CPaCE News

PHOTO: The German-American International Business Workshop on campus at CSULB in 2018

For 25 years, the partnership between California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) and Germany’s Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW Hamburg) has blossomed into a comprehensive series of reciprocal semester exchanges, short-term programs, faculty collaborations, joint workshops, and even short films. From modest beginnings on a small scale of faculty connections in one department, the partnership has transformed into a dynamic, institution-wide collaboration focusing on multidisciplinary, cross-college collaborations and high-impact learning environments.

Teams of CSULB and HAW Hamburg faculty have developed programs in international business, film, design, social work, and much more. The cooperation between HAW Hamburg and California State University, Long Beach (CSULB), was chosen for the 2017 NAFSA Association of International Educators publication “Best Practice Case Studies in International Partnership Development.”

PHOTO: CSULB-HAW Brand Design Workshop lecture in 2019

The CSULB-HAW partnership began in 1996, when faculty from both institutions established a biannual International Business workshop. The “HAW Goes USA” initiative in 2008 launched a new agreement between the universities that expanded into additional academic areas, and made opportunities more affordable for a wider student demographic through travel stipends for students. In 2012, HAW Hamburg committed additional resources and CSULB began developing more faculty-led short-term programs.

“This 2020-21 academic year, our collaboration has been virtual,” said Sharon Olson, Director of Study Abroad at CSULB. “While some collaborations with Hamburg have been on hold this year, we have been moving forward with plans.”

PHOTO: CSULB-HAW joint Film Workshop in Long Beach, February 2017

Despite the past year’s travel restrictions, several programs were able to continue online. In November 2020, a three-day online film workshop between the two schools brought 17 students together on Zoom. Led by acclaimed filmmakers Cassis B. Staudt and Patrick Scott, with HAW Hamburg dramaturgy professor Wolfgang Willaschek and CSULB film instructor Kent Hayward, teams of students recorded short clips of personal stories, using only what was available to them at home. Each team then edited another team’s stories to create the narrative of a short film, “Carrying the Torch,” which visually portrayed a character overcoming an obstacle. A second online film workshop took place in June 2021. The growing film exchange, originally established in 2014, recently received a further four years of funding from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) to keep it thriving through 2025.

A different virtual connection was established with the continuation of the German-American International Business Workshop, which began in 1996. With an infusion of new grant funding from the DAAD, it will deepen with further semester exchanges and online learning formats planned through 2023. This year, the workshop included 43 participants from CSULB and HAW Hamburg, as well as Spain’s Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Universidad de Cantabria Santander.

“We expanded the collaboration to include a couple more schools,” said Dr. Ming Chen, CSULB Associate Professor in International Business. “Students were given the opportunity to work in mixed teams on a research project in which they analyzed the competitiveness of four ports across three countries. Industrial experts across three countries were invited to give seminars.”
   
Looking ahead, 2022 will bring new summer school programs for Social Work and Film. Led by CSULB professor Nancy Meyer-Adams and featuring faculty from both universities, master’s degree students will spend a week each in Hamburg and Berlin, gaining insights into current social work topics in the field of migration and refugee policies. Meanwhile, CSULB lecturer Bonnie Blackburn will teach “Theory of Fiction & Film” as a modular course with online networking opportunities for students in Hamburg and Long Beach.

“CSULB is our most comprehensive strategic partner in the U.S., and the strong ties between the universities have meant that the connections are still going strong despite the pandemic,” said Ingrid Weatherall, Head of “HAW Goes USA” at HAW Hamburg. “The cooperation thrives through student and faculty exchange when things are normal. We’re excited to be sending Hamburg students to Long Beach in Fall 2021, and hope to be welcoming CSULB students and faculty back to Hamburg in 2022.”