The Fulbright Specialist Program offers universities the opportunity to invite US professionals to disseminate their experience through university-initiated projects. Project activities may include: teaching or training; curriculum or teaching materials development, institutional planning, capacity building of faculty, administration or staff; the delivery of academic seminars or courses as well as the evaluation of study programs and institutions.
As part of the appeal of the US Embassy to Moldova, ULIM submitted requests for support and received approval for a project that will be carried out with the support of Prof. Judithanne Scourfield McLauchlan from the University of South Florida (USF), who will be there for three weeks at Free International University of Moldova, during which she will share her experience with ULIM teachers and students ( https://drive.google.com/…/1L5rP5kC5eEVxr2vneeWVOuBP94n… ).
In this context, on September 14, 2023, the American professor had a welcome meeting, together with representatives of the US Embassy to Chisinau, Mr. Bradley McGuire, Public Diplomacy Officer, with Rector ULIM, Associate Professor, PhD Ilian Galben, Vice-Rector for International Relations, Valentina Ciumacenco and Elena Prus, Vice-Rector for Science.
In his welcome message, the Rector of ULIM expressed his pleasure and admiration to see Ms. Judithanne Scourfield McLauchlan again and appreciated the fruitful partnership established for more than a decade between ULIM and the University of South Florida, which started in 2010 hosting for the first time Prof. Judithanne Scourfield McLauchlan as a Fulbright Scholar and have evolved with many other successful academic initiatives and projects.
“The return of Mrs. Judithanne Scourfield McLauchlan justifies, repeatedly, the role of the Fulbright program to intensify mutual understanding through cultural and educational exchanges and to establish durable, cooperative and friendly relations between institutions and participants”, emphasized the vice-rector for international relations ULIM , Valentina Ciumacenco, PhD.
In this context, the success of the joint comparative legal research project “Civil liberties in the USA and in Europe: a comparison of the cases decided by SCOTUS and ECDO”, carried out online in the academic year 2022-2023, under the coordination of Prof. Judithanne Scourfield McLauchlan, was highlighted. Thus, ULIM and USF students had the opportunity to share the results of their joint research in several events: the Florida Political Science Association Conference, the University of South Florida Student Science Symposium and the International Student Science Symposium, with the title “Creating Classrooms and Communities for Global Awareness” organized on April 20, 2023 within ULIM, in partnership with the University of South Florida.
On his turn, the Embassy representative, highly appreciated the bilateral cooperation and thanked the management of ULIM for the effective partnership and pointed out the elements of the activity program to be implemented in ULIM by the scholarship holder, in the perspective of strengthening mutually beneficial collaboration relations.
Prof. Judithanne S. McLauchlan thanked the ULIM hosts for the cordial welcome and the joy of returning to the Republic of Moldova in order to transfer knowledge and develop skills through the projects approved by the US State Department.
For more details about the vast experience of Prof. Judithanne S. McLauchlan, but also about the joint projects carried out between ULIM and USF, see: https://www.usf.edu/…/school…/people/jmclauchlan.aspx/
