When Richard Stahler-Sholk's students heard the deadline for his Distinguished Faculty Award nomination was just three days away, they decided to leave nothing to chance. Stahler-Sholk's students flooded the Eastern Michigan University's Political Science Department with letters describing the difference the mentor and political science professor had made in their lives.
"It was really amazing to see the effort the students put in to make sure he got acknowledged for his work," said Claudia Petrescu, interim head of the political science department. "Students don't do that for someone they don't like."
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GLOBAL REACH: Richard Stahler-Sholk, an EMU
associate professor of political science, makes a
point in his "Introduction to Comparative
Government" course. Stahler-Sholk, noted for his
activism and global approach, was co-recipient of
the 2008 Ronald W. Collins Distinguished Faculty
Award for Service to the University.
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But that, perhaps, is how you say "thank you" to someone who gives you the world.
Stahler-Sholk, a co-recipient of the 2008 Ronald W. Collins Distinguished Faculty Award for Service to the University, personifies EMU's commitment to educating students for a global community.
The associate professor has worked with political science faculty to establish a new international affairs major and a course sequence on poverty, human rights and health that involves a 10-day trip to El Salvador. He established the Model United Nations club and worked to make the Model UN class — once just a small special topics course — a regular part of EMU's political science curriculum.
Model UN students research the political systems and foreign policies of other countries, developing new perspectives on international diversity, and new negotiation and conflict-resolution skills.
"I think that he loves changing lives," said Petrescu, who often sees Stahler-Sholk's students, since her office is next door. "One of his students was in front of my door waiting for him and we were talking. She'd gone to the Model UN conference in February and was signing up to go to El Salvador. And she said, 'I don't know when the man sleeps. He took us to St. Louis and he was available all the time.'"
But his support goes way beyond the Model UN. He's helped students get into graduate school, doctorate programs and work abroad. EMU's delegation has won awards at both the American Model United Nations Conference in Chicago and the Midwest Model United Nations Conference in St. Louis.
"He opens to students a different world," Petrescu said. "He shows them that you graduate from Eastern, but you don't have to get stuck in Ypsilanti or Ann Arbor. There is a world out there. I've heard students tell him, 'You opened the universe to me.'"
Stahler-Sholk has always been part of a larger world. An army brat — born in Japan and raised in Germany and Panama — he learned at a young age to adapt to different environments. He became involved in human rights work as a student at Berkeley and continued, working with the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice, when he moved to Michigan a decade ago to teach at EMU. His research, which focuses on the politics of Latin America, takes him to Mexico and Central America several times each year. Stahler-Sholk shares those experiences with the EMU community through speakers, presentations and slide shows.
"I grew up being constantly presented with different environments and having to figure out the puzzle, and try to understand the world around me," Stahler-Sholk said. "I want to share that excitement with students and help them understand the world around them, too."
He travels with EMU students to Model UN conferences in Chicago and St. Louis, and said he's always taken aback when a student says, "This is the first time I've ever taken a taxi" or "I've never been on a plane before." That surprise turns to pride when he notices how the students adapt to new circumstances and rise to the occasion.
"I think it brings us up-to-date, for one thing," Stahler-Sholk said. "Really, you have to have global perspectives in anything you do, so that's going to benefit our students."
"I'm really impressed with our students here," he continued. "The kind of students we have are people who are overcoming all sorts of obstacles in their lives just to be here. The fact that they have that drive to succeed (is something) I find particularly impressive."
