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September 17, 2007
by Michelle Ferencak Community colleges in counties surrounding Edgecombe County are starting to emphasis global education in the classroom. "I feel like I have been all around the world," said Edgecombe Community College Vice President of Student Services Michael Jordan after Thursday night's ECC Fall Global Institute panel discussion, "Education: A Global Perspective." Dr. Neil Bolick, associate director of World View, an international program for educators at UNC-Chapel Hill, moderated the panel of Dr. Dennis Massey, Dr. Delores Parker, and Dr. Mary Rittling. Topics such as the importance of global education and how to integrate it into college classrooms were discussed. Dr. Massey, president of Pitt Community College in Greenville, believes that global education is becoming more a part of our lives each day and is helping us to appreciate our own culture by understanding other cultures. "Global education speaks to us as human beings. When we study and go to foreign cultures, we are more able to understand the world around us and put our culture under a lens to appreciate and criticize it," said Dr. Massey. Dr. Parker, vice president of academic and student services for the N.C. Community College System, said jobs are becoming more global, so in turn, community colleges should become more global to help students prepare for the competition of a global community. "The world is changing, North Carolina is changing, and you have to be smart to compete with people in many countries," said Dr. Parker. "The 2000 census confirmed that more people are moving into North Carolina and more foreign companies are moving into North Carolina. We need to be familiar with these other companies." Dr. Rittling, president of Davidson County Community College in Lexington, added to the discussion by also emphasizing the movement of foreign industries that are beginning to build plants in North Carolina and the need for students to learn about other countries to better communicate. "Students really need to know about other countries in the world, it allows the opportunity to communicate better with others," said Dr. Rittling. As the discussion went on, the panelists discussed how they were changing their campuses to better adapt to global education. At each community college, faculty and staff were finding ways to integrate globalization into their curriculum. At Davidson County Community College, students are going to Mexico and Peru, and faculty members are learning about megatronics in Germany and health care in China. Davidson County Community College also is starting a program that enables Davidson County students to take classes with students from France. "We are having a program with French students where our students and their students will be taking the same course and doing the same projects together, online, in real time," said Dr. Rittling. Dr. Parker explained that the N.C. Community College System is working to get all community colleges interested in global learning. "We are trying to focus on global education and we are setting up more conferences to educate people. There will be a system-wide conference in Raleigh in 2008 that we are looking forward to," said Dr. Parker. At Pitt Community College, Dr. Massey said that there are 103 foreign students enrolled. "Pitt Community College has a 10-year study-abroad program that has given scholarships for students to study in other countries," said Dr. Massey. "We also will have an international education week on campus in November." The major emphasis of the night was explaining how each community college is working together in introducing global aspects into their colleges and communities. One audience member suggested that community colleges should first start with the public schools in educating younger students about the geography of the world. Dr. Parker explained that it's all about getting the faculty and staff interested first and the students will see the excitement and get interested as well. "We need funds to encourage faculty and staff administrators to go abroad and come back with a different viewpoint on the world," said Dr. Parker. "We need an emphasis on geography and culture programs we can bring back to schools." The 2007 Fall Global Institute at ECC continued Friday with a variety of sessions on globalization topics from 8:30 a.m. to noon. Sessions included: The Fall Global Institute was sponsored by an Edgecombe Community College Foundation mini-grant.
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