On May 25, the Board of Trustees approved the establishment of community benefit company offices to be located in Rwanda, Africa. Now, the Office of Global Education said the company will be operational by fall 2022.

The community benefit company will serve not only as an outlet for recruitment but will also help build a relationship with local governments in the sub-Saharan states of Africa. The offices will help facilitate study abroad opportunities in Africa for Kent State students, according to the Office of Global Education.

The new center will be hosted by the University of Rwanda, which has already provided the office space needed to facilitate operations. The office will function as a liaison for Kent State and the University of Rwanda.

Marcello Fantoni, vice president for global education, has been one of the driving forces of the project.

“The offices should be established and fully functional at the very latest by September of 2022,” he said.

With existing international recruitment programs in New Delhi, India; Florence, Italy; and Geneva, Switzerland, Fantoni said the Rwanda center will differ.

“It is different because the plan is to do a lot more things there; it’s a center, not a program,” he said.

The placement of the office is intended to serve as an effort to expand the locations in which Kent students can study abroad.

Fantoni said the university wants, “to have a very diverse population of students in Kent in addition to creating study abroad opportunities.”

Staff will consist of established individuals from Rwanda who are familiar with the area and can speak all of the three different languages: English, French and Kinyarwanda. For faculty, Kent State professors will be employed as well as going back and forth from Kent to Rwanda, based on academic projects and needs.

A professor from the University of Rwanda will be traveling to Kent State for three months during the fall semester, and two professors from the Stark campus will be traveling to Rwanda in July. This exchange of representatives will help build relationships on both campuses and continue throughout the academic year and years to come, Fantoni said.

The Office of Global Education is already making plans for where to go next.

“Our next center will be located in Chemin, Vietnam,” Fantoni said.

There is no timetable as of now for when this center will be established.

“About 70% of students that study abroad go to Europe,” Fantoni said. “At Kent, we think there is a much bigger world than just Europe, and our goal is to create opportunities for our students to experience all the different parts of our global world. All we need now is to buy the furniture.”

Vivien Starcher is a reporter. Contact her at [email protected].