Indiana State University Newsroom

Two faculty and 18 soon-to-be graduates from a police academy in Hangzhou, China, developed a global perspective of the criminal justice system at Indiana State University in August.

The students, who were connected with Indiana State through the Center for Global Engagement, toured the university in order to learn about an American university and about graduate programs.

"Many times we are so used to teaching concepts to domestic students who have a foundation and a conceptual understanding of the criminal justice system and policing, but when students from other cultures come in they have a very different understanding based on their own life experience," said Zachariah Mathew, associate director for the Center for Global Engagement. "This kind of experience helps faculty understand international students and their needs when it comes to teaching and learning, and it helps us create a path to global awareness through a classroom subject."

A few weeks after Lisa Decker, an Indiana State associate professor in the department of criminology and criminal justice, returned from leading a group of students to Croatia this summer, she was back on campus coordinating the department of criminology and criminal justice's programming for Chinese police academy student.

"This visit allowed us to introduce police academy students to Indiana State and our criminology program since they are in a similar program in China," Decker said.

Decker, who leads the criminology department's trips to Croatia and London, highly encourages study abroad and said faculty-led trips offer non-experienced student travelers a valuable opportunity to get their feet wet with the guidance.

"I've taken students abroad who have never been on a plane," she said. "For a student to get on a plane and go to a country where the primary language isn't English, it helps them build confidence and lets them know they can do anything. Yes, it's a faculty-led experience but once they get out there and see that it is doable, the sky is the limit."

Chinese police academy students were in the second international group to visit campus over the summer. Such international visits open up Indiana State to a new market of students.

"China is a place where rankings are a big factor in where students will attend college, so if an institution doesn't meet the standards of whatever their personal rankings are than we need an opportunity like this for international students to see what we have to offer," Mathew said. "Once the students were here, they were amazed by our facilities and they got a better image of the institution and all it has to offer."

Photo: https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Media-Services/Media-Arts-and-Sciences/Criminology-Visit-2017/i-dRMTRgM/0/004a3243/XL/August%2004%2C%202017%20criminology%202296-XL.jpg - Indiana State University Associate Professor of Criminology Lisa Decker, far right, assists a group of international students from a Chinese police academy as they work in a criminology lab during their visit to Indiana State in August.

Photo: https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Media-Services/Media-Arts-and-Sciences/Criminology-Visit-2017/i-nLKtGKk/0/737da335/XL/August%2004%2C%202017%20criminology%202314-XL.jpg - Indiana State University Associate Professor of Criminology Lisa Decker, far right, assists a group of international students from a Chinese police academy as they work in a criminology lab during their visit to Indiana State in August.

Writer: Betsy Simon, media relations assistant director, Office of Communications and Marketing, Indiana State University, 812-237-7972 or betsy.simon@indstate.edu