History of the Ohio Valley International Council

By Catherine Cutcher

July 2024

The Ohio Valley International Council (OVIC) was founded in the 1980s to connect local students with people from around the world. OVIC is the outreach arm of the Center for International Studies at Ohio University. OVIC promotes cultural and global sensitivity and helps to combat stereotypes in Southeast Ohio by offering cultural presentations in K-12 classrooms and other professional settings.

A typical OVIC visit consists of a team of two or three students called “Cultural Consultants” who visit a school or business to give age appropriate, fun and interactive presentations that generally cover culture, geography, language, and other areas. The program is free of charge.

Mary Anne Flournoy Founds OVIC

The visionary founder of OVIC was Dr. Mary Anne Flournoy. A former sixth grade teacher in Athens County, Flournoy had traveled extensively and lived abroad in Indonesia with her husband and children. From both her classroom and family experience, she was "convinced that knowing another culture can be a rich part of life and a way of motivating students to improve basic skills."

Flournoy was a mentor and teacher to countless students and colleagues from around the world. From teaching in the poorest inner-city and Appalachian elementary schools, to working with world leaders and renowned academics, she treated everyone equally and held them all to the same high standard.... As a teacher at rural Waterloo Elementary School, Flournoy waged war on school soda 'pop' breaks, while inviting Ohio University international students to share cuisine and culture from their home countries with her sixth-grade students. As associate director of the Center for International Studies at Ohio University, Flournoy formalized this program, which has now introduced thousands of public school students across Southeast Ohio to university students from around the world.

NEH Grant Extends Outreach to 10 Counties

In Winter 1982, Ohio University Today published an article about OVIC titled: “Outreach funded for Athens County Schools.” It described the outreach of international students from Nigeria, Indonesia, and Brazil to Athens County schools. This program was funded with a grant of $67,784 from the National Endowment for the Humanities. This grant extended the outreach of OVIC to six schools in 10 Southeast Ohio counties.

Initially, nine international students were led by Mary Anne Flournoy in these outreach visits. “The idea is to help children view a culture through the eyes of that culture rather than through their own prejudices,” according to Flournoy. OVIC assembled four kits of materials from each of the three countries. One kit included toys and games; the second kit included musical instruments and tapes; the third kit included cooking utensils, clothes, and tools; and the fourth kit had shadow puppets from Indonesia, carnival items from Brazil, and folk tales from Nigeria.

1804 Grant Funds Involving Southeast Ohio in World Trade

In 1983, the OVIC program received $21,600 from the 1804 Fund to help develop new ways to involve Southeast Ohio in world trade, a program conducted through the Office of the Associate Provost for International Studies.

The Cultural Awareness Project promoted increased knowledge and understanding of world cultures among public schoolteachers and their pupils. It was an international resource center, circulating learning kits and curriculum materials and arranging for international students and faculty to visit schools throughout the region. It was also a teacher training center.

Cultural Awareness Project Focuses on Brazil, Indonesia and Nigeria

Supported financially by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Jennings Foundation, the 1804 Fund of Ohio University, and the Center for International Studies, the Cultural Awareness Project was aimed initially at elementary schools. Units of study on three focal cultures – Brazil, Indonesia and Nigeria – were developed and taught in Athens, Vinton and Washington counties.

Original artifacts were collected from each of the three countries and organized into learning kits to be used in the classrooms. As many as 50 international students, most graduate students in residence at Ohio University, were trained as cultural consultants and communicators. These students helped in the collection of representative materials, participated in the teacher workshops and made presentations in the schools. Forty-seven teachers, grades 4-8 in 13 schools, were trained as a result of the Project.

The response to this activity from school children, parents, teachers, and school administrators has been universally positive. Flournoy said: “There’s a lot of interest in the program, and response from the schools has been good. Ohio mandates an international component in the curriculum, but for some of our schools the only resources are out-of-date textbooks. Kids need the personal identification that international students bring to the classroom. That’s what breaks down stereotypes.”

Flournoy wanted to see the program become permanent, noting, “We have a wealth of international resources on campus, and the schools are anxious to use them. The problem is lack of money, particularly travel funds. Programs like this are needed because we live in an increasingly interdependent world. It’s important for children to learn to accept different ways of solving life’s problems and getting along.”

Cultural Awareness Project Expands, Includes West Virginia

The Council decided to expand the Cultural Awareness Project to serve as many as 10 rural school districts in Southeast Ohio and western West Virginia. Seventy-five additional teachers, including high school teachers, were invited to participate over a three year period, and 100 foreign nationals were trained as cultural consultants.

The Community Forum promoted increased knowledge and understanding of other world cultures within the community at large. Its principal activities were to make the international resources of Ohio University available to service clubs, senior citizen groups, churches, and farm and business organizations. Sample programs included co-sponsorship of:

• The annual Southeast Ohio Development Symposium on "International Trade and Development" in Athens
• An exhibition of African art with commentary by area studies faculty and African students in Chillicothe
• A demonstration of Indonesian shadow puppetry and cooking for the Ironton Arts Council;
• An Argentinian concert pianist made available to regional colleges and community organizations
• The Great Decision Series on foreign policy issues using international graduate students, area studies faculty, and community people as discussants over interactive microwave between Athens and Lancaster

Athens Friends of International Students (AFIS), a community-based organization supporting international students and scholars, also grew out of these initiatives.

OVIC Receives Martin Luther King Human Relations Award

In January 1986, OVIC was presented with the Martin Luther King Human Relations Award. The certificate was presented to OVIC by Dr. James Bruning, Provost, and Dr. Vattel Rose, MLK Committee Chair. The award was given "for exemplary contributions in the achievement of better human relations by a unit of Ohio University. The award is reflective of your commitment to the principles and values championed by Dr. Martin Luther King. Your activities perpetuate and further his vision of all men and women transcending their individual differences and embracing the common goals of peace, justice, and equity for all people."

In the 1990s and 2000s, the OVIC program also was supported with funding from the Title VI National Resource Centers Program for African Studies and Southeast Asian Studies. The program continued to organize outreach visits to K-12 classrooms throughout Southeast Ohio as well as teacher training programs.

Polly Sandenburgh and Laura Schaeffer Start Fulbright-Hays Projects and More

After Dr. Flournoy retired from the CIS, the program was coordinated by Polly Sandenburgh (1997-2003) and Laura Schaeffer (2003-2013). They organized the following activities:

• Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad (GPA) and study abroad programs for teachers and pre-service teachers (Education majors) to Swaziland and South Africa, and Ecuador
• International Conferences: Children of the World: Risk and Hope (2001) and Children of Islam: Africa and Southeast Asia (2002)
• Summer Institutes for teachers to earn Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for professional development on internationalizing the curriculum

Bose Maposa Initiates Math Circles, Swahili STARTALK and More

Bose Maposa then led the OVIC program as the Assistant Director of African Studies, from 2012 until 2021. She led the following initiatives:

• Math Circles program with Dr. Bob Klein of the Mathematics Department, connecting Native American and African indigenous practices with mathematics, such as Navajo Nation weavings and Mancala games of West Africa
• Outreach to K-12 classrooms in Federal Hocking Local Schools, Logan Hocking School District, Vinton County Schools, and Athens City School District
• Swahili STARTALK language program for high school and university students
• Upward Bound and TRIO Program outreach

Catherine Cutcher Expands Engagement with African Immigrants in Columbus

Catherine Cutcher also supported the OVIC program over the years. As a graduate student in African Studies and Education, she was a cultural consultant for Africa, sharing her research and experiences with study abroad in Kenya, Tanzania, Swaziland (Eswatini) and South Africa. 

As the Assistant Director of African Studies and Southeast Asian Studies, Cutcher organized conferences and teacher training workshops with NRC funding. She completed her doctoral degree in the Patton College of Education’s Cultural Studies Program, where she taught courses on Education and Cultural Diversity. She continued outreach to the Patton College of Education as the Assistant Director of Global Studies. She presented to the Teacher Education Faculty Retreats for several years. She also presented at the Institute for Democracy in Education, the Coalition for Rural and Appalachian Schools (CORAS), and to school partners who hosted professional interns (student teachers) in early childhood, middle childhood, and AYA programs. 

Cutcher helped to organize service learning and community engagement programs with African immigrant and refugee communities in Columbus. She supported activities in the Comparative and International Education graduate seminar and Issues in Global Education undergraduate class. She presented about internationalizing the curriculum and working with international students to teachers and students at conferences and teacher training institutes led by Dr. Mike Kopish, sponsored by the Longview Foundation.

OVIC Reorganizes After Pandemic

During the COVID pandemic, the OVIC program took a hiatus since public schools went online and then followed strict public health protocols. For several years, OVIC could not get access or permission for cultural consultants to visit the schools in person.

In 2022, the CIS again re-organized, and Cutcher was promoted as the Associate Director of the CIS and began officially coordinating the OVIC program as part of her job duties. She joined the Community Engagement Committee and networked with other colleagues across colleges to build connections for re-establishing OVIC.

Alyssa Manning was hired as a PACE Community Outreach Intern, a student position funded by Student Financial Aid and Scholarships. Manning served in this position for two academic years and helped to bring the OVIC program back up and running after the COVID pandemic. She updated the website and Qualtrics forms, reached out to public school teachers via email, and recruited international students as cultural consultants.

Two international graduate students, Faustie Mensah and Angelah Bor, developed a proposal to expand the Global Leadership Center and CIS outreach to high schools. They met with faculty in the Patton College and local schools to brainstorm topics and strategies for cultural consultants to re-enter the schools after COVID.

Mary Ann and Don Flournoy Graduate Assistantship Established

In 2022-23, the Mary Ann and Don Flournoy Graduate Assistantship was donated by the Flournoy family after the 35^th Anniversary of the Communication and Development (Communication and Development) Studies program. This generous gift of $160,000 would fund two graduate assistants of the Communication and Development Studies Program for a total of eight years. 

One student would support the OVIC outreach program, and the other student would work for the Sugar Bush Foundation. Both students would spend part of their time preparing for the “Move Out to Move In” Program of the Zero Waste Initiative, to help gather donations of household items at the end of spring semester to distribute to international students upon arrival and to help them settle in Athens. In 2023-2024, we hired our first graduate assistant for OVIC, Ohemaa Ama Dufie Ofori-Birikorang, an international student from Ghana.

OVIC Organizes Global Education Fairs, Shadow Puppet Theater

Since 2022, the OVIC program has been revived and reinvigorated. We have presented to over 1,200 students in K-12 classrooms in Alexander Local Schools, Athens City Schools, Federal Hocking Local Schools, and Southern Local Schools in Meigs County.

We have organized three Global Education Fairs in collaboration with our partners at the Athens City School District, the AAPI-LEAD Employee Affinity Organization, the Patton College of Education, the EDTE 2500: Issues in Global Education class, the Russ College of Engineering and Technology, the Stevens Literacy Center, and the International Student Union. We appreciate Dr. Yuchun Zhou, Dr. Yuqiu You, Dr. Mike Kopish, and Nayomi Gunasekara Field for their leadership and partnership on this project. We are also grateful to Athens City Schools Superintendent Tom Gibbs for providing bus transportation for the fairs, and Athens High School Principal Chad Springer for hosting the event in the Atrium and Cafeteria at the High School.

The World Languages Program and Fulbright Language Teaching Assistants for Indonesian, Malaysian, and Thai languages have performed Shadow Puppet Theater of Southeast Asia at the Alden Library and Amesville Elementary School in the Federal Hocking Local School District.; Many thanks to Amesville teacher, Ms. Jadey Gilmore, for inviting us to the school assembly.  We are grateful to Pittaya Paladroi-Shane and Jeffrey Shane for leading the shadow puppet theater project, and to all the World Languages FLTAs and students for their participation and creativity. We are also grateful to Edy Panjaitan, an Indonesian Ph.D. student in Interdisciplinary Arts, for his original composition of gamelan-style music which he played as accompaniment on the keyboards.

We have presented about Asia (India, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia) and Africa (Algeria, Egypt, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Niger, and Senegal) to students in the World Languages and Cultures class (eighth grade), French class (high school), and social studies classes (high school) at Alexander Junior/Senior High School. We are grateful to Madame Stephanie Stamper, teacher of French and World Languages and Cultures, and Mr. Kirk Crow, teacher of high school Social Studies, for inviting us to Alexander.

OVIC Collaborates with Division of Diversity and Inclusion, Prism LGBTQ Youth Arts Program

We collaborated with the Division of Diversity and Inclusion to lead workshops on Microaggressions and Anti-Racism in the Spanish classes at the Southern Local High School in Racine in Meigs County. We initiated this outreach during International Education Week in November 2023 and conducted a follow up workshop in April 2024. We are grateful to Ms. Kayte Manuel, Spanish teacher at Southern Local High School, for inviting us to present in her classes. We are also grateful to Dr. Winsome Chunnu, former Senior Director for Diversity Education Initiatives in the Division of Diversity and Inclusion, for leading these workshops.

We collaborated with the City of Athens’ first Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) Coordinator, Lacey Rogers, on programs in the Athens City Schools. We brought international students to speak to the Anti-Racism class at Athens High School. We organized a panel about race and racism around the world, and a story circles workshop for small group discussions with high school students and international graduate students.

OVIC collaborated with Lacey Rogers to present to the Prism LGBTQ Youth Arts Program, an after school program for 12-18 year old students. We organized art workshops on Kente cloth weaving in Ghana, Lunar New Year celebrations in China (with hot pot, calligraphy, Chinese zodiac animals, and a tea ceremony), and Shadow Puppetry in Southeast Asia.

Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence Arrives from Ghana

OVIC also coordinated outreach visits with a Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence, Professor Adom Manu from the Global Health Initiative. He presented about Traditional Herbal Medicine of Ghana to middle school and high school students at Alexander Junior & Senior High School in November, and also attended the Veterans’ Day Assembly. In May 2024, he presented about Traditional Herbal Medicine of Ghana to four different seventh-grade science classes at Alexander Junior High School. He also visited the botanical sanctuaries and apothecaries of local herbalists at United Plant Savers, Equinox Botanicals, and the Appalachian Ohio Herb Clinic in Meigs County in May 2024. 

Dr. Manu loved participating in the OVIC program and interacting with local students in the public schools. He remarked that the students asked even better questions and were more engaged than his undergraduate students. He said that OVIC was the highlight of his Fulbright year in Athens, and he can’t wait to meet us in Ghana!

OVIC has also been featured in several media outlets in 2023-24.  Ohemaa Ofori-Birikorang, the Comm Dev GA, developed a short documentary film in cooperation with Brian Plow in the School of Media Arts and Studies. This is currently a work in progress, and is being developed into a longer documentary film featuring footage from cultural consultants’ presentations in the classrooms. Cutcher wrote and published an article about International student outreach makes a world of difference in local schools with University Communications and Marketing. OVIC received positive media coverage in the Ohio News, WOUB News, and a video from WOUB Reporter Jack Demmler on X.

The OVIC program is growing by leaps and bounds. We are deeply grateful to our partners and funders who support the ongoing work of community engagement and outreach with the Center for International Studies.

REFERENCES

(1983, September 1). 26 Projects Get 1804 Awards. OUtlook.

Black, P., Ed. (1982, Winter). Outreach funded for Athens County schools. Ohio University Today, 4(2), 2.

Center for International Studies (n.d.). The Ohio Valley International Council. Ohio University. Retrieved July 23, 2024.

Cutcher, C. (2024, February 16). International student outreach makes a world of difference in local schools. OHIO News.

Demmler, J. (2023, March 1). An Ohio University group brings the world to local classrooms. Retrieved July 23, 2024.

Flournoy, M. A. (1983). OVIC Activities.

Jagers & Sons Funeral Home. (2019, October 23). Mary Anne Flournoy. Retrieved July 23, 2024.

Nelson, F. (1982). Mary Anne Flournoy and Eddy Nugroho Sandjaja with Indonesian puppets, Ohio University, 1982 [Photograph]. Ohio University Libraries Digital Archival Collections.

Ofori-Birikorang, O. A. D. (Director). (2024). Bridging Borders with Ohio Valley International Council (OVIC) [Film]. Ohio University.

Staff Reports (2023, April 5). Global Education Fair aims to increase awareness of diverse cultural groups in the community. OHIO News.