Peter I. Rose*

Nearly two decades ago, Dr. Jochen Fried proposed to bring American undergraduates to Austria, mostly, but not exclusively, from community colleges and Historically Black Colleges and University (HBCUs) to address issues such as the dilemmas of diversity in our society, problems relating to climate change and other environmental issues, and matters of class, status, power and politics, and also to compare and contrast what we do in the United States with what goes on in other countries. It was an enormous challenge.  Undaunted, Jochen and his colleagues, Astrid Schroeder and David Goldman, put their shoulders to the wheel and gave ample credence to the expression “Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way.”  They had the will, and, with written proposals, oral presentations, and the peaked-curiosity of presidents and deans, they paid visits to a number of institutions of higher education such as Miami-Dade in Florida, the City University of New York and its array of four-year and community colleges, and San José State University in California, and found receptive audiences and support for the program. Within a year or two a growing consortium of institutions began facilitating the travel of selected students to Salzburg where they would work, study and interact at the Rococo palace known as Schloss Leopoldskron .Not long after, the first groups of ”fellows” (as all who attend the program are called) were joined by those from many other schools from the same states and also from Texas, Kentucky, Illinois and other places in the mid-West. Read more