Cooperative
Association of States for Scholarships
(CASS)
Beginning
in 1996 the Office of International Programs
has served as the local administrator and
program developer for the Cooperative Association
of States for Scholarships (CASS) in San Antonio,
administered internationally by Georgetown
University and funded by USAID. This program
provides higher education and training opportunities
to students and young professionals from underserved
communities in Mexico, Central America, and
the Caribbean.
Since
2000, the ACCD’s CASS program has created
and refined an intensive yearlong professional
development program for socially responsive
rural educators from these same areas. The
rural educators selected for the program are
charged with implementation of local leadership
initiatives in the rural schools of their
home communities after their year of training
at Palo Alto College.
The
CASS program, delivered at Palo Alto College,
has assembled an interdisciplinary instructional
team of specialists with extensive experience
and deep connections in the local, regional
and international educational community. The
Office of International Programs is culminating
the program of the seventh group of CASS rural
teachers who return to their home communities
in December, preparing for the eighth group
to arrive in January and planning for a ninth
group in 2008.
The
CASS program has created a localized framework
for program delivery, using specific environmental,
cultural, and institutional resources from
the community. This network is made up of
local, state, and federal governmental agencies,
museums and cultural organizations, institutions
of higher education, bilingual educator associations,
and school districts with dual language programs
serving families of cultural minorities and
immigrants. Building on a network of bi-national
partnerships with universities in the northern
Mexican states, the Office of International
Programs has created short courses and exchanges
focusing on shared resources. Organized as
field courses utilizing sites on both sides
of the borderlands, these exchanges have been
opportunities for bi-national teams to explore
different aspects of the resources they share.
For
more information, contact Julia
Jarrell.
