SAIS Bologna: "a transformative process"

Tom Tesluk is chairman of the Bologna Center Advisory Council, comprised of U.S. and European leaders who provide operating advice and financial support to the institution.

A 1981 graduate of SAIS Bologna, Tom decided to attend the program to expand his horizons and challenge his assumptions by studying with students and faculty from other countries.

"It is still changing my life," Tom says in the video interview below, calling SAIS Bologna a "transformative process."

His motivations remain valid for many of the 190-odd students who attend the Center three decades after Tom did.

I spoke to Tom last week when he was in Bologna for the Advisory Council's annual meeting. Tom currently is CEO of Sequent Consulting LLC and provides management and international business development advice to European and U.S. clients.



If you are reading this via email, you can see the video here.

Nelson Graves

A summer challenge

When John Harper, professor of American Foreign Policy, spoke to alumni last spring, he sought to sum up why he and other faculty have chosen to "tarry" at SAIS Bologna for many years (or decades, in Prof. Harper's case).

"Those who were associated with the Bologna Center -- from library stack attendants to members of the permanent and visiting faculty -- were all part of an intimate academic community such as one rarely finds today," Prof. Harper told the Alumni Weekend gathering, quoting from a 1977 obituary of the Bologna Center's founder, C. Grove Haines.

The word "community" comes up often when alumni talk about Bologna. SAIS Bologna tends to be an intense year that packs academic challenges, career planning and healthy socializing into a few months.

It may sound ironic, but the diversity of the student body contributes to the sense of togetherness. This coming year we have 202 students enrolled from 44 countries. That means everyone is in a minority of sorts. Even the 87 U.S. citizens are guests in a foreign country. Diversity in a common, intimate setting: it helps bring people together.

Helped by one of our most active alumni, Tom Tesluk (BC81/DC82), SAIS Bologna has decided to tap into that sense of community and at the same time have a bit of fun this summer.

We are asking alumni to show us what they miss most about Bologna -- and to show it to the world.

Starting this Friday, August 19, alumni can upload content capturing their feelings and memories -- text, photos, audio, video -- onto the SAIS Bologna website. The entries will be part of a five-week contest, or mission, with the content that captures the most votes from registered visitors winning a free dinner for six in the Italian restaurant of their choice.

I bring this to the attention of our readers because you may want to check out the content (by going to www.jhubc.it). It will give those of you who are thinking of applying or even those enrolled for 2011-12 an idea of what our 6,700 alumni consider special about the place. I think much of the material will be imaginative and compelling. It should give a unique perspective on the Bologna Center.

Remember: our network of alumni is regularly cited as an advantage for SAIS students looking to plug into opportunities around the world.

Much is made of social media nowadays. This initiative seemed a natural: to harness the power of technology to bring our community even closer together.

Nelson Graves

SAIS Bologna Half a Century Ago: Back to the Future

"Here gather those who tomorrow will shape a new community among nations."

Those heady words topped the lead article in a magazine published more than four decades ago celebrating the Bologna Center's 10th birthday.

Forty-six years later, much -- and in some cases little -- has changed.

Like the city of Bologna highlighted over the decades by a leading U.S. newspaper, SAIS Bologna has retained many charms and attributes while evolving with the times.

For a glimpse into the past, check out this special edition of The Johns Hopkins Magazine from December 1964-January 1965.


The parents of some of our incoming students were barely out of diapers when the magazine was published. But if you are coming to SAIS Bologna this year or thinking of applying, take a peek at what came before.

The Bologna Center opened in February 1955 in borrowed rooms with 10 students and four (all male) professors. Within a decade it had grown to 82 students from 14 countries and 15 (still all male) faculty.

In 2011-12 we are expecting close to 200 students from more than 40 countries -- and with many women professors.

The magazine explains that SAIS DC and SAIS Bologna "grew in importance in the post-World War II period when the consolidation of new power blocs such as Western Europe, and the exigencies of the cold war and the nuclear age, demanded many more people trained in international economics, diplomacy, and the culture and history of various nations."

SAIS Bologna founder C. Grove Haines
and senior administrators

So without the cold war, is SAIS Bologna still relevant?

Consider SAIS's mission as defined in the magazine: "to prepare the best available candidates for careers in internationally-oriented areas of government, business, teaching, and research."

Something else seems not to have changed: "The Center's great contribution lies in its providing, for the European students, a radically novel academic atmosphere, and for the Americans, the chance to gain an intimate, on-the-spot, knowledge of Europe."

Students from other continents now join Europeans in seeking a U.S.-style educational experience with small classes and professors who put a premium on participation and engagement by students.

You should know that three of the contributors to the magazine carved out impressive careers. John Tuthill was U.S. ambassador to the European Communities when the publication was released and later ambassador to Brazil. Jean-Baptiste Duroselle was a leading French historian while well-known Franco-German academic and journalist Alfred Grosser taught politics at SAIS Bologna from 1955 until 1973.

Some of our readers may have seen and heard Pierre Hassner, who is pictured in the magazine article, in one of our recent blog posts. Can you say which one?

Finally, sharp-eyed SAIS Bologna alumnus Tom Tesluk (BC81/DC82) noticed that one of the most famous photographers ever, considered by many to be the father of photojournalism, snapped the pictures of the authors of the magazine articles -- Henri Cartier-Bresson.

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With summer upon us, our readers, however loyal, are quite rightly cutting back their time in front of computers. Between now and mid-August, we will be running one planned post a week on Tuesdays and leave open the possibility of a post on Thursdays for bits and pieces. In July we'll highlight two award-winning pieces of work done at SAIS Bologna this past year, and we'll summarize the results of our recent survey.

If you feel we need to address an issue in the blog, be sure to send us your thoughts, either via the comment space on the blog or with an email to admissions@jhubc.it. Your input helps.

Nelson Graves