Everybody passes the building on campus on their way to the Martin Building or leaving south classrooms of the library, but does anyone really know what is inside the Harold R. Clark Building?

Indeed, it is the home of the David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies. But it is not a college, and it is not a department, so what does it do?

The Kennedy Center is an unusual office on campus. It does not employ permanent faculty, and it is not under the umbrella of a college. However, it graduates more than 600 students each year, 70 percent of which usually go on to graduate school.

"The Kennedy Center is unique," said Cory Leonard, assistant director for the Kennedy Center. "We have the academic responsibility of a college, without the title or departments."

That responsibility includes its own convocation at graduation, six major tracks, an advisement center and a staff. However, the interdisciplinary nature of the courses offered is unique to the center.

The faculty for the Kennedy Center consists of current or visiting faculty members from other departments around campus. These faculty members come essentially on loan to the Kennedy Center for a contracted amount of time to teach courses. Departments such as political science, economics, humanities, various foreign languages and religious studies allow these faculty members to teach a class based on their specialties with an application to understanding and developing international relationships.

"We function like a college," Leonard said. "We have our own advisement, we take care of our students here and we send them all over. We feel like for some students it's a good way to go. It's not for every student, but it's an option."

Without the burdens of a cumbersome class scheduling responsibility and the pressure on faculty to publish, the Kennedy Center is allowed more freedom to support students and ensure their success throughout their classes and programs, according to Leonard. An emphasis on publishing undergraduate work is shown through undergraduate research publications. Journals such as the Rice Papers, which contains research about Asian studies, and Inquiry, which contains student cross-cultural field research studies, are published regularly.

"These journals allow us to publish student journals that are getting left behind," said Lee Simons, communications director for the Kennedy Center. "For the students who are partway between, for example, physics and international studies, they can get published here."

In addition, the center works with other colleges or departments around campus that are participating in an international event to publicize and encourage participation. These events range from conferences with an international application to foreign guest speakers.

"We are a good facilitator," Simons said.

The Kennedy Center also is the home of many programs that serve outside BYU campus such as the China Teachers program that feeds retired couples into Chinese universities to teach English, and the hosting of international and foreign service guests who visit BYU campus for research, lectures or personal interest.

Students, though, are given access to outstanding undergraduate opportunities such as the intercultural outreach program that teaches students foreign etiquette, student groups enabling networking and communication with international connections, and some of the more elite and competitive internships around the world to various places in South America, Europe, Russia and parts of the Middle East.

Copyright Brigham Young University 31 Jul 2008