Director of CALIS
Teresa Hudock is the founding director of the Center for Active Learning in International Studies (CALIS), established in 2000 as a state resource center of the California International Studies Project. Guided by the practical approach of “think globally, act locally”—she envisioned an integrated outreach program with service-learning at its core. The CALIS mission is to promote innovation is social science education with USC students as the driving force of the center’s growth and impact.
Teresa positioned the Teaching International Relations Program (TIRP) as a centerpiece, supporting USC undergraduates to team-team in local high schools. At the start, she designed an online database to make materials accessible for TIRP teams and all those interested in using analytical tools to promote critical thinking needed to respond to complex issues. To manage TIRP as a program for students, run by students, Teresa guides and entrusts a student staff team to recruit, train, place, advise, monitor, and evaluate their peers –the TIRPers. In 2021, when CALIS garnered a generous endowment from the Kachigian family, she initiated a new collaboration with Faculty Advisors from Dornsife International Relations to form a team of undergrad Research Assistants. The RA team creates new TIRP resources related to professors’ research fields. As materials are honed for engagement in neighboring schools, they are launched to the world-wide web. All part of the plan to teach locally, reach globally.
Teresa received her B.A. Political Sociology and Social Change from UCLA and a master’s in Global Studies Education from a joint program between Immaculate Heart College Center and the USC School of International Relations (SIR). She joined USC’s first outreach program for international studies in 1984. Having taught middle and high school, she helped implement an SIR national project focused on curriculum and professional development for K-12 teachers. Through the 90s, she transferred to a partner organization to continue work with education reform, returned to classroom teaching, then consulted for UCLA and USC. With the USC East Asian Studies Center, she authored and directed two grant projects awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Schools for a New Millennium.
After launching CALIS, the Center was recognized within five years as one of the top three university outreach programs in international studies among a national pool of over one hundred centers. Teresa has presented her work nationally and internationally and has been honored at the state and local levels for Outstanding Contributions to social science education.