ssociate Provost for Global Learning Jason Scorza is discussing ways to further implement the University’s global mission when the phone rings. It could be President J. Michael Adams seeking an update about studyabroad programs or it could be a U.N. ambassador talking about an upcoming visit, but this time it’s an FDU student struggling to improve his grades. For Scorza that call is just as important if not more so than the other possibilities, and he immediately drops what he’s doing to focus on the student. “The high-profile activities of the University are tremendously important, but I continue to be most motivated by helping students take advantage of their opportunities.”

A professor of philosophy and political science, Scorza teaches fewer courses since he became an associate provost in 2008. Still, he has more than ample opportunities to impact students. His office is responsible for a wide range of key initiatives, from Global Virtual Faculty™ to the Global Issues Gateway Web site, and from study-abroad offerings to U.N.-related programs. “Our goal is to develop programs that allow faculty to internationalize the curriculum and add a global dimension for our students,” he says.

After earning his PhD in political philosophy from Princeton University, Scorza joined the University in 1999, the same time Adams was introduced as the new president. He says he instantly related to FDU’s down-to-earth atmosphere and the vibrant diversity of the community. He also applauded Adams’ efforts to renew the emphasis on global learning. “When I learned about the University’s heritage and founding mission, I thought it made a lot of sense to recapture that spirit and energy. The global mission was inspiring to me.”

Scorza was teaching introductory political science courses when he was asked to help create a new Core course that would introduce students to global issues and also kick-off the nation’s first distance-learning requirement. The course, The Global Challenge, received the Instructional Technology Council (ITC ) award for outstanding online course. And, Scorza was later honored with the Award for Excellence in Online Teaching and Learning from the Sloan Consortium for his work designing The Global Challenge and another online course, The Life of the Mind.

Scorza gravitated toward administrative roles, as a school director and later as associate provost for global learning. “It’s very easy to sit on the sidelines and complain. I wanted to help improve things I had concerns about.” To nurture his administrative skills, he applied for and won an ACE (American Council on Education) Fellowship. He was one of only 39 Fellows selected nationwide for the program, which places promising senior faculty in training opportunities at other institutions.

As he was becoming more involved in the University’s global mission, Scorza’s own research interests were likewise moving globally. His focus on citizenship and its related rights, responsibilities and competencies expanded to include the notion of global citizenship. Following the 2007 publication of Strong Liberalism: Habits of Mind for Democratic Citizenship, he is now immersed in two other book projects. The first, tentatively titled Global Education and the American Dream, explores how global learning has often been tied to American ideology. The second, The Cosmopolitans, is a philosophical portrait of cosmopolitans from Diogenes to current thinkers like Kwame Anthony Appiah and Martha Nussbaum.

His research in the field of global learning, Scorza says, reveals two models. The first is marketplace oriented. “This model concentrates on competition and success in the global economy,” he says. The second model is civic oriented, he adds, and “focuses on how to enjoy one’s rights and develop the competencies to fulfill one’s responsibilities in a global community. That is the approach that drives my work.”

Scorza says his goal is to help ensure that every FDU student will graduate having developed key competencies — including communication skills, critical thinking, collaborative ability, ethical analysis and cultural understanding — that are needed for success in both the global economy and the global community. “Our mission is distinctive but also flexible enough to serve the needs of many different students who want to make a difference in their world in many different ways.”

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Khyati Joshi | Peter Woolley

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