ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of Pacific's program in sufficient detail to enable others wishing to set up similar training programs to benefit from lessons that the students have learned over decades. SIS was founded with the aim of achieving a truly interdisciplinary undergraduate education. The goal was to create a learning community in which students would not only be exposed to multiple disciplines by taking classes in them, but also be required to actively explore how different disciplines approach understanding the world. More important, since 2006 cross-cultural training has been embedded within the engineering curriculum with the support of, and under the guidance of, the engineering department itself. Student satisfaction with this cross-cultural training remains high, and post-experience student evaluations of its usefulness are overwhelmingly positive. Traditional academic scholarly achievement is frequently evaluated on rather narrow disciplinary criteria related primarily to research and/or teaching.
