Jersey City, N.J. – Saint Peter’s College has joined forces with more than two dozen New Jersey higher education institutions to help recruit international students to study in the Garden State. The main goal of Study New Jersey, a federal program which officially launched last month and includes two- and four-year public and private institutions as well as training institutes, is to increase diversity on campuses and generate additional revenue.
“Not only does Study New Jersey help to provide opportunities for new international students to study here in the United States, it enables us to further diversify our ethnically rich community, while allowing our current students to be exposed to a variety of cultures in the classroom and through extracurricular activities,” said Eugene J. Cornacchia, Ph.D., president of Saint Peter’s College. “New Jersey is an ideal location for international students, a stone’s throw away from New York — the Melting Pot of the country — and one of the top job markets in the states.”
During the 2008-09 academic year, New Jersey increased its international student population by 7.4 percent with 14,783 international students enrolled at institutions in New Jersey. Study New Jersey members would like to see these numbers grow on their campuses. They are working with the U.S. Commercial Service, the trade promotion arm of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration, to help them move forward. The federal entity works with similar initiatives in Illinois, Oregon, Washington and other states.
The U.S. Commercial Service is involved in promoting U.S. exports, and education plays an important role in the economy as a service export, according to Joel Reynoso, director of the service’s local New Jersey office. Reynoso says New Jersey competes well internationally due to geography and the state’s strong emphasis on the sciences.
The Study New Jersey website features a list of the member institutions and links to their websites. It also includes information on visas, the state’s demographics, scenic attractions and available degrees, along with testimonials by international students. Future plans include translating the website into several languages. In addition, information about the state’s higher education institutions will be made available at American embassies and consulates around the world, according to Reynoso.
This is not the first time Saint Peter’s has focused on international studies in 2010. Earlier this year, the College partnered with Sogang University to expand study abroad opportunities. Sogang University, located in Seoul, Korea, is the only Jesuit university in South Korea.
In its Best Colleges 2011 guide, U.S. News & World Report ranked Saint Peter’s College first among the private colleges throughout New Jersey and the New York metropolitan area in the Least Debt category, as part of the Regional Universities North division. The College was also ranked first among 159 institutions of higher education in the Racial Diversity category and holds a leading spot for Economic Diversity; the College was also among other New Jersey colleges and universities to be included in the Tier 1 group for best overall institution of higher education.
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Saint Peter’s College, inspired by its Jesuit, Catholic identity, commitment to individual attention and grounding in the liberal arts, educates a diverse community of learners in undergraduate, graduate and professional programs to excel intellectually, lead ethically, serve compassionately and promote justice in our ever-changing urban and global environment.
Contact:
Sarah Malinowski
(201) 761-6239
smalinowski@spc.edu