ARAMFO Educational Foundation
E
stablished by a group of
college professors, ARAMFO
Educational Foundation
was started to specifically
construct global faculty-led travel
courses to facilitate multicultural
education. ARAMFO has a goal
to create a new generation of
ambassadors who represent their
homelands in safe, academic
settings. Another ARAMFO
goal is to help individual faculty
and students increase their
understanding and tolerance of
other cultures by engaging in
international interactions through
an educational context, and
broadening their social horizons,
through a group experience.
It is our goal that each student can
speak freely about modern and
historical issues on each of our
trips so that students will be able
to better evaluate the region and
culture they visit.
Mission Statement
It is the mission of the ARAMFO
Educational Foundation to
enhance progressive intercultural
opportunities and to globally
facilitate multicultural education.
We strive to help individuals
increase their understanding
and tolerance of other cultures
by engaging in international
relations and broadening their
social horizons.
Faculty-Led Travel Courses
ARAMFO Educational Foundation
was founded to facilitate study
abroad by offering the opportunity
for professors to take students on
Faculty-Led travel programs to
exercise their respective disciplines
in a real world context. The
ARAMFO Educational Foundation
continues to facilitate short-term
study abroad courses, around the
world, which incorporate both
academia and multiculturalism.
Professors that lead a course
abroad have the freedom to
design their own syllabus and
work with the ARAMFO team
to customize the trip for their
academic requirements.
Dear Reader,
It is with tremendous pleasure that I
welcome all people who work in the
field of study abroad programs to read
the magazine of ARAMFO Educational
Foundation.
I would like to extend a very warm
welcome to the study abroad
coordinators and directors, faculty,
and graduate students that have taken
an interest in this magazine. I would
also like to take this opportunity to
sincerely thank our authors, editors, and
anonymous reviewers, all of whom have
sacrificed a great amount of time and
energy to contribute to the success of
this magazine. I am especially grateful
to Professor Vipin Gupta, the American
Council of Education Fellow 2015-16 and
Associate Dean and Co-Director, Global
Management Center at California State
University - San Bernardino, for writing
a very special article that enhances our
understanding of the challenges and
obstacles that faculty-led travel courses
might face.
The mission that birthed the ARAMFO
Educational Foundation started several
years ago with a sincere belief in the
2 I
importance of experiencing the world
firsthand and exploring different
cultures. It is important that American
students understand that there is
no one standard culture, and that
they comprehend that people have
similarities and differences, not for
better or for worse. In the end, every
culture is unique and shares a part in
forming the cultural landscape that
we live in.
As a professor at several national and
international universities, I taught many
courses in Psychology that were related
to accepting different cultures. The idea
of cultural standardization dominates
the minds of American students. This,
paired with the continued evaluation
of other cultures based on singlesided American standards, has been
one of the major issues that stands
between American students and
other cultures. The need for founding
a specific foundation that focused
heavily on faculty-led travel courses
was evidently long overdue. Professors
needed to take their students beyond
the classroom to acquire that better
understanding of other cultures.
A R A M F O E D U C AT I O N A L F O U N DAT I O N
I
2016
The multitude of professors and
professionals that work alongside
ARAMFO have taken notice of our
sincere dedication to education. We
strive to organize the educational facets
of each travel course so that students
can fully comprehend the culture of
the host country. To best achieve this,
we organize meetings with the cultural
and economic attachés in the American
Embassy for our groups so they can
better understand the ties between the
USA and the country they visit. We also
arrange the organization and university
visits so that they can get a feel for
education and teaching in a global, wellfounded context.
I leave you with my hope that you will
be able to take more positive steps
toward encouraging your professors
to collaborate with ARAMFO and offer
more successful faculty-led travel
programs that ensure the lasting
impact of these courses on their
students and professors alike.
Sincerest of wishes and best of luck.
Dr. Abeer Ibrahim
Director, ARAMFO Educational Foundation
http://www.aramfo.org/