“An Opportunity I Welcomed": Susan Briziarelli, PhD, Is Named Interim Director of Levermore Global Scholars

Susan Briziarelli, PhD, director of Levermore Global Scholars and associate provost for faculty support and global affairs.

Adelphi’s Levermore Global Scholars (LGS) program is a learning community for students of any major. Introduced in 2006, Levermore Global Scholars students examine and address complex global issues such as climate change, sustainability, world health, peacebuilding and human rights and become leaders of positive social and global change.

LGS “was one of the aspects of Adelphi that intrigued me before I came here,” said Susan Briziarelli, PhD, who joined Adelphi in 2008 as associate dean of the Adelphi University College of Arts and Sciences. In 2019, she became Adelphi’s first associate provost for global affairs. In 2023 she was named interim director of LGS.

“The LGS program is unique in several ways,” she said. “Students share an interest in learning more about the world around them and how they can make a difference, and everybody brings a different viewpoint to the table. LGS has some of the most interesting and diverse classroom discussions and conversations. The students are all very engaged inside and outside the classroom. They all are interested in social justice and community action, and many of them are leaders on campus and in outside organizations. To work with them again as the director was an opportunity I welcomed.”

The Importance of Thinking Globally

Preparing students to look at issues from a global perspective is one of the hallmarks of LGS and something that has never been more important.

“We are increasingly connected with the rest of the world: jobs, politics, the economy, the environment,” Dr. Briziarelli said. “Everything happening in the world affects us in some way, and to not learn about it and engage with it is to do ourselves a great disservice.”

Students participate in conferences and workshops at the United Nations and are encouraged to study abroad.

In 2022, Bharat Bhisé, MBA ’78, founded the Bhisé Global Learning Experience, which provides students with distinctive on-campus and international experiential learning opportunities. In January 2023, eight students from LGS traveled to India for a 10-day immersive experience. Participation in the January 2024 excursion to India was extended to non-LGS students.

Notable Levermore Global Scholars Alumni

Many LGS students go on to further their education, become leading professionals in their chosen fields and volunteers.

• Saira Amar ’22 majored in international relations and served as the Adelphi Youth Representative to the United Nations. She earned her Master of Public Administration at Brown University and currently works for the Committee to Protect Journalists.
• Caio Gomes ’23 majored in international studies and is fluent in three languages. He is currently pursuing a Master of Translation Studies at NYU.
• Chitralekha (Pooja) Kar ’18, MS ’19, was an international student from Bangladesh who double majored in accounting and economics before earning her master’s. She won Adelphi’s annual business plan competition in 2019. She is currently the assurance senior at EY (Ernst and Young) and founded a nonprofit, Bold and Becoming. At the 2023 Women’s Leadership Conference, she moderated the panel “Self-Advocacy: What No One Ever Taught Me.”
• Melanie Rosa-Chaves ’22, who double majored in communication sciences and Spanish, was one of just three college graduates nationwide selected in 2022 for a prestigious Fulbright fellowship to teach English in Portugal. Now back in New York City, she is pursuing a master’s degree at Columbia University.
• Isuri Wijesundara ’18 was an international student from Sri Lanka who majored in theater and served as president of the Class of 2018. She is now a professional actress and an activist. She starred in the Apple TV+ series Little America while earning her MFA from Yale University.