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For three weeks at the end of the Spring Semester 2022, Stefanie Moore, BS ’97, MS ’07, a professor in Kent State’s School of Media and Journalism, began each morning with a cup of Brazilian coffee. She sipped it in the furnished apartment she was staying at in Curitiba, the capital and largest city in the state of Paraná in southern Brazil.

After getting ready for the day, Moore shared an Uber with a colleague, riding past historical churches and colorful murals during their 15-minute commute to Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná. There, she walked under a replica of ������’s brick arch and along well-manicured gardens to meet 59 Brazilian students eager to learn about social media strategies—and about the United States.

Each semester, as many as 20 Kent State professors travel to Curitiba to teach in the American Academy, a collaboration between the Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná (PUCPR, pronounced Poo-key) and ������. Some teach their classes online from Kent State, which was the only way to collaborate during pandemic travel restrictions.

The American Academy, which launched in July 2018, offers a one-of-a-kind, dual-enrollment program for Brazilian students. For two years, they can study Kent State’s liberal arts curriculum and earn an associate degree without leaving their native Brazil. Kent State professors teach classes in English at the PUCPR campus, and students earn academic credits toward a bachelor’s degree from both universities simultaneously.

As Kent State’s vice president for global education, Marcello Fantoni, PhD, describes the partnership, “It is as if Kent State and PUCPR got together and had a baby. And that’s the American Academy.”

“It’s as if Kent State and PUCPR got together and had a baby. And that’s the American Academy.”

Marcello Fantoni, PhD, vice president for global education

After two years, having earned an Associate of Science degree from Kent State, students have the option to complete a bachelor’s degree at PUCPR or at the Kent Campus, says Valerie Reed, MEd ’15, associate director of international partnerships at Kent State’s Office of Global Education and the American Academy’s interim program coordinator. (She’s also a doctoral student in higher education administration at Kent State.)

So far, 301 students have enrolled in the program, growing from an initial cohort of 15 young men and women. (Currently, 151 students are participating.)

More than160 students have graduated with an associate degree, Reed says, and one—Alvacir Wesley Kalatai Alberti, AS ’20, BS ’22—earned a bachelor’s degree at Kent State in May 2022. Three more earned four-year degrees in December, Reed says, including Mariana Freitas de Macedo, AS ’20, BBA ’22. 

The American Academy’s origin story 

The idea for the American Academy grew from an existing relationship with PUCPR that began in 2012 when the two universities partnered on several programs and student and faculty exchanges. That led to hope for an even deeper relationship, Fantoni says. “We thought, what about exploring the concept of a liberal arts education outside of the United States?”

In America, students may explore diverse classes before settling into coursework centered on a chosen major. But in many other countries, students are asked to select a major before they enter college with no option to change programs after admission.

“We were well aware that for many students, that was a limitation,” says Fantoni. So, he and PUCPR staff members envisioned a solution. Kent State professors would teach a liberal arts curriculum in Curitiba, which Fantoni says is an “absolutely innovative program in Brazil,” one that offers students the “American educational experience at its fullest.”

On March 31, 2016, Kent State and PUCPR formally recognized their elevated relationship as strategic partners with a signing ceremony on the Kent Campus. And two years later, on May 3, 2018, the presidents of the universities formally agreed to form the American Academy in a special ceremony on the Kent Campus. The American Academy began educating students in Curitiba in July 2018.

The program transforms students who enter it, helping them build confidence and mature as they carve their own educational paths.

The program transforms students who enter it, helping them build confidence and mature as they carve their own educational paths.

Although modern liberal arts curriculums allow students to study a much larger range of subjects, they still retain the core goals of traditional liberal arts curricula: to develop well-rounded individuals with general knowledge of a wide range of subjects and with mastery of a range of transferable skills.

, the American Academy’s director in Brazil, says he has watched the program transform students who enter it, helping them build confidence and mature as they carve their own educational paths. Through the academy, “they find their own purpose and they know how to pursue that,” Mussi Augusto explains. “And that’s the main reason we do it.”

Intense education

The American Academy’s semesters look a little different than Kent State’s. The first and second semester, students take six classes, including mandatory College Writing that is spread through 14 weeks, Mussi Augusto says. But most of the classes are taught in three-to-five-week blocks, with students taking only one class at a time.

With that kind of deep dive, assignments also look a little different, Fantoni says. Students don’t write long-form research papers, for example, but otherwise adjustments are “minimal.”

While it’s an intense pace, Mussi Augusto says, it also has many benefits. Not only do the shorter class schedules allow more Kent State professors to teach in Brazil, but students are fully immersed in a single subject at a time—and their grades tend to be higher because of it.

Students are fully immersed in a single subject at a time—and their grades tend to be higher because of it.

“Some of the professors who came to Brazil said, ‘This is the best class I ever taught,’” Mussi Augusto says. “And that’s not because the Brazilian students we selected are better students.” Instead, he thinks the American Academy’s model promotes better learning.

Eager to teach 

For the first year or so, Fantoni says he had to scramble to get professors to join the American Academy’s ranks, because they were unsure about participating. That’s no longer the case. According to Reed, 78 Kent State professors have taught in the program, including online courses.

Stefanie Moore joined the program in spring 2022, teaching a social media strategies course from April 22 to May 11. “I was a little nervous about leaving my family for that long,” she says, “but they were supportive of me going.” And it was a decision she didn’t regret.

She found the students to be “respectful and kind,” and “eager to learn not only about the topic, but about Kent State and America.” They also were happy to share their culture.

Each day, her students would take her to experience a new kind of Brazilian food. “My students would write down things I should ask for,” she says. “They took us to the outdoor farmers’ market and artisan fair in the old city center. It was such a fun experience.”

Mussi Augusto says the unique engagement, even off campus, between Kent State professors and Brazilian students enriches the experience for both groups. “The interaction we see between the faculty members who are teaching [in Brazil] and our students is different from the one that happens at Kent State,” he says. “They are more connected. They exchange more impressions. They go out to lunch together. So, they form different bonds that help the students to see different perspectives and to mature during the process.”

Pathway to the United States 

Once students successfully complete an associate degree at the American Academy, “they have two big choices to make,” Mussi Augusto says. They must choose their major and where they will earn it. Students have the option to finish a bachelor’s degree in Curitiba or in Kent. “They are already enrolled at both institutions so it’s a smooth process,” he says.

Of the more than 300 students who have enrolled in the program 92 have chosen to complete a bachelor’s degree at the Kent Campus.

Of the more than 300 students who have enrolled in the program, 92 have chosen to complete a bachelor’s degree at the Kent Campus, including those who just graduated with an associate degree at PUCPR on Dec. 12, 2022. That’s more than Fantoni says he’d ever imagined would come to the United States. But, in retrospect, he says it makes sense.

“Students may be interested in going abroad, but at the age of 18, they don’t feel confident,” Fantoni says. “They are still young; their English is not good enough. But after two years, studying in English and developing more experience, they are a lot more ready to come to the United States.”

Pandemic pause

The pandemic scrambled some of the American Academy’s best-laid plans. Students scheduled to come to the Kent Campus to pursue a bachelor’s degree in 2020 were asked to pause their travel for a year, although they could continue taking classes online.

Moving the American Academy classes online was the easy part, Fantoni says. “What was not as easy is that doing so was defeating the purpose a bit.” In-person education can be richer and more interactive, he says. “We also saw the American Academy as an opportunity to internationalize our faculty by having them teach all over the world. Instead, they had to teach classes from their living room for a long time.”

After a year and a half, however, the American Academy resumed sending Kent State professors to the PUCPR campus and welcoming Brazilian students to Kent State. “It’s a lot better with the faculty teaching in person,” Fantoni says. “And dozens of Kent State faculty now know how to live abroad, how to teach abroad and want to go again.”

Every June, American Academy students have the option to take their regular courses in Curitiba or to study abroad in Florence, Italy, at Kent State’s Florence Center. “Because of the pandemic, this summer was the first time our Brazilian students came to Florence,” Mussi Augusto says. “It’s a great opportunity for them to live this educational experience in more depth.”

Future of the American Academy

Just as the American Academy has helped its students grow, its creators want the program to grow. “I think the American Academy is a good idea, period,” says Fantoni as he ticks off the program’s advantages for students: It offers them the opportunity to study in English. It gives them a chance to experience American culture before coming to the United States. Its tuition is more affordable than many other study abroad options available to them.

“And it opens their minds,” Fantoni says. So, when it comes to growing the program, “The first thing we need to understand is not only how we replicate it quantitatively, but how we expand it qualitatively. And I think if we can do that, then we can create stronger bridges between international universities.”

He and Mussi Augusto are exploring new university partnerships in Jordan and South Korea. And Fantoni envisions creating a network of American Academies throughout the world: “I think we are outgrowing just one location.” 

Learn more about the American Academy.

Watch a sharing a day in her life while teaching at the Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná in Brazil.

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