CILMAR announces two Vision Award winners

The Center for Intercultural Learning, Mentorship, Assessment and Research (CILMAR) has chosen the 2021 recipients of its Vision Award. The honorees are Laura Starr, director for experiential learning and student success in the College of Science, and Virginia Cabrera, assistant director of orientation programs for Student Success Programs.

“The vision of CILMAR is an inclusive and interculturally proficient Purdue community that moves the world forward," says CILMAR director Kris Acheson-Clair. "Our staff strives to support intercultural learning, inclusive teaching, and belongingness across campus, especially with innovations in the curriculum and co-curriculum. Each year as we celebrate the history of our center, we pause to honor visionaries whose collaborative efforts make our mission possible. These Boilermakers not only share our vision, they embody it in all that they do.”

According to her nominators, Starr was chosen for her long-term efforts with innovative study abroad and co-curricular programs in the College of Science, as well as more recent success incorporating intercultural learning and assessment into the new Learn-to-Be first-year course. Acheson-Clair said that Starr’s course serves as a model of intercultural learning and assessment for other colleges wanting to embed intercultural learning into their curricula.

Starr has been recognized for her work with innovative study abroad programs such as Science, Invention and Culture in Spain and Morocco and peer learning opportunities such as the Global Science Partnerships Learning Community and the Global Dialogues group she mentors. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she moved programs online and was even able to expand her reach by embedding virtual intercultural learning modules and the Beliefs, Events and Values Inventory into the first-year science courses this past year.

Cabrera was chosen for her long-term commitment to CILMAR's mission as well as large-scale impact. Several years ago, Cabrera began to integrate formative assessment and personal development plans using the Intercultural Development Inventory into Boiler Gold Rush leader training.

“In higher education, we tend to focus on the classroom more so than the important ways that Student Success and Student Life contribute to the belongingness and skill-building of the campus community,” said Acheson-Clair. “The award committee wanted to honor Cabrera's accomplishments in this area, but even more so to acknowledge her passion and belief in the possibility of a more inclusive and interculturally competent Purdue.”

Her nominators noted that Cabrera has exercised responsiveness to times that challenge students' resilience. In the past year, she organized online focus groups and spaces where more than 700 students reflected on their identities and reacted to current events such as the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and many others. Meanwhile, her work embedding intercultural learning and assessment at all levels of support programs for incoming students continues despite the move to virtual spaces for many peer interactions. Cabrera also has exhibited visionary leadership within the Steps to Leaps program by pursuing and then sharing new expertise.