Education
onderwijs

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

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, you can contact our committee.

Rotterdam artist and theatre artist Kathie diStefano from Avalanche Arts (Stichting Lawine) has done several residencies in Baltimore over the years, with a focus on Baltimore’s Brooklyn-Curtis Bay neighborhood. During these residencies, she has worked with students, teachers, and community residents. diStefano periodically facilitates virtual exchanges between Baltimore and Rotterdam area schools with an environmental theme. She received a grant from the Netherlands Chapter of World Wide Fund for Nature (WNF) for this initiative. She also conducts workshops and interactive performances about trash and recycling for students throughout Maryland via Arts For Learning Maryland.

More information on our HarborTraces website

Architecture Education

Professor Cristina Murphy coordinates onging exchange programs and collaborations between Morgan State University School of Architecture + Planning (MSU SA+P) and the Rotterdamse Academie van Bouwkunst (RAvB) since 2019. Activities have included: annual architecture student trips to Rotterdam with city tours and visits to architecture and urban design firms; research and designs for neighborhoods in Baltimore and Rotterdam; exhibitions; symposiums; webinars; design workshops; and lectures.   

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, Professor in the Fiber Department at MICA, a native of Rotterdam (Couwenberg also served as chair of the Baltimore-Rotterdam Sister City Committee for many years).

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.

The schools are currently engaged in Unravel the Code, a recurring collaborative interdisciplinary course about digital fabrication and smart textiles. Students from both schools participate in classes together, across the Atlantic. Johns Hopkins University’s Digital Media Center and Technische Universiteit Eindhoven have also collaborated on this coursework. More information and examples of the student work: Class website

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. These university exchanges were initially started in the 1980’s with help from Baltimore-Rotterdam Sister City Committee members.