News Releases

Lander University's international initiative has created new opportunities for academic exchanges between Lander and nine colleges and universities in South Korea, China and Thailand.

William Holt, a tea master of the Higo Koryu School of Tea in Japan, conducts a tea ceremony at Lander University as part of the university's Focus on Japan observance. He also described the traditions associated with the ceramic vessels used in the ceremony, many of which he made.

Lander University welcomed nearly 60 international students when it opened its doors for the fall semester on Sept. 1. The students are from 23 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, and two are from Australia and four from Canada.

The farthest Lander University student Nicole Richmond has traveled from her home in Columbia is Chicago, about 650 miles away. On Aug. 22, she will embark on a journey more than ten times that distance when she boards a plane for a 7,200 mile trip to South Korea, where she will spend the fall semester studying at the University of Incheon.

Lander University president Daniel Ball has signed a memorandum of understanding with a university in Thailand, an agreement that will enable students from both schools to study on each other’s campus. The signing increases to nine the number of Asian schools Lander has finalized exchange agreements with since March.

Their greetings were as warm as the sultry Greenwood morning as the two men, presidents of universities more than 7,000 miles apart, shook hands and renewed a friendship that began three months earlier in a cooler climate on the other side of the Pacific.

Lander University graduate Cassie Biron of Greenwood did a lot of traveling as a member of a military family, and she will soon be on the road again to a new destination as a Peace Corps volunteer. Biron is headed for the Kingdom of Lesotho, a landlocked enclave tucked within the borders of South Africa. It is a poor nation whose per capita income is below the international poverty level. Its inhabitants have a life expectancy of 40 years with an HIV/AIDS rate of more than 23 percent.

Four Lander University students have been selected to attend a three-week international summer session at Dong-A University in Busan, South Korea. They will become the first Lander students to study in Korea under recent agreements Lander made with Dong-A and six other colleges and universities in Korea and China. The agreements will enable students from Lander and the other institutions to study on each other’s campuses starting this year.

Dr. Daniel Ball, president of Lander University, seated right, signs a Memorandum of Understanding with officials of East China Normal University in Shanghai. Ball and Dr. Sung-Jae Park, standing right, Lander’s interim dean of International Programs, are visiting China and South Korea to meet with the administrators of six colleges and universities.