University of Michigan Celebrates Pioneers in International Education

Fostering global perspectives, enhancing cultural understanding and developing real-world skills among students are some of the strengths of this year’s recipients of the University of Michigan President’s Award for Distinguished Service in International Education.

Andrew Lawlor, director of Global MBA Projects and lecturer of entrepreneurship and strategy at the Ross School of Business, and Emily Wang, assistant director of the Office of International Affairs at U-M Dearborn, are this year’s honorees. The award recognizes faculty and staff for their exceptional contributions to advancing international education and fostering a globally enriched learning environment.

“Through international education, we understand deeper, we see further and we reach higher,” said U-M President Santa Ono. “For by better understanding our world, we can better serve our world. And in better serving our world, we will change our world. That’s why I’m so proud U-M is a leading international university.”

A global perspective in business education
Lawlor’s contribution to international business education at U-M spanned from 1994 to 2024. His approach was rooted in experiential learning, emphasizing the importance of real-world application. By engaging students in live projects, he ensured they faced genuine business and cultural challenges that enhanced their understanding and decision-making skills.

“International business knowledge, purview and experience are key success factors,” Lawlor said. “Not having that is a marked disadvantage. I am so proud of riding the waves of specific business challenges and cultures across 40 countries with so many students.

“It’s a humbling experience to receive the award. It has been a privilege to have been given the opportunities, resources and support to design and execute my international courses during the last 31 years.”

For Lawlor, who retired this month, managing and navigating international business challenges and understanding multicultural and social dynamics across many countries are critical for students. His courses focused on short-term international projects involving in-country research, analysis, relationship-building and impact assessment.

Students had to apply Ross’s coursework, frameworks and learnings in real-time settings. Lawlor’s methodology promoted critical judgments and decision making and fostered professional development through hands-on experience. Each project required rigorous data collection, thorough analysis and strategic recommendations. Students presented their research findings and action plans to corporate sponsors.

“This method helped students transition business issues from abstract concepts to concrete solutions,” Lawlor said. “The impacts come from exposure on the ground, inside each country, with eyes wide open and listening to voices and tone, interviewing key project constituents, seeking research about the history and current context, and collaborating effectively with their project sponsors and participants.”

Lawlor highlighted some transformative projects, such as Whirlpool’s entry into Slovakia, which was the first international acquisition of a post-Soviet Union manufacturing company, and Whirpool’s groundbreaking acquisition of a post-Apartheid manufacturing company in South Africa, where students worked on pioneering marketing and sales campaigns.

“Each country had different histories, business and social mores,” he said. “Each had amazing and different contexts and settings for a Ross team to travel to, achieve a wide range of learning objectives, and successfully deliver their project’s business goals.”

According to Gretchen Spreitzer, associate dean for engaged learning at Ross, over the past 31 years, Lawlor provided invaluable guidance to nearly 3,300 MBA students on 680 projects.

“Professor Lawlor has worked to develop a pedagogy for impactful learning from action-based learning projects,” Spreitzer said. “It begins with identifying the opportunity for a high-challenge, significant scope team project that addresses a ‘front-burner’ issue for the sponsor.

“The projects are unstructured initially by design, with joint team, sponsor and faculty clarification and refinement of initial project goals, scope, schedule and required outputs. The team of students must then take the business problem from abstract to concrete and from ambiguous to clear to provide substantive solutions and recommendations.”

The projects are multidisciplinary and multicultural, blending personal experiences, intuition, creativity, research, analysis and problem-solving methods, she said.

“The teams are encouraged to use frameworks and tools from the Ross MBA core courses and the team’s collective business experiences,” Spreitzer said. “The projects require rigorous data collection and detailed analysis to provide findings appropriate for the organizational context. Strategic and operational options are assessed and outlined with specific recommendations, plans and programs are presented with persuasion, decision-support and clarity.”

Lawlor plans to remain engaged with Ross on a volunteer basis after retirement. He has committed to working with the Ross School’s Office of Action-Based Learning to secure and plan new projects and sponsorships.

“I’ve also committed to being an adviser to four international nonprofit organizations in Malawi, Rwanda, Kenya and Zambia who have hosted Ross students in recent years,” he said. “Countries where our students have offered effective guidance with great impact and learnings for both the Ross teams and the nonprofit leadership. There is much new work to be planned and executed by our students with these organizations.”

Championing global education
Wang, assistant director of the Office of International Affairs in Dearborn, has been with the University of Michigan for over 28 years. She is now recognized for her dedication to enhancing international education programs’ opportunities to support intercultural exchange and international student life. She leads the OIA in developing social events, workshops and information sessions.

Wang’s passion for education was cultivated from a young age, inspired by her father’s calligraphy scroll written in Chinese: “The sounds of wind, rain, reciting. Each sound comes into our ears. The family affairs, the national, the global, each affair comes to our attention.”

“I wanted to thank the UM-Dearborn leadership and faculty,” Wang said. “Their vision of leading international education at the Dearborn campus put me on this career path that I am passionate about.

“As an educator, I wanted to contribute and make an impact in our students’ lives. However, without support, it wouldn’t be possible. I love what I do every day over the years. This award is not just for me. It is for all the faculty and staff who share the same passion as me.”

For Wang, building internationalization on campus—based on understanding and respect for differences—is key to international students’ success, especially when transitioning to a new country and environment. The framework of using cultural references to build human competencies needs to be addressed in our interactions with students, she said.

“We need to cultivate quality education by supporting student organizations, providing volunteering opportunities and broadening students’ worldviews,” she said. “We have to help them to be open-minded to accept differences.”

Francisco Javier Lopez, director of international affairs at UM-Dearborn, said that international students represent a growing sector of the campus student population, making up about 10% of overall enrollment.

Wang has worked directly with international scholars every day, providing expert immigration advice and support services on federal regulations, maintenance of immigration status and F-1 student benefits. She also contributes to developing programs and opportunities in support of intercultural exchange and international student life, leading the OIA in creating social events, workshops and information sessions.

“Wang has contributed significantly to increasing global opportunities for all UM-Dearborn students,” Lopez said. “Her tireless work has had an overarching, transformative impact on the lives of countless students and scholars worldwide. She has also contributed significantly to expanding global and intercultural opportunities for all students across the university.”

For Wang, students from different backgrounds should have equal opportunities to get a quality education that we could offer as a university.

“We build programs and connections to promote lifelong learning opportunities for everyone willing to obtain more knowledge about global affairs, so we hope there will be less conflict in the world,” she said. “Through international education, we seek first to understand, then to be understood and learn to respect others. International education makes us humble and compassionate human beings. There are no boundaries to establishing friendships and learning from each other.”