FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 10, 2004
CONTACT: Kay Hendricks
210.208.8006

ALAMO COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT FACULTY AND STUDENTS GAIN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE THIS SUMMER

This summer, faculty and students from the Alamo Community Colleges are going global, as the district expands its efforts to provide faculty with opportunities for professional development and students with a chance to study abroad. A total of 23 faculty members and 76 students from ACCD’s four colleges are traveling around the world this summer as participants in a variety of programs sponsored by the district’s Office of International Programs.

"We are successfully expanding and enhancing our efforts to find more and better opportunities for professional development of our faculty and for study abroad for our students," said ACCD Chancellor Dr. J. Terence Kelly. "These experiences will help to foster a better understanding of other nations and cultures which will be of great benefit to both faculty and students, as well as our entire community," he added.

Seven ACCD faculty members will participate in the Fulbright-Hays Seminar Abroad program, one of the most prestigious and competitive in the country. Shelley Friend, Northwest Vista College speech communication instructor, and Tom Manzo, San Antonio College foreign language instructor, will travel to Bulgaria. Nora McMillan, SAC history instructor, will go to Morocco. Julia Jarrell, district office of international programs, will journey to South Africa, and Elsa Zambrano, Joan Osborne and Karen Mahaffey of Palo Alto College will travel to China. The participants will attend workshops, seminars and discussions on the cultural history of the countries they are visiting. They will also travel to cultural and educational centers to speak with local administrators, teachers, businessmen and community members.

Closer to home, faculty members Paul Martin and Patrick Evans of St. Philip’s College and Sandra Uribe of Northwest Vista College, along with 15 students, will travel to Oaxaca, Mexico for a service learning program. Two weeks of intensive instruction in Spanish, humanities and biology in San Antonio will be followed by two weeks in Oaxaca and a final week of class in San Antonio. The students will receive partial scholarships from the ACCD Foundation and the Pan-American Round Table of San Antonio.

Faculty members and students are also participating in for-credit Study Abroad programs in Spain, Costa Rica and Mexico. Palo Alto College faculty members Denise Barkis-Richter, Mark Hogensen and Mariana Ornelas, together with 14 PAC students are traveling to Spain for an intensive five-week program of studies in Madrid that includes Intermediate Spanish, Art Appreciation and News Reporting and Writing. The students will receive partial scholarships from the ACCD Foundation.

PAC faculty members William F. Daugherty, Therese Palacios and Elsa Zambrano and 27 students from Palo Alto College recently participated in a three-week Study Abroad program in International Logistics Management and International Comparative Management in Monterrey and Saltillo, Mexico. They spent two weeks in classes at Palo Alto College and one week in Mexico. Faculty members Jose Egremy and Nick Delello and nine students from Northwest Vista College also recently returned from a three-week Study Abroad program in biology and ecology in the El Zota Biological Station in Costa Rica. The students received partial scholarships from the Northwest Vista College Science Club.

In another effort, faculty members Carol Keller of San Antonio College and Carl Rush of Northwest Vista College will participate for nine days in the first conference organized by the American Association of Community Colleges in China. The faculty members were selected by a committee after submitting proposals to explain how attendance at the conference would have a positive impact on the courses they teach, their college and the district. The conference is June 30-July 10.

Also, faculty members Mary-Ellen Jacobs of Palo Alto College and Jana Cragg of St. Philip’s College will attend the Salzburg Seminar International Study Program in Austria July 17-24. This intensive, seven-day seminar focuses on pedagogy, curriculum and a more global vision of international understanding.

Northwest Vista College, Palo Alto College, St. Philip’s College and San Antonio College, the colleges of the ACCD, enroll more than half of the college population in San Antonio. The ACCD colleges offer day, evening and weekend classes, plus Internet courses and telecourses. Several of the colleges also offer weekend degree options that allow students to earn a two-year associate’s degree on weekends.

The four ACCD colleges are conveniently located on the southside, northwest, north central and eastside of San Antonio. Classes are also offered at St. Philip’s College’s Southwest Campus, located at East Kelly AFB, at the Northeast Campus at 7990 Pat Booker Road and at off-campus locations, including local businesses and military bases. Tuition at the ACCD colleges is the lowest in Bexar County, and a wealth of financial aid, including scholarships, loans and grants, is available for qualified students.