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About the Center

Driven and inspired by Spelman College’s mission statement, the Gordon-Zeto Center for Global Education reaffirms the College’s commitment to engage Spelman’s students with “many cultures of the world” and to widen their socio-economic and political horizons in an increasingly complex and interdependent global society.



In order to achieve global competence that students need to succeed as future professionals and global leaders, the Center serves as the institutional focal point to cohere, enhance and lead the College’s global strategic initiatives embodied in the Spelman College Strategic Plan for 2017-2022.

The Center also leads the institutionalization of the recently concluded and successful Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP): Spelman Going Global! which is a center-piece of the reaffirmation of the College’s accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges & Schools (SACSCOC).

Transforming the College's Mission Into Action

Established through an anonymous endowment gift of $17 million, the Gordon-Zeto Center is led by ‘Dimeji Togunde, Ph.D, vice provost for Global Education & professor of international studies, to translate the College’s comprehensive and integrated internationalization initiatives into action.

As an institutional space to expand Spelman’s long history of commitment to international education, the Center provides leadership for the College’s efforts to internationalize the Campus through curricular and co-curricular program enhancement; increased recruitment of international students and visiting scholars; promotion of study abroad and faculty/staff-led study travel programs for students; international service learning; and support for faculty global engagement. 

Forging Meaningful Collaborations Across Disciplines

The Center serves as a catalyst for forging fruitful collaborations and synergistic relationships among Spelman’s traditional academic departments, interdisciplinary studies programs, faculty committees, offices of enrollment management, undergraduate studies, college relations, institutional advancement, and student affairs to expand students’ conceptualization of the global community and their interactions with the local.

Moreover, through cross-fertilization of ideas among diverse constituencies, the Center aims to ensure that students see the interconnectedness between domestic and global diversity.

Providing the Spelman Community With Global Opportunities

The Gordon-Zeto Center comprises seven constituent parts including:

  • Study Abroad
  • Faculty-led Programs
  • A Cultural Orientation Program that coordinates the required pre-departure study-travel seminar
  • International Affairs Center
  • International Students’ Services and Programming
  • Global STEM (G-STEM) Program
  • Asian Studies Program

All the Gordon-Zeto programs are intentionally designed to provide a learning environment that engages students in comparative analysis of social systems that deepens their understanding of and appreciation for intercultural variation and their ability to show openness to cultural differences.

The Gordon-Zeto Center provides leadership for assessing all global initiatives and streamlining all global travel experiences.  It also serves as a clearing house for building international partnerships with overseas institutions in a way that can achieve the realization of the learning outcomes of Spelman’s Going Global initiative.