Cynthia Simmons, an MSU associate geography professor, is leading the program’s first project — Globalization: Socio-economic, Political and Environmental Interdependence — which received a grant of about $500,000 from the U.S. Department of Education and Brazilian Ministry of Education. The grant will cover costs for flying professors to and from the countries as they develop the curriculum, as well as other startup costs, Simmons said.

The yearlong program will consist of about 24 credit hours, with classes held at each of the four universities, she said.

“It’s different than the traditional study abroad because Brazilians and Americans will be studying together and spend time interacting with each other,” Simmons said.

Another difference is the courses taught in Brazil will be led by Brazilian faculty instead of MSU professors, she said.

The program will start with an online course at MSU when it launches in spring 2012, she said. Students then will spend about two months in Brazil studying environmental policy, politics and global development. At the end, all the students will come back to the U.S. to take courses in geography and spatial analysis to develop their final projects, Simmons said.

The program will be open to students from several different areas of study including environmental policy, economic development and natural and social sciences, Simmons said. Students accepted into the program will study Portuguese during the months before they leave for South America, she said.

“We need to create global citizens of the future if we need to deal with these various complicated issues,” Simmons said. The issues include how to ease the negative impacts of global climate change, she said.

MSU has been involved in Brazil for more than 60 years for a wide variety of research projects, including studies in the Amazon rainforest, and also has helped to found one of the country’s business schools, said Stephanie Motschenbacher, director of communications for international studies and programs.

The Brazilian Partnership Program is distinctive because MSU students and Brazilian students will have the opportunity to study together in the classroom and learn about the cultures from both perspectives and languages, she said.

“I think the issues and challenges we have in Michigan, in the U.S. and around the world are interconnected,” Motschenbacher said. “When you’re trying to solve a problem or issue in Michigan, understanding what it means to the world makes (MSU) a more competitive place.”

Marcellus Caldas, an assistant professor of geography at Kansas State University who also is involved in the partnership, said the world is in an era of globalization, and students need the opportunity to experience what they’ll be facing in their jobs after graduation.

“Most of our students here, they’ve never left the state of Kansas,” Caldas said. “Exposing these students to this kind of opportunity is an experience they’ll never forget.”

Brazil is becoming an economic powerhouse and the exchange will give the United States a chance to attract their students to study here, he said.

“Sometimes we pay too much attention to China and India and forget our neighbors in South America here who have a lot of power and influence,” Caldas said.