Education
onderwijs

Educational exchanges take place in numerous ways, involving students and teachers on all educational levels. Baltimore and Rotterdam often send school officials to each other’s cities, to trade knowledge. Our committee has also helped to establish several ongoing student exchange programs.

Medical Education

University of Maryland School of Medicine and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have ongoing student exchange programs with Erasmus Medical School in Rotterdam. University of Maryland’s program was started in 1985.

Art Education

The Willem de Kooning Academie (WdKA) in Rotterdam and Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore have had an institutional partnership since 1992, born of the efforts of Annet Couwenberg, Chair of the Fiber Department at MICA, a native of Rotterdam.

In the beginning, exchange of students between the two institutions was slow — only one student every couple of years. But since 2004, interest in each college as a study abroad destination has grown exponentially. As many as five students a semester participate in study abroad exchange between MICA and WdKA, in areas such as fibers/fashion, graphic design, illustration, painting and sculpture.

A new exchange is being planned, where art education students from WdKA will do teaching internships in Baltimore classrooms. 

Faculty exchange and collaboration is also a large part of the institutional relationship between WdKA and MICA. Bernard Canniffe, Chair of Graphic Design at MICA, has traveled to Rotterdam for two consecutive summers for a collaborative design project in the Oud Noord section of Rotterdam. Bernard Canniffe worked with graphic design students and physicians in Rotterdam that would communicate health messages to a disenfranchised community. The design projects also empowered the community and helped dispel social and cultural stereotypes. In 2006, MICA welcomed guest professor from WdKA, Peter Zuiderwijk, to teach Graphic Design IV, a junior-year required course in the Graphic Design department. Peter Zuiderwijk was the fifth Dutch graphic designer to take part in this cultural exchange initiative.

In January 2008, WdKA and LMC (a consortium of Rotterdam schools) visited Baltimore to learn about magnet school programs for the visual arts, in elementary through high schools. They will use the ideas they’ve learned from Baltimore to set up a visual arts school in Rotterdam.

WdKA and MICA also collaborate with the Baltimore-Rotterdam Sister City Committee on Reflection, an art educational exchange program between Baltimore and Rotterdam public schools (elementary, middle, and high schools).

A joint Masters program in Fashion Design is being planned between WdKA, MICA and other institutions in Europe and Asia. 

Elementary/Middle/High Schools

Rotterdam schools occasionally contact us about doing exchange projects with Baltimore. If you are affiliated with a Baltimore school, and your school is interested in an exchange, please contact our committee.