Study Abroad Programs

As professor of urban and director of the Center for Urban School Partnerships (CUSP), Dr. Norvella Carter states that she has witnessed the growing trend of global interest and travel in urban schools. Dr. Carter’s ongoing focus on infusing a global perspective into her urban classes has led to travel in a number of countries and cities such as:

• France,
• Amsterdam,
• Costa Rica,
• Mexico,
• Botswana,
• Zambia,
• Senegal,
• The Gambia, and
• Zimbabwe.

This year, Dr. Carter and two others accompanied a group of students to South Africa, Botswana, and Zimbabwe. She made arrangements for her Urban Education graduate students to have quality time and service projects with children in a range of schools and even an orphanage.

In order to prepare for the London trip, 22 TLAC students, along with faculty members Dr. April Douglass and Dr. Patricia Wiese, completed several projects that allowed them to explore the lives and writings of several influential English children’s book authors such as Roald Dahl, J.M. Barrie, C.S. Lewis, J.K. Rowling and Lewis Carroll. Once they arrived in the city, adventures included an outing to Oxford, visits to The Making of Harry Potter, St. Paul’s Cathedral, The Roald Dahl Museum and Storytelling Centre, Paddington Station, and Westminster Abbey.

At each site, TLAC students were able to make literary connections, thus connecting the culture and literature. This allowed them to develop an emotional connection to the stories and lives of authors they studied during the semester. Not only were they able to see where these famous authors lived and worked, but they were also able to see how the authors’ cultural surroundings influenced their famous stories. The opportunity to walk in the shoes of these authors is a unique experience that will influence these TLAC students’ future literary teachings. They are now emotionally connected to the history of these authors and their stories, and this will undoubtedly influence their future students.

Fifteen Aggie pre-service teachers and two TLAC faculty members spent the month of May teaching English as a second language in a tiny village near San Miguel de Allende in central Mexico. In its third year, the Mexico Education program was facilitated by Dr. Edie Cassel and Dr. Monica Neshyba. Each day, the Aggie teachers would divide into teaching teams to work with different grade levels.

These teams required three or four teachers to work together and develop communication and cooperation skills. The program was partially funded by grants, with about half of all program expenses and all program materials covered. In addition to teaching English, the group participated in an intensive course in Spanish language and Mexican culture that included many fun activities such as art classes in painting, jewelry, and pottery-making and activities such as seeing the sites and enjoying the fine dining.

Program participants also took a weekend excursion to Guanajuato, in order to experience life in a bigger city.

Overall, student’s said that the trip was “like nothing [they] had ever done before” and it “increased [their] passion” and will “inspire [them] to work harder” in pursuing their goals.