University News

ATLANTIS Program Connecting Students from U.S., France & Sweden

May 7, 2007

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MACOMB, IL -- With the support of Western Illinois University and a nearly $700,000 U.S. Department of Education Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE) grant, one WIU-Quad Cities professor is bringing students from Macomb, Chicago, France and Sweden together.

Douglas Druckenmiller, WIU assistant professor of information management and decision sciences, helped to create the Action for Transatlantic Links and Academic Networks for Training and Integrated Studies (ATLANTIS). The program is designed for six junior students from WIU to spend Fall 2007 at Ecole de Commerce Europeenne (ECE) in Lyon, France and Spring 2008 at Linkoping University (LiU) in Linkoping, Sweden. The students will have the opportunity to receive an undergraduate degree from one of those universities.

"Our plan is for ATLANTIS to build personal and institutional partnerships that are sustainable over the long term," Druckenmiller said.

According to Druckenmiller, the highly experimental program will attempt to promote mutual understanding between European and American students while improving the quality of human resource in those communities by helping individuals acquire skills to meet the challenges of the global, knowledge-based economy.

With the grant funds, ATLANTIS will provide each student approximately $1,200 per month to cover travel and living expenses while studying in Europe. Because regular tuition is paid to WIU, students will be eligible for financial aid.

Applications are still being accepted for next fall; however, the selection committee will make their final decisions at the end of the term. Interested students should contact Druckenmiller at 309/298-948; Chris Ramsey, College of Business and Science adviser, at 309/298-1619; Carol Fimmen, director of Global Education, at 309/298-2924; or Bridget Cary, assistant director of the Center for International Studies, at 309/298-2501.

In addition to the six Western students, six students from each of the following universities will also participate in the program: ECE, LiU and DePaul University's School of Computer Science, Telecommunications and Information Systems. U.S. students will have the opportunity to receive not only undergraduate degrees from their home university, but also a European undergraduate degree in international marketing or international finance from ECE or LiU. European students have the opportunity to receive undergraduate degrees from their home university, as well as Western or DePaul.

Representatives from DePaul, ECE and LiU will visit the WIU-Macomb campus Wednesday, May 9 to discuss details of the ATLANTIS program and participate in a campus tour.

"I would like to give my personal thanks for everyone's support and assistance in developing this project," Druckenmiller said. "This has been a whole university effort and will no doubt be successful because of the teamwork."

For more information, contact Druckenmiller at DA-Druckenmiller@wiu.edu or 309/762-9481.



Posted By: University Communications (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
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