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October 2009
Welcome to the first edition of the SPC International Programs e-newsletter! We are pleased to share news of how the college’s international programs are growing, especially Study Abroad and faculty exchanges.
We encourage faculty to talk to students and students to talk to faculty and classmates who have not yet studied abroad to spread the word about these rewarding programs. We welcome you to explore with us the challenges and opportunities of today’s culturally diverse world beyond the traditional classroom. Please feel free to contact me with any questions you might have.
Violetta Sweet, International Programs Director
Celebrate International Education Week, Nov. 15-19 A joint initiative of the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education, International Education Week promotes programs that prepare Americans for a global environment and attract future leaders from abroad to study, learn, and exchange experiences in the United States. Join the celebration on your campus: Sunday, Nov. 15 – Palladium Theater Monday, Nov. 16 – Clearwater Campus Tuesday, Nov. 17 – Seminole Campus Wednesday, Nov. 18 – Tarpon Springs Campus Thursday, Nov. 19 – St. Petersburg/Gibbs Campus Visit the International Education Week Web page for details. Students study abroad in Italy, Belize and Ecuador This summer, SPC students took advantage of study abroad trips to Italy, Belize and Ecuador.
John Venturella, e-Campus Instructor, Seminole Campus, led the course as students attended class at Pontificia Urbanania University and visited sites such as the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter’s Basilica and the Coliseum. They even saw some of the world’s greatest art in Florence on a day trip. “The trip was unbelievable," Venturella said. "It was a great experience for the students to study there.” Learn more about Italy. View image gallery.
The students also completed a volunteer project, working with Green Hills Butterfly Farm and designing signs to educate visitors on the many species of plants that butterflies utilize in their life cycles. Many students commented that this was one of the best activities on the trip because it helped the people of Belize to better enjoy the diversity of their country's wildlife. Learn more about Belize. View image gallery.
"The Spanish Immersion Program in Cuenca, Ecuador was an outstanding experience," Levin said. "Students were totally engaged with the culture, their host families, the traditions, and the language. " The program was so enriching that some students went back to Cuenca to continue their language education before starting the fall term at SPC. Other students can't wait for summer 2010 to enroll in a new study abroad program. Learn more about Ecuador. View image gallery. The International Programs department is working to finalize 2010 Study Abroad trips to:
Visit the study abroad page to learn more. Study Abroad Scholarship Fund helps students travel the world The gift of a new culture is a great opportunity for a student. Give the opportunity for a student to study abroad and experience a new culture. Most of our students come back with a better understanding of and appreciation for life. These experiences stay with them forever and shape their future. Credit card donations Send a check or money order to: St. Petersburg College Foundation, Inc. Please include a note that you are contributing to the Study Abroad Scholarship. SPC International students visit Tallahassee A group of 22 international students representing countries from across the globe, including Mali, Korea, El Salvador, Cameroon, Romania, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Egypt, Peru, China, Colombia and Thailand, along with members of the St. Petersburg College Student Government Association, traveled to Tallahassee in March for a crash course in Florida state government.
Following lunch, the group conducted a mock session in the Florida House of Representatives Chamber led by the Clerk of the House, Bob Ward. The students introduced, debated, amended and voted on issues they created for the session. After the session, the group traveled to the 22nd floor of the Capitol where they heard from several legislative assistants on the daily operation of a Representative's office, how the staffers became interested in the political process, and how important public service is to them. From the top of the Capitol, the students broke into groups to tour the historic Capitol on the grounds of the Florida Capitol Complex, the Florida Museum of History, and the Supreme Court of Florida. SPC instructor John Hesting studies in Turkey The GSE program is a unique cultural and vocational exchange opportunity for businesspeople and professionals between 25 and 40 who are in the early stages of their careers. The program provides travel grants for teams to exchange visits in paired areas of different countries. For four to six weeks, team members experience the host country's culture and institutions, observe how their vocations are practiced abroad, develop personal and professional relationships, and exchange ideas. The group visited Turkey from May 6 - June 6 and went to 20 schools from kindergarten to the university level, meeting with many teachers and students. They came away with a better understanding of that country's school system as well as their own. "The ideas and issues shared not only will support our teaching practices, but will better help us become active leaders in guiding the continuing evolution of education," said Hesting. "Along the way, we were able to soak up an immense amount of the history of a land of unequaled diversity and culture." Learn more about Turkey. View image gallery. SPC instructor Tim Wolter teaches English in Lithuania
The Summer Language Institute (SLI), hosted by LCC International University, is located in the port city of Klaipeda, the third largest city in Lithuania.
Wolter was one of 35 volunteer teachers who came from Lithuania, Canada, the United States, Czech Republic and New Zealand to teach 230 secondary and adult students in this summer’s program. The curriculum integrated reading, speaking, writing, listening and grammar skills. He also is working to set up a Humanities study abroad trip to Lithuania next summer. Learn more about Lithuania. View image gallery. Students from U.S. and Russia cooperate on newspaper project Guatemalan educators team up with SPC faculty SPC soon plans to host the Dean of the Communication School, Director of the Open Learning Institute and the Vice-Rector at Galileo University. The goal of the Guatemalan educators is to broaden their knowledge in public speaking and ultimately be able to give these new skills to their students in Guatemala. They will team with SPC faculty members and learn about topics such as various forms of public speaking, with the focus on development of critical thinking, personal communication skills and personal effectiveness with audiences. They also will exchange ideas about general education curriculum and differences in both educational systems. Plans underway to work with Puerto Rican university For more than a decade, SPC has been educating the police force in Puerto Rico, which now has more than 18,000 officers; 6,000 of which have been trained by SPC. Recently, SPC began working with Inter American University of Puerto Rico to offer a master’s degree in Spanish through our University Partnership Center. Discussions have focused on the different delivery options including traditional face-to-face, blended learning (videoconferencing and SPOC) and online classes. A law enforcement conference at the Seminole Campus Digitorium also is being considered.
Russian cultural exchanges In May 2008, SPC welcomed Zhemchushinka, a famous group of Orenburg State University student dancers, and the pop group Ekskurs, to the United States. In Florida, these groups performed at The Palladium at St. Petersburg College and at Seminole Community College in spellbinding programs that included Russian folk songs, acrobatic dance, jazz, and rock music with modern staging. In February 2008, students from the college’s Department of Music traveled to Moscow, St. Petersburg and Orenburg, Russia, on a Musical Ambassadors Tour. While in Russia, the students performed a program of traditional American vocal and instrumental music for Orenburg students and faculty, and for television audiences in St. Petersburg. They were treated to dance performances organized by Orenburg students, attended a dinner where Russian cosmonaut Boris Volynov was the guest of honor. Also, they toured famous Russian landmarks.
Consular Corps College, SPC sign agreement The Consular Corps College (CCC), the national organization of foreign consuls in the United States, and St. Petersburg College, have forged a new educational relationship that will bring the CCC’s headquarters to SPC.
The chancellors of CCC visited SPC in July and unanimously endorsed the agreement. The SPC Board of Trustees approved the agreement at the October meeting. “We are very excited about this opportunity,” said Hans H. J. Pijls, Dean of the Consular Corps College and Honorary Consul of The Netherlands (Detroit). “The agreement with SPC will provide the Consular Corps College with significant infrastructural support. As a result, we will create unique educational and networking opportunities for consuls in the U.S. and beyond.” The Consular Corps College is a non-profit, non-political professional organization that primarily seeks to serve the foreign consular community in the U.S., estimated at around 4,500, through initial and continuing education, information sharing, networking and other means aimed at enhancing a consul’s effectiveness. Florida alone has more than 300 honorary general consuls. Under the agreement St. Petersburg College will provide its unparalleled educational know-how and technological capabilities to the organization. SPC President Carl M. Kuttler Jr. said faculty and academic programs at SPC will be enhanced by involvement with these foreign consuls from countries around the world. He said SPC will support the Consular Corps College by serving as its administrative home and by assisting in Web development, newsletter support and the securing of student interns. An entire educational program, both online and on site, will be developed. The program audience will include current and former foreign consular officers as well as students considering careers in areas related to public policy development and diplomacy. The program also hopes to involve retired diplomats whose experience can offer global benefits. The West Coast of Florida is home to about 20 consuls, honorary consuls and ambassadors. Kuttler told the representatives he, too, was excited about the relationship prospects. “I hope you felt the heartbeat of St. Petersburg College,” Kuttler said. “It’s been inspiring for us to meet with you.” Kuttler said this agreement is a first globally. “There has never before been a formal, productive relationship between an educational institution and the Consular Corps College,” he said. “This has so many opportunities for SPC, our students, and these diplomatic representatives. We hope this effort leads to a bachelor’s degree at SPC in public policy or a related field and to the ability of SPC’s University Partnership Center to offer graduate degrees in diplomacy or public policy.” Pijls said SPC’s vision of education in the 21st century “is very impressive, and our members, career and honorary consuls alike, will greatly benefit from joining forces with St. Petersburg College.” The Consular Corps College was founded in 1969 with the primary goal of increasing professional communication among foreign consular officers serving in the U.S. Any consular officer currently recognized by the U.S. State Department, as well as current and former protocol officers, may join the Consular Corps College.
During the past year, representatives from Haiti have visited St. Petersburg College to request assistance with the training of nurses in emergency preparedness and hurricane recovery. Because of the devastation in Haiti as a result of several hurricanes, the Haitian population is suffering from the lack of health care, educational resources and opportunities. In partnership with a hospital and several other organizations, St. Petersburg College is poised to educate and train nurses, law enforcement personnel, and government leaders in an effort to bring much needed technology skills and abilities to the Haitian people. In cooperation with the Office of the Special Envoy to Haiti from the United Nations and The Haitian League, SPC is collaborating to bring much needed economic development resources to the country. It also hopes to provide leadership and direction for the next Diaspora Congress in Haiti, and is working to establish a university partnership in Haiti. Recently, SPC donated used computers to a charitable organization for the new computer education center in St. Suzanne, one of the poorest regions in Haiti. These computers are being used to educate Haitian children about basic computer skills. Visitors from around the world come to St. Petersburg College for a variety of educational purposes. Faculty, administrators and students meet and share ideas resulting in an expanded global perspective. As a result of these new relationships, SPC has official agreements and partnerships with universities and governments including: Agreement signed with two schools in Armenia Mathematics Instructor Manuel Gerakios returned from Armenia recently, where he was working to set up a mathematics study abroad trip for next summer. He also discussed ways to assist students in taking online classes at SPC. Learn more about Armenia. Students from China's Sichuan Province visit SPC Visit our Global Initiatives page for a complete list. Agreement signed with Kalymnos, Greece
In January 2009, representatives from Kalymnos, Greece, were hosted by Conferlete Carney on SPC's Tarpon Springs Campus to discuss the availability of SPC courses for students in Kalymnos, a sister city with Tarpons Springs. An agreement between the city of Kalymnos and SPC was signed to work together on cultural and educational initiatives. In July 2009, Tarpon Springs Fine and Applied Arts Instructor Kimberly Felos traveled to Kalymnos and other Greek islands to plan a study abroad program with the country next summer. She hopes to lead a group of students on a two-week study abroad trip to Athens and Kalymnos. "The highlight of the trip will be spending time on the island of Kalymnos, where they will be immersed in the Greek culture,” Felos said. Learn more about Greece. View image gallery. Read a news article on the agreement on Tampabay.com. A not-so Ecuadorian girl in an Ecuadorian family Before I begin, I should probably share an important fact with you that is relevant to this subject: I’m not actually Hispanic. Although I love the Spanish language, watch telenovelas religiously (which is actually just embarrassing), eat Mexican food without abandon, have many Hispanic friends, and have a dream to one day marry Javier Bardem, there is actually no Hispanic blood coursing through these veins. You may wonder, then, why I’m writing a paper on Hispanic culture; it’s because I have a family in Ecuador. Yes, all the stuff I just said is true. I was born in the United States to parents who were born in the United States; my heritage is Irish, Italian, and German. Despite all this, I still have a loving family in Ecuador, and they have unwittingly made me love and appreciate my own family more than I ever had before.
In the fall semester of 2007, my Spanish professor, Roxana Levin, told all her classes about an upcoming trip to Cuenca, Ecuador. It would be a month long, and the trip would count as three Spanish credit hours. Roxana placed the sign-up sheet at the front of the class, and although I knew nothing about Ecuador, I put my name on the list anyway. I thought, “I don’t care what the country’s like, my parents and I will be on separate continents!” Looking back, it seems so immature, but before the trip I’d never lived away from my parents, so it was a big event. I was so excited about being able to do whatever I wanted in a foreign country. All the students on the trip were going to stay with families, and we all received tidbits of information before we left. The only things I knew about my future family were their names and that they had a dog. What I was most nervous about was what my family would be like. While my Hispanic friends had exposed me to many aspects of the culture, they had all moved to the United States without their parents, so I didn’t have a great knowledge of family dynamics. As soon as I met my host family and saw the way they interacted with each other, I felt the warmth and understood the importance of the family bond in Latin America. It also occurred to me that I had not at all rid myself of the parental influence I was so eager to escape. My host mother really was like my own mother, always asking me where I was going, worrying about me, asking me millions of questions when I came home late. I was never just a student living in their house; I was essentially a daughter. You would think that with my desire to be independent I would’ve hated this arrangement, but experiencing the incredibly close ties of an Ecuadorian family was something beautiful. Every day, the majority of people in Cuenca left school or work to go home and eat lunch with their families. As an American, that astounded me. I thought, “How can they just drop everything, in the middle of the day?” I grew to love this custom, and I still wish that people practiced it in the United States. This daily routine made me recognize the fundamental difference between the lifestyle in Ecuador and the lifestyle in the U.S.: in Ecuador, most people have the capacity to slow down, and keep their loved ones as their top priority. So many families in the U.S. now have adopted non-stop activity lifestyles in which family interaction consists of constantly rushing from one place to the next without actually bonding. Another stark difference I noticed in not only family interactions, but in interactions among all people, were the expressions of kindness. In Ecuador, friends and family almost always greet you with a hug and a kiss on the cheek. At first, this custom seemed uncomfortable to me, having people kiss me on the cheek all the time. Soon it became commonplace to me, and I now wonder why people in the U.S. can seem so cold and distant when interacting with each other. The only downside to living with a family with such strong and healthy relationships was the way it touched my heart and how it made me miss my own family. Every single day, my host sister and her husband would come to the house with their baby boy, and everyone, including myself, poured their affections over him. I thought that baby must’ve been the most adored human on the planet. Seeing my host mother and sister interact was what really got to me; they bickered, they disagreed, and they loved each other unconditionally. I began to miss my own mother terribly. When I returned to the U.S. and saw my parents in the airport, it was unlike any experience I’ve ever had. I was overwhelmed with gratitude, and I gave them big hugs, which is something I probably wouldn’t have done so openly before. Going to Ecuador was more than just an amazing trip; it made me change the way I treat the people I love. International Programs team:
For more information E-mail or call BarbaraAnn Wells at 727-341-4735. |
World religion studies in Rome, Italy
Students study in the rainforest of Belize
Intensive Spanish language study in Ecuador
The day started with a tour of the Florida Senate chamber, followed by a pizza lunch on the Portico outside of the Senate office building, where the students heard from members of the Pinellas County legislative delegation. Many of the legislators and staff members joined the students for lunch. Afterward, a formal question-and-answer period developed before the law makers had to return to their duties in the Capitol.
Tim Wolter, Humanities Instructor, St. Petersburg/Gibbs Campus, recently returned from Lithuania where he spent July teaching English to students from Belarus, Moldova, Latvia, Russia, Poland, Italy and Lithuania. 
