SALISBURY — To expand international education opportunities for American students, the U.S. Department of State announced earlier this week that Livingstone College was among 37 grant recipients of nearly $1.3 million awarded to U.S. colleges and universities through the 2024 Increase and Diversify Education Abroad for U.S. Students (IDEAS) Program grant competition.

IDEAS grants enable higher education institutions to create and expand study abroad programs that align with U.S. foreign policy goals and provide international experience for U.S. students to develop new knowledge and skills that will serve their future careers and capacity for leadership. The recipients are U.S. public and private colleges and universities (including 10 community colleges and 14 minority-serving institutions), located across the country in 24 U.S. states and Washington, D.C.

The IDEAS grants will support the development of new international partnerships and programs, training of faculty and staff, creation of resources to engage students in study abroad, and the development of virtual and hybrid exchanges. These grants will support programming to 36 destinations, across all world regions, for example in Botswana, Croatia, Indonesia, Nepal, Tunisia and Uruguay. Two consortium grants were awarded to U.S. institutions collaborating to build study abroad capacity, programs, and resources at U.S. community colleges to prepare U.S. students for careers in STEM, technical, and/or vocational fields in in support of the bipartisan 2022 CHIPS and Science Act.

Along with Livingstone College, the 2024 IDEAS grantees are: Alamo Colleges District, Texas; Borough of Manhattan Community College – City University of New York, New York; Colorado Mountain College, Colorado; Community College of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Coppin State University, Maryland; Fort Valley State University, Georgia; Guilford Technical Community College; Highline College, Washington; Iona University, New York; Iowa State University, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Iowa; Joliet Junior College, Illinois; Kentucky State University, Kentucky; Kirkwood Community College, Iowa; Marshall University, West Virginia; Miami Dade College, Florida; Miami University, Ohio; Northern Kentucky University, Kentucky; Northern Michigan University, Michigan; Oregon State University, Oregon; Polk State College, Florida; Shippensburg University, Pennsylvania; Snow College, Utah; Southern Utah University, Utah; State University of New York at Oswego, New York; University of Dayton, Ohio; University of Georgia, Georgia; University of Maryland College Park, Maryland; University of Missouri, Missouri; University of Nebraska Omaha, Nebraska; University of North Texas at Dallas, Texas; University of South Florida, Florida; University of Tennessee, Tennessee; University of the District of Columbia, DC; University of Tulsa, Oklahoma; University of Wyoming, Wyoming; and Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Maryland.

Receiving the consortium grants are the State University of New York at Oswego (partnered with Monroe Community College) and Marshall University in West Virginia (partnered with BridgeValley Community and Technical College).