Harris honored for promoting international opportunities for students

View larger image — Professor Al Harris from the Walker College of Business, left, has received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the college for his longstanding support of and participation in study abroad programs for students. Meredith Church presented the award on behalf of the college and its international programs office.

Posted Nov. 18, 2015 at 11:49 a.m.

BOONE—Professor Al Harris from Appalachian State University’s Department of Computer Information Systems and Supply Chain Management has received the Walker College of Business’s Lifetime Achievement Award for devoting his career to providing students with international opportunities.

Harris has led short-term, study abroad trips to Poland, Japan, Taiwan, India, France and China.

He will travel to Poland in spring 2016 on his second Fulbright Award for research and teaching. As a Fulbright Scholar, he will teach classes in information technology to master’s-level students at Adam Mickiewicz University in Pozan, Poland.

In 2013, Harris started a study abroad experience in Poland where students from Appalachian worked with Polish students on a week-long project. He also led a study abroad to Adam Mickiewicz University in 2014 and again in May.

Harris has had visiting faculty appointments around the globe. In 2013, he lectured to Chinese graduate students and faculty at Northeastern University in Shenyang, China. He was an exchange professor at the University of Angers in France. Harris taught graduate seminars at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland, in 2011 and at the University of Évora in Évora, Portugal, in 2006, the latter being another Fulbright Scholar assignment. For several years, Harris taught undergraduate classes at Fachhochschule Vorarlberg in Dornbirn, Austria, where his classes consisted of students from more than 10 countries. Harris has taught military and civilian personnel through his experience leading graduate classes in Lakenheath, England, and Heidelberg, Germany.

Harris believes international experience is important to an individual’s development. Learn more about Harris’ international experience and philosophies at http://business.appstate.edu/blog/3459.

About Appalachian State University

As a premier public institution, Appalachian State University prepares students to lead purposeful lives. App State is one of 17 campuses in the University of North Carolina System, with a national reputation for innovative teaching and opening access to a high-quality, cost-effective education. The university enrolls more than 21,000 students, has a low student-to-faculty ratio and offers more than 150 undergraduate and 80 graduate majors at its Boone and Hickory campuses and through App State Online. Learn more at https://www.appstate.edu.