a small liberal arts college. There was no formal study abroad office, so they asked me to take that on. And here I am today.
What makes you passionate about higher education?
In one word: students. I have great hope for the future because I have great faith in our students. I find them to be thoughtful, optimistic and determined. And those whom I and my colleagues in Global Opportunities work with are curious about the world and are seeking to make a difference. We help them on the road to making that a reality. Every once in a while, a student will come into my office after a program abroad and say, “Thank you – the experience I had abroad changed my life. I wouldn’t have done it on my own.” Which is a pretty awesome reward for the work that the OSU Global Opportunities team does.
What advice would you give to the younger version of yourself who was just starting college?
My younger self followed her inclinations, which worked out pretty well on the whole. I migrated through wildlife and fisheries biology, English, history, medieval studies and finally majored in classics. I started in ancient languages (Latin and Greek), but enjoyed archaeology and history more, which is how I wound up studying Graeco-Roman Egypt for my graduate degree. I wasn’t thinking too much about a specific career at that time, but I feel that the education I received set me up well for the future.
In what ways does an international experience enhance learning, both for students and faculty?
Education abroad is immersive learning. Whether you are standing in a Roman piazza looking at a statue or in a tropical jungle looking at an orangutan, you’re not only seeing that specific thing; you are soaking in all of the cultural and natural contexts that gave rise to it and sustain it. Through programs abroad, students learn from academics, but also from community members, private sector innovators, artists, and many others who have local and global impacts. They’re making all sorts of mental connections in a way that’s very powerful. In field courses and internships, students put what they’ve learned in the classroom into practice in a new environment; they build new skills and many find a career direction in the process. And of course, students build lifelong connections, personal and professional.
For faculty, leading a study abroad program is a chance to connect with students as a teacher, but also as a mentor and traveling companion. When you spend two or three weeks traveling with students, you get to know them as complex and rich human beings, which is very rewarding. And you get to help open the world to new eyes. They also get to take a break from the other demands of research and administration, and just teach and learn simultaneously, which many have told me is very welcome.
What would you say to a parent who views international education as a luxury rather than a practical means of attaining a quality education?
I’d say that students are living in a world that is ever more interconnected, and so learning to operate successfully in the global workplace is a necessity, not a luxury. When they study or intern abroad, students learn to interact with and value other mindsets, solve problems across cultural differences, and handle themselves in unfamiliar situations. Those are very practical and transferrable skills.
From almost every student who goes abroad, we hear some version of this: “This is the best thing I’ve done in college. I learned not only about the world, I learned about myself – that I’m independent, resilient and more confident than I was before I went.” Which I think is what we all want for our students. On a practical note, many of our opportunities carry about the same cost as studying here on campus, and fulfill degree requirements, so education abroad IS an integral part of attaining that quality education.
What was your favorite course in college?
I’m a generalist – lots of things interest me, and college was like an intellectual candy store. I took a great series of courses in European intellectual history, which brought together history, literature, music, philosophy and the visual arts in a very thought-provoking way. When I studied abroad, I took a year-long archaeology course in Wales that involved a lot of tromping around stone age burial mounds and iron age hillforts. That was a lot of fun, and was my earliest encounter with how impactful experiential learning can be.
How does international education tie in with OSU’s Strategic Plan?
The Prosperity Widely Shared vision focuses on building research excellence in key areas, to solve pressing global challenges in innovative and transdisciplinary ways; international education provides students not only with first-hand experience of those challenges, it introduces them to individuals and communities who are contributing to solutions. It builds a sense of global citizenship and their own capacity to make a difference. Our students of today are our change agents of tomorrow, so it’s important that we give them as full an educational experience as possible.
Research shows that students who have an international experience during their college careers have higher graduation rates than their peers, which ties directly to our Every Student Graduates goal; they also achieve higher GPAs and are more likely to stay connected to their alma mater as alumni.
Do you have a favorite anecdote from a student or faculty member who returned from studying or working abroad that you could share?
I have many, but one that stands out for me was a chemistry student who interned in Malaysian Borneo in 2022. She worked on a project developing a simple citizen science tool for evaluating soil health that could be used by rural communities. I asked her how her time there had been. She shared the rough parts – bugs, intense heat and humidity, long days in the field. “But you know what?” she said. “It doesn’t matter, you know why? Because I was saving the @#$& rainforest!!!” And she was. Her incredible sense of purpose and delight at making a difference stays with me.
If you could teleport yourself to one location in the world right now, where would it be and why?
Another tough one – I’m tempted to answer with somewhere I haven’t been yet that I’d like to go – South Africa, Eastern Europe, Central Asia. But I think I’ll go with the tug on my heart – I spent all of my high school years in New Delhi, India, and I haven’t been back since. I would love to go back to India – specifically to the northwestern states of Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh, and the desert of Rajasthan. Those places live in my fondest memories. I’ll get back there someday!
What is your favorite non-academic pursuit or passion?
Well, it’s probably not surprising that I love to travel. More than anything, I love to wander somewhere new. But I have another major passion – I am a very keen gardener. I’d love to tell you that I grow tons of organic produce (I do a bit of that), but honestly, I just really like to grow flowers. For me, gardening is a way to create art in four dimensions, with a good bit of science thrown in. I spend a lot of my free time on the weekends working in my garden – it keeps me rooted (pun intended).
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