Students who come to Mudec from Ohio are encouraged to engage and travel as well as study. Here a group pose during a trip to Blankenberge on the Belgian coast. Mudec

Students who come to Mudec from Ohio are encouraged to engage and travel as well as study. Here a group pose during a trip to Blankenberge on the Belgian coast. Mudec

Some 700 alumni guests from around the world are coming to Luxembourg to celebrate with the Miami University Dolibois European Center.

The five-day celebration of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of Miami University’s European Center in Luxembourg includes events open to the public, including an art exhibition and open house at the Center.  

In addition, Fox News journalist and presenter Bill Hemmer, a Miami University alumnus who attended Mudec as part of his studies, will give a lecture at the Aalt Stadthaus on 7 October. AS former host of “American Morning” on CNN, Hemmer has reported from the field on several major stories including the Sandy Hook shootings and the Boston marathon bombing, interviewed Barack Obama when he was a candidate in 2008 and was embedded with U.S. Marines in Camp Fallujah in Iraq. He now presents the “America's Newsroom” morning show on Fox alongside Sandra Smith.

John E. Dolibois

Mudec was established in 1968 under the auspices of Charles Ray Wilson, Provost of Miami University in Oxford Ohio, and a group of committed administrators and faculty. These included then Vice President John E. Dolibois, a native of Bonnevoie after whom the centre was named in 1988. Dolibois emigrated to the United States as a boy in 1931 and went on to study at Miami and to serve in the US Army in WWII and was an interrogator of Nazi war criminals during the Nuremberg trials. He later became the United States ambassador to the grand duchy. The European Center was originally located in the capital city, first on rue Curé, then rue Goethe and finally on avenue Monterey. It moved to its current location, the chateau in Differdange in 1997.

Mudec now welcomes students from Miami University in Ohio for spring or autumn semesters as well as for a summer programme. The programme is also open to students from other accredited U.S. institutions of higher education. Students are encouraged to not only study but also to engage with the local community (they are accommodated by host families in Luxembourg) and to travel throughout Europe--either independently or as part of their study programme. “It teaches them autonomy,” says Dean of Mudec Thierry Leterre. “And they get to see the real diversity of Europe.”

Ambitious plans

Leterre has ambitious plans for Mudec as its programme of courses expands to include a module in writing murder mysteries and an education course studying different school systems in Europe. He also wants to establish an American Culture Center in Luxembourg City that he envisions being run by students. It would host lectures and exhibitions and cultural performances. “It’s a shame that there is nothing of its kind in Luxembourg,” says Leterre.

Meanwhile, Mudec continues to offer scholarships to Luxembourg-based students to study at Miami University in Ohio, and the university there is seeking to create more scholarships to attract a richer diversity in its student body, which would eventually also allow students from disadvantaged backgrounds to come to Luxembourg for a semester.