School of Social Work’s Norton receives Fulbright to Taiwan

By Ryan Thornton
University News Service
March 16, 2016

Christine Norton, associate professor in the Texas State University School of Social Work, has been awarded a Fulbright United States Scholar grant to Taiwan for the 2017 spring semester.

Norton will teach with Chih Mou Hsieh, a noted humanitarian and experiential educator, at National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei. Norton and Hsieh will train students to use an adventure-based model in international relief work. The model was created jointly by Norton and Hsieh as a way to foster cultural bridging through shared adventure-based experiences.

“In this model, participants engage in trust building, problem-solving and teambuilding games and initiatives to build community and create opportunities for dialogue,” Norton said. “Through training and education around cultural bridging, students preparing to be international relief workers, social workers and mental health professionals will learn to collaborate with those they are helping and infuse the service work with culturally-relevant information to focus the relief efforts on the indigenous person’s needs, rather than the relief worker’s values and expectations.”

The Fulbright Program is administered by the Council for International Exchange of Scholars and is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the United States government. It is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United State and the people of other countries. For more than 60 years, U.S. faculty and professionals have taught, studied or conducted research abroad, and thousands of scholars from abroad have done similar work in the United States.

Norton holds degrees from the University of Chicago, Minnesota State University and Loyola University in Chicago. She has more than 15 years of experience working with high-risk youth in a variety of settings. Her areas of practice and research experience are in adolescent development, treatment and empowerment; wilderness and adventure therapy; youth mentoring; juvenile justice, alternative sentencing and restorative justice; experiential education; and international social work.

For further information about the Fulbright Program or the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, visit http://eca.state.gov/fulbright.