The Office of International Student Services is now the Office of International Students and Scholars. The office applied to host J-1 Exchange Visitors and Scholars. This program allows professors or those who have been accomplished in research or education to enter the United States for the purpose of lecturing, observing or training at academic institutions.

The visa allows recipients to stay for six months, without ability to request an extension or change of category for their visa. According to Director of International Students and Scholars Kristi Syrdahl, there are 12 different classifications that fall under a J-1 visa. Elizabethtown College is now able to host two of them: short-term students and scholars.

In previous years, the College has hosted a language intensive exchange program with students from Nihon University in Japan. Now that Etown can host J-1 Exchange Visitors and Scholars, the program can grow.

This designation also opens the door for other programs in the future, according to Syrdahl.

The Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies, which is known around the world for Anabaptist studies, also allows more scholars to visit for research.

According to Syrdahl, this designation also will allow visiting professors to teach a class at the College in order to diversify the courses available, such as new options for foreign language classes. Syrdahl says this would be “supplemental to what we already have here” by adding “new knowledge areas and points of view.”

Because the College can now host those with a J-1 visa, the name change occurred to take into account the new scholars that can now be hosted at Etown. With this new designation, Syrdahl hopes to encourage “reciprocity and diplomacy.”

Even though the process to apply for this designation was complicated, Syrdahl is excited about the change.

“It’s great; just a little over 1,400 places have been designated, and we are one of them,” she said.