Loyola’s Sellinger School partners with refugee center in Turkey

Loyola University Maryland’s Sellinger School of Business and Management formalized a collaborative relationship with the Taiwan-Reyhanli Centre for World Citizens, which helps Syrian refugees in the Turkish-Syrian border city of Reyhanli, Turkey. The relationship creates opportunity for Sellinger faculty, students, and the Loyola community to support humanitarian and international development efforts in Turkey through service learning.

“The partnership represents Loyola’s commitment to caring for our common home and making a social impact beyond our immediate environment,” said Irem Demirkan, Ph.D., associate dean and associate professor of management and organizations at Sellinger. “We’re excited by the potential opportunities for Baltimore and the small refugee epicenter of Reyhanli.”

The Sellinger School and Taiwan-Reyhanli Centre will work together to develop educational programs, exchange faculty members and students, and collaborate on research activities, lectures, talks, and symposiums. The relationship also creates potential for collaboration in the areas of marketing, crowdfunding, language support, data collection and analysis, and counseling.

Mary Ann Scully, MBA ’79, dean of the Sellinger School, and Chiu Chen-Yu, Ph.D., founding director of the Taiwan-Reyhanli Centre, signed a memorandum of understanding Feb. 28 establishing the partnership. Chen-Yu delivered a lecture prior to the signing as part of an event attended by Loyola faculty and administrators representing political science, modern languages, sociology, education and counseling, career services, and business.

Hung-bin Ding, Ph.D., associate dean and professor of management at Sellinger, initially established the collaboration between the Sellinger School and Taiwan-Reyhanli Centre. It was strengthened by two subsequent visits by a representative from the center who made presentations to Sellinger students.