Baker instructors awarded Fulbright opportunities for research abroad

Two Baker instructors were recently named recipients of Fulbright awards.

Dr. Catherine Cole, professor for the School of Professional and Graduate Studies, received the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program award to Lithuania.

Lisa Bauman, instructor for the School of Education, received the Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms Program grant.

Cole’s award allows for multiple trips to Lithuania. She will first visit in November 2019, with a tentative visit planned for May through June 2020, and final a trip in March of 2021. Between trips, Cole will continue her proposed research in the United States.

“I will guest lecture and conduct seminar topics on qualitative research and human capital development at ISM University of Management and Economics, located in Vilnius, Lithuania, Cole said. “My research explores Lithuanian entrepreneur perceptions of environmental alignment between initiatives advancing a Lithuanian culture of entrepreneurship and the human capital needs and culture of Lithuanian entrepreneurs.”

Cole will teach her first Baker course, Human Resource Management, on November 4 in the MBA program. Her hope is that through collaboration with ISM faculty, she will gain valuable insight from their MBA program that she can then implement into her teaching at Baker.

Beyond professional reasons, Cole had a personal reason for pursuing a Fulbright award.

“As an independent researcher, I wanted to personally challenge myself by having a highly respected institution, such as Fulbright, evaluate my ability to propose and conduct research internationally,” Cole said. “I selected Lithuania because of their specified desire for expertise and projects oriented towards workforce development and entrepreneurship. I am collaborating with ISM based on the recommendation of a Lithuanian Fulbright alum conducting research in Lithuania.”

Bauman is one of 76 U.S. citizens who will travel abroad through the Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms (Fulbright TGC) in 2019-2020.

“Fulbright TGC provides an online course that I am taking right now in how to teach Global Citizenship, then in January I will go to D.C. for a symposium with the other Fulbright teachers,” Bauman said. “Sometime in between now and then I will find out the country I will visit and work with educators to implement and design global educational projects.”

Bauman has taught as an adjunct for the Master of Arts in Education program since 2014. She has taught various courses and designed and teaches one of the program’s diversity concentration courses, Fostering Conscientious, Courageous Global Citizens.

She is excited to take what she will learn and implement it into her diversity concentration course.

“I decided to apply for this opportunity because I knew that it would be a perfect way to learn more about teaching global citizenship effectively,” Bauman said. “As an instructor at Baker, I have had the opportunity to teach my semester course to educators from all over Kansas who want to implement global citizenship in their schools and need the tools in order to do it. I have already learned so much in the three weeks of my online course that I am excited to include for the teachers that I will teach in my Baker course in 2020.”

Katie Uhlenhake, assistant dean for the School of Education and School of Professional and Graduate Studies, is thrilled with the new experiences the two faculty members will bring to the classroom.

“I am happy and excited about the opportunity instructors Bauman and Cole received from Fulbright,” she said. “Their research will not only contribute to their respective fields but also improve the education community at Baker University. These experiences are great examples of the expertise our faculty bring to the classroom.”