Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

2015-2016 internationalization activities

Fall 2015

• On Tuesday, November 3, visiting Fullbright Scholar Veronica Carmona Barranechea presented “Right to the City and Social Justice: an Analysis of the Housing Crisis in Buenos Aires, Argentina” to a group of 40 students and faculty at Sylvania.
• On Tuesday, November 17, fifty PCC students received a free passport!
• On Friday, November 20, PCC participated in the World Affairs Council of Oregon Trivia Contest! The PCC team included: Chris Chairsell (Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs), Dave Stout (Dean of English and World Languages at Sylvania), Bryan Hull (Comp/Lit), John Sparks (ESOL), Usha Ramanujam (Business), Tara Foster (Comp/Lit), James Harrison (History) and Tatiana Snyder (Psychology).
• On Monday, November 23, well known French singer/ songwriter, Eric Vincent, gave a performance and workshop to students and faculty in the French department at Sylvania Campus.
• On Wednesday, November 25, Dr. Blair D. Woodard, Assistant Professor of History at University of Portland, presented “Cuba during the Special Period” to a crowded PAC lobby at Sylvania Campus.
• “Speed Culturing” happened four times at Sylvania Campus in Fall 2015 and once at Southeast Campus! At each “speed culturing” event, a class of students from either Cultural Anthropology, Sociology, Dental Hygiene, or Dental Assisting discussed their course topics one-on-one with a variety of international peers from an ESOL class.

Winter 2016

• In late Fall 2015 and early Winter 2016, the Internationalization Initiative steering committee selected the members for PCC’s inaugural, faculty Education Abroad Review Committee. This committee began meeting a few weeks later in preparation for the first round of Education Abroad proposals later this academic year!
• “Speed Culturing” happened twice at Sylvania and once at Rock Creek in Winter 2016. Students in a Cultural Anthropology course at SY and a Psychology course at RC discussed specific questions relating to their course content with international peers from an ESOL communication class. The format for “speed culturing” is one-on-one conversations, with discussion partners rotating every 5-10 minutes.
• On Friday, February 19, instructor Sara Price’s class on Political Ideologies at Cascade welcomed Shirley Neal to discuss her work producing a documentary in Rwanda about the 1994 genocide (Intore). Shirley Neal also shared her experiences traveling and filming in more than 20 African countries.
• On Wednesday, March 2, fifty PCC students attended an evening performance of Kabuki theater, Revenge of the 47 Loyal Samurai at PSU and met with the cast afterwards. The Internationalization Initiative and Asian Studies committee partnered with PSU to offer these 50 free tickets to our students.
• On Tuesday, March 8th, Anita Ramachandran spoke at the Rock Creek International Women’s Day luncheon as the keynote speaker. In addition to being a PCC alum, Anita Ramachandran is Co-Founder and former President of SAWERA (South Asian Women’s Empowerment and Resource Alliance), as well as a Senior Partnerships Development Officer for Micro Mentor at Mercy Corps. She spoke about women’s issues in South Asia.
• Institute of International Education Annual Best Practices Conference was held at University of California, Davis on March 10 and 11. Usha Ramanujam, Business faculty attended the session on ‘Best Practices for internationalizing Community Colleges’ on March 10th and Dave Stout, Dean for English and World Languages attended sessions on programs, awards and scholarships on March 11.
• On Wednesday, March 30, Aseel Nasir Dyck spoke at Sylvania to a crowded PAC lobby about her experiences growing up in Iraq and the impact of the Al-Mutanabbi Street bombing. Following her presentation, students and faculty celebrated the opening of the art exhibit, “Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here!” at the Sylvania library (on display through early May).

Spring 2016

• INTL 201 (Introduction to International Studies), a course with global and interdisciplinary perspectives was taught in spring 16 at Cascade Campus by James Harrison, History and Humanities faculty. A cohort of INTL 201 faculty met at Sylvania Campus on Friday, April 15 to discuss best practices. In fall 16, INTL 201 will be offered at Sylvania Campus and Bryan Hull, English faculty, will be teaching. View the INTL 201 flyer.
• On Monday, April 25, ESOL Level 6 students in Luciana Diniz’s class met with students in Susan Mann’s Communication Studies class at the Sylvania Campus Performing Arts Center lobby to exchange information about their cultures. The conversations amongst these students focused on how nonverbal communication differs from culture to culture.
• On Tuesday, April 26 (SAC day), in an effort to reach out and enthuse faculty on internationalization, members of the Internationalization Steering Committee presented at the following ninteen Subject Area Committees: Anthropology, Biology and Management of Zoo Animals, Business Administration, Civil and Mechanical Engineering, College Success, Computer Applications Systems/Office Systems, Early Education, Economics, ESOL, Engineering, Geography, History, Integrated Studies, Library, Music, Nursing, Political Science, Psychology and Sociology.Of the 120 faculty surveyed that day, 66% indicated that they have lived or studied abroad and that they are interested in many areas of Internationalization including staff development, speed culture, study abroad, internationalizing the curriculum and bringing guest speakers. Several topics such as issues on global inequality and justice, global business, leveraging on PCC international students, climate change and refugee issues were suggested by faculty to be explored in the future.
• On Monday, May 9, students from Luciana Diniz’s ESOL level 5 class and John Farnum’s Philosophy class met at Sylvania Campus to experience speed culturing. In all, each of the 50 students could meet with several students on a 1 to 1 basis for a 10 minutes conversation.
• On Tuesday, May 10, two students received the first Global Studies Focus awards during a ceremony held at Sylvania Campus. This focus award has been approved recently and INTL 201 (Introduction to International Studies) is a requirement. Both students plan to transfer to a 4-year university and pursue degrees in International Studies. Learn more about the Global Studies Focus Award. Video of the Asian Studies/Global Studies Focus Award ceremony is available on the Asian Studies program page.
• 2016 Annual National Conference for Race and Ethnicity in American Higher Education (NCORE) was held in San Francisco between May 31 and June 04. Marlene Eid, Psychology faculty was sponsored by the Internationalization Steering Committee to attend this conference.
• Takako Yamaguchi, Japanese faculty was co-sponsored partly by the Internationalization Steering Committee to attend the Freeman Foundation, Japan Studies Association Summer Institute for three weeks, May 22 through June 1, held at the University of Hawaii.
• At the monthly meeting held on Friday, June 3 at Rock Creek Campus, Don Rushmer, PCC consultant on strategic planning, was invited to implore expanding internationalization efforts at the college. Steering Committee members thanked Chris Chairsell, VP Academic and Student Affairs, for her support towards internationalization for more than a decade and wished her the best in retirement.
• On Monday, June 6, PCC welcomed 24 new international students hailing from 17 different countries to our campuses for a full week of orientation. International Student Orientation includes presentations, a resource fair, English assessments, advising, registration, campus tours, and time with an International Peer Leader to help our new students transition to the U.S., Portland, and PCC. Our new summer students hailed from the following countries: Brazil, Cambodia, China, Colombia, Egypt, France, Guinea, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and Thailand. Learn more about the Office of International Student Services on the Studies for International Students website.
• On Wednesday, June 8, members of the steering committee facilitated discussions on internationalization with members of the Education Advisory Council (EAC). EAC members expressed how within the educational framework, internationalization is needed to foster empathy, to develop intercultural skills, to integrate international and ESOL students to the college system and that globalized education has direct relevance to careers.