Featured Stories

May 1, 2015 | By Jade Griffin
 
The University of California, San Diego’s School of International Relations and Pacific Studies has received the largest alumni gift in the School’s history thanks to class of 1996 alumni, Lisa and Jay Hanson.
 
With their recent pledge of $250,000, the couple has established the Hanson Sterner Fellowship Fund, which will benefit graduate students pursuing a Master of International Affairs (formerly the Master of Pacific International Affairs) at UC San Diego. The fellowship fund, which is endowed, will remain in perpetuity.
 
“We thank Lisa and Jay Hanson for their visionary gift,” said Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla. “Fellowships are critical for graduate students, who play a key role in UC San Diego’s research enterprise. Upon graduation, these outstanding scholars will go on to become the innovators, teachers and leaders of tomorrow.”
 
“We are so grateful to the Hansons for this historic gift to support our outstanding students,” said Peter Cowhey, dean of the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies. “This donation is truly a groundbreaking action representing our alumni’s dedication to ensuring the long-term success of both our students and the school as a whole.”
 
The Hansons, who met each other while attending IR/PS as students, credit their education at UC San Diego with giving them the tools to succeed in business both in the United States and abroad.  Jay has a long history at eBay, Inc., and currently serves as vice president of European Expansion and Cross Border Trade at the Fortune 500 company.  Lisa worked in the finance industry, before focusing on raising the couple’s young children. Currently, the Hansons live in Berlin, where Jay leads a large part of eBay’s European operations.
 
The couple’s choice to give to the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, and specifically to graduate fellowships, is a personal one.  “Both of us benefited from financial support while we were there,” said Lisa. “The School had a big impact on our lives, so we would like to help make that opportunity possible for future students.”
 
Jay received the Nick Binkley Fellowship, established by the first chair of the School’s International  Advisory Board, while Lisa benefited from various scholarships to support her studies. Fellowships play a key role in helping to ensure that graduate students can focus on their studies rather than worrying about working to support themselves through school. They can also be used to attract top students—like current IR/PS student Emily Foecke—who may be offered more competitive fellowship packages from other universities.  Fellowship support played a key role in Foecke’s decision to attend UC San Diego.
 
“I would not have come to UC San Diego without my fellowship, as I was leaving a well-paid private sector job and received a 75 percent tuition scholarship to another institution,” said Foecke, who received a more competitive fellowship package to attend IR/PS. Prior to attending UC San Diego, Foecke worked with development organizations in Cambodia, Kenya and Sierra Leone, as well as at two Fortune 500 companies.
 
“My fellowship allows me to focus on my studies and prepare for my career after graduation,” she continued.  “Alleviating the stress and financial management and planning that crushing student loans can bring has been critical for me to have the time and mental energy to fully invest myself in my coursework and to take leadership roles outside of the classroom.”
 
At IR/PS, Foecke is focusing her studies on the implementation and evaluation of programs designed to address global issues ranging from poverty reduction to quality of life. Eventually, Foecke hopes to build a company that works with small to medium-sized nonprofits to help them invest their resources more responsibility and effectively to achieve the maximum possible impact around the globe.
 
“Financial assistance options for graduate education are paltry today, which presents a huge disincentive to graduates pursuing careers in social impact and not-for-profit ventures,” said Foecke. “Yet, these are the same ventures where young people from forward-thinking, data-driven intuitions like IR/PS are desperately needed to find solutions to the world’s biggest problems.”
 
The Hansons, like many alumni, couldn’t agree more. “We believe that the School will play a key role in creating the kinds of leaders that can help the world tackle the issues and opportunities we know are coming as a result of technological advancement, globalization, climate change and more,” said Jay. “We look at our gift as, not only an investment in the School, but also an investment in the future.”

April 29, 2015 | By Amy Robinson
 
On April 18, more than 175 veterans, alumni, students and their families from San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, D.C. and Tokyo organized community service projects in support of the inaugural Around the World in a Day. Led by the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (IR/PS) and UC San Diego's International Studies Program (ISP), this collective group made a deep impact by giving their time, talent or treasure to a project of their choice.
 
UC San Diego has a strong tradition of cultivating volunteer opportunities. One such program is UCSD Alumni’s San Diego Promise. It is a commitment to the local educational community and features a variety of ongoing service opportunities throughout the year.
 
“Building on the momentum of San Diego Promise’s February 15 community revitalization project at Ross Elementary School, we launched ‘Phase II’ to support the ongoing goals of this high-achieving Clairemont neighborhood school,” said Mary Jo Ball, director of alumni affairs at IR/PS.
 
This effort also began a wonderful partnership with the UCSD Veterans Association, which recruited 30 veterans to join more than 100 alumni, staff, family and friends who spent the day giving back their time. The volunteers built and filled planter boxes, stenciled motivational phrases from Steven Covey's book "7 Habits" on campus and helped paint bricks.
 

A Global Impact

Leveraging our global community, alumni clubs, groups, individuals and friends were invited to volunteer in their own communities, for any amount of time. And, it had an impact.
 
Ten Bay Area alumni partnered with the San Francisco Food Bank to prepare food delivery to local nonprofits. And, Tokyo alum Gary Bremermann ’91 organized for the club to volunteer at Second Harvest Japan, the country's "pioneer" food bank. They prepared and packed lunch boxes for over two hours.
 
“We had a great time volunteering at Second Harvest Japan. Helping out the community is always a worthy cause, but doing this as part of the new Around the World in a Day project made it even more meaningful,” said Tokyo club leader Jonathan Shalfi ’14.
 
The Seattle alumni club joined the King Conservation District, Longfellow Creek Legacy Council and the Duwamish Alive Coalition. Led by club leaders Andrew Curry ’06 and Melissa Nitsch '06, volunteers spent the day helping to restore the Duwamish watershed. Now in its tenth year, the DuwamishAlive! restoration event includes hundred of volunteers working together in more than a dozen watershed sites to preserve and enhance habitat for people and wildlife towards improving the health of the Puget Sound.
 
Along this theme, the Washington, D.C. club teamed up with the Rock Creek Conservancy the week prior. Alumni Ryan Pope ‘12 led the charge, timing it with the group's seventh annual Rock Creek Extreme Cleanup. Their goal is stream cleanup of the creek and its tributaries, and organizes trash cleanups at over 75 locations along the 33-mile length of Rock Creek
 
"The D.C. alumni club participated in the annual Rock Creek Park cleanup organized by the Rock Creek Conservancy. IRPSers helped preserve the beauty of Washington, D.C.'s largest city park by removing trash and recyclables and clearing hiking trails," said Ryan Pope ’12.
 

Ways to give back

Whatever your passion, however you get involved, volunteering offers a way to have a real and lasting impact on the world. It can be a great way to develop skills, learn more about career options, make friends and garner new professional contacts. And at UC San Diego, Chancellor Khosla challenges us all to perform 50 hours or more of community service. Learn about opportunities and ways to get involved at Volunteer50.
 
“Alumni and students not only made a big difference helping their communities for our inaugural Around the World in a Day event, but they had a great time doing it too,” said Mary Jo Ball.
 
Read the story produced by UCSD Alumni Triton Magazine and view the photo gallery from the day.
 
Additional sponsors for the Ross Elementary projects included the Education Corps at UCSD, UCSD Veterans Association, San Diego Credit Union and UC San Diego's Volunteer50.

April 9, 2015 | By Christine Clark

For quickly explaining complex world events, blogs can beat news articles and academic papers. That is Barbara Walter’s belief and why the political science professor at the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (IR/PS) launched Political Violence @ a Glance, a blog designed to consistently produce expert analysis of problems related to violence and protest in the world’s conflict zones. Read the full story here.

March 30, 2015 | By Amy Robinson
 
In a recent Q&A with Ellis Krauss, the popular professor of Japanese politics and U.S.-Japan relations, he discussed both first joining the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (IR/PS) in 1995, a time in which the School was building its Japan studies area of expertise, and what it means today to become an emeritus faculty member.
 
“What was really unique about IR/PS in the 1990s was its Pacific region focus,” Krauss said. “No other international relations and public affairs graduate school in the U.S. had that kind of curriculum.”
 
Subsequently, other schools in the U.S. and Japan have incorporated a Pacific focus into their curriculum, but IR/PS was the pioneer.
 
“We got it right, but we are no longer as unique as we once were,” Krauss said. “That is why we are expanding our faculty and curriculum into other areas such as energy, development, environment, science and technology while still keeping our Pacific focus. We add these and other fields to allow us to compete more broadly with other graduate schools of international relations and public affairs.”
 

Designing as executive education program

Krauss helped develop the School’s Global Leadership Institute (GLI), formerly called the International Career Associates Program, with then colleague Takeo Hoshi and served as its second director. It was originally designed to bring mid-level public officials, businessmen and women to the School, but has since grown to include additional short-term and customized group programming. 
 
“They add a fantastic ‘mix’ to the classroom,” Krauss said. “Whereas our traditional master’s students often bring some job and overseas experience, GLI students bring real-world experience as nationals of foreign countries and provide different perspectives, knowledge and information to share with our students and faculty.”
 
Although it might be considered a bit challenging for a faculty member to be teaching Japanese politics to government officials from Japan, Krauss remarked that he found the experience great for both himself and the other students in the class.
 
“GLI students tell me that they learn a lot too because they receive a different and refreshing perspective on their own country’s politics that they would not get at home,” he said.
 

Developing lifelong connections

Krauss, like many faculty at the graduate level, has forged deep connections with students that often turn into lifelong friendships and in many cases, future colleagues.
 
“I have been very blessed to serve as an advisor and mentor to many outstanding graduate students, both master’s students at IR/PS and Ph.D. students from UC San Diego’s Department of Political Science who are interested in Japan,” he said. 
 
Krauss recalled that Jennifer Lind, who was in his first class on Japanese politics in the winter of 1996, went on to get her Ph.D. in political science at MIT and now teaches at Dartmouth. And, John Nylin, another former student of Krauss, went on to a successful career first at Hewlett Packard and then he went into the Foreign Service, including service in India, Slovenia, and several tours in Japan.
 
“I have had the privilege of knowing Ellis for 20 years now – as a student, a research assistant and as a friend,” said Nylin, MPIA '97, Foreign Service Officer for the U.S. Department of State. “The insights about Japanese politics and media that I gained from him while at IR/PS served me immeasurably during my seven years working in the U.S. Embassy Tokyo. More importantly, though, Ellis is someone that I trust and to whom I frequently turn to for advice, both Japan-related and not. I am thrilled that he is staying on in emeritus status, as the next generation of Japan specialists will benefit greatly learning from my sensei, my tomodachi, Ellis Krauss.”
 
The list is long, but Krauss also shared three examples of how Ben Nyblade at Rand Corporation, Kuni Nemoto at Waseda University and Dan Smith at Harvard University – all former graduate students who served as research or teaching assistants – went on to eventually collaborate on projects with him. 
 

Now emeritus, what’s next?

Krauss has a busy retirement planned. This month, he will visit Harvard University to be honored at a dinner and give a public talk. Later in April, he will spend six weeks in Japan as a grant recipient from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science as a visiting scholar at Waseda University. There he will participate in various symposia, conferences and workshops. One will be for a new project with Thomas Berger of Boston University and two young German scholars, Alexandra Sakaki of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs and Kerstin Lukner of the University of Duisburg-Essen. They will compare the legitimacy of military and humanitarian intervention in two countries with “Peace Constitutions,” Japan and Germany.
 
Krauss also plans to pursue work on a few publications with an Italian colleague, Gianluca Passarelli, which they began to work on when he was in Rome for three months this past fall on a fellowship from Sapienza University of Rome.
 
“UC San Diego has terrific faculty who don’t stop conducting research when they go emeritus. Fortunately, that often applies to teaching as well,” said Peter Cowhey, dean of IR/PS. “After more than 20 years in the classroom at our School, it is nice to know I can count on Krauss to teach U.S.-Japan Relations in winter 2016.”
 
Kruass added, “My wife and I plan to spend more time traveling, including a trip to the U.K., France and Germany in the fall. I don’t think much moss is going to grow on me in the near future!”

March 18, 2015 | By Doug Ramsey

The DigitalGlobe Foundation has selected the University of California, San Diego to be one of two institutions of higher learning given open access to DigitalGlobe Basemap, an online map and database of current, high-resolution satellite imagery – of the entire planet. For a one-year pilot study, commercial satellite imagery will be made available free of charge to selected UC San Diego faculty, students and staff who, until now, would not have been able to afford access to the planetary-scale data included in the DigitalGlobe Basemap. Read the full story here.