James Schnell
Professor, Ohio Dominican College
Field: Communications and Journalism
Host: Royal University of Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Dates: March 10 – 30, 2005; December 27, 2005 – January 16, 2006
 
The Fulbright Specialist Program provided me with a wonderful opportunity to invigorate my work at my home institution by applying my expertise at another school in another culture. I had never been to Cambodia before and working at the Royal University of Phnom Penh, the largest and oldest university in Cambodia, was personally and professionally rewarding.

I received a six-week grant that I divided into two separate three-week visits. The first trip gave me a chance to get acquainted with the Department of Media and Communication/Cambodia Communication Institute at the

University, work with students and faculty and assess how I could best make lasting contributions. I followed this with a second trip, 10 months later, and used the intervening months to collect materials that helped with enhancements on my second trip.

The purpose of the grant was to support the Department of Media and Communication/Cambodia Communication Institute in developing an appropriate educational program for the education and training of future Cambodian journalists. More specifically, I focused on development and improvement of curriculum for the undergraduate program and developed teaching materials in communication theory, human resource management, introduction to research methodology and related areas.
 
My work at the university involved presenting lectures, participating in seminars, conducting needs assessments, assisting with faculty development, encouraging curriculum development and other matters linked to my areas of expertise. I created an 11-page document entitled, “Manual for Organization of Research Papers, Rules for Writing Style & Preparation of Oral Presentations." I also created a small reference library consisted of over 60 new (state of the art) books that I brought as a donation to their program. This collection consisting of books dealing with telecommunication, journalism, mass media, public relations, communication research, human resource management and related areas.    

Part of the challenge of this assignment was finding creative ways to achieve my objectives. The mail system in Cambodia was unreliable so I needed to personally bring the books with me. On my second trip I was permitted 120 pounds of luggage and 105 pounds of it were books! Getting the books to them was important as I saw this collection as being a foundation that they could build upon in a variety of ways using their own initiative.

This Fulbright grant gave me a great opportunity to re-think much of what I do and how I do it at my home institution. Working with colleagues and students in my discipline, but within another cultural context (especially one that is quickly changing), forced me to revisit many of the assumptions I have regarding my academic discipline and how I work within that discipline. It is an invigorating experience that will have a lasting impact on my teaching and research at my home institution. The opportunity to make new friends and establish collegial relationships in another culture is always fulfilling, professionally and personally.

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