Richmond, VA (February 20, 2019) — Stephanie Tignor, director of education abroad recently attended the Institute of International Education's Summit 2019 to accept the IIE Seal of Excellence at the "Power of International Education" Reception. The seal was awarded in recognition of VCU meeting its institutional commitment to the Generation Study Abroad initiative.

"VCU's participation in the Generation Study Abroad commitment sparked creativity and innovation in the way we designed new programs and how we committed our time and energy
for the benefit of more students," Tignor said. "The commitment helped us build a foundation of sustainable growth and success. Now that we have met our goal, we look forward to continued growth in our number of students participating in education abroad."   

President Michael Rao signed VCU on to the initiative in 2014 (as one of the first institutions to do so) with a commitment to double the number of undergraduate students who study abroad by 2020.

At that time, just over 400 VCU students participated in education abroad experiences. VCU was recognized at the summit as one of 12 institutions that met their commitment based on the 2018 progress report, which for VCU, included 921 participants in credit-bearing and noncredit-bearing programs.