Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons^™

How To Decolonize A Classroom, Celeste C. Hayes

Capstone Collection

This study is gathered from personal reflections of my time and experience with the Vermont Workers’ Center organization in Brattleboro Vermont USA. As a Community Organizer I highlight my internal and external work on projects specific to racial justice, and its use in organizing and educating members in the Southern Vermont region. The challenges as an active and involved community member of color, living and working in the context of a predominantly white setting has inspired me to curate a model and theory to “decolonize” or unlearn the prevalence of white supremacist culture in our educational spaces.

Promoting U.S. Community Colleges In Sweden: From The Perspective Of Swedish Education Agents, Ashley M. Sansotta

Capstone Collection

This purpose of this study is to find out what role agents play through marketing community colleges in the Swedish education market and recruiting Swedish students to U.S. community colleges. This study explores Swedish education agents’ perspectives of the community college system in the United States, their experiences in marketing community colleges in Sweden, and the factors that may lead to or prohibit the success in recruiting Swedish students for U.S. community colleges. Qualitative research methods were used, which included preliminary surveys, interviews, an analysis of the agents’ marketing strategies, and a review of relevant studies. The findings revealed that …

Building Hope: An Experiential, Interfaith And Peacebuilding Leadership Curriculum Design For American, Israeli And Palestinian Teenagers, Jack M. Karn

Capstone Collection

This research explores the design, implementation, and results of an interfaith and peacebuilding leadership curriculum prepared for the 2015 Jerusalem Peacebuilders Leadership Camp in Brattleboro, Vermont. Drawing upon different theories of moral and transformative leadership, experiential education, youth leadership, and peacebuilding and conflict transformation, this curriculum design offers a new and unique approach to leadership development for Israeli, Palestinian, and American teens. Spanning six 1.5-hour units, the curriculum includes: icebreaker and teambuilding activities, theory and practice connections, dialogue, and opportunities to practice leadership and peacebuilding skills on several small group projects. Supported by a literature review, eight interviews from youth …

The International Humanity Foundation Co-Director Training Program, Indonesia: Supporting International Volunteers, Christina Darling

Capstone Collection

The following capstone paper takes a critical look at international volunteer programs and the potential negative consequences these programs may inadvertently have on the host community. The current volunteer Co-Director program at the International Humanity Foundations (IHF) is an archetype of this phenomenon. This paper examines the ways in which IHF falls short in achieving its mission and warns of the possible neo-colonial impact its Western volunteers may be having on the local communities around IHF’s centers.

The International Humanity Foundation Co-Director Training Program, Indonesia has been created in an effort strengthen IHF’s existing program by minimizing any negative impacts …

Foreign Language Education Through An International Education Lens, Bridget Landry

Capstone Collection

Inspired by current dialogue around foreign language education in the United States - which reveals that foreign language education faces budget cuts, dropping enrollment rates, and competition for resources – this study sought to better understand the value of foreign language education through the lenses of international education professionals. The literature review explored the relationship between foreign language education and the field of international education, and examined foreign language education’s role in advancing intercultural competency. The study surveyed a sample of 57 international education professionals, and interviewed 8 of those 57. It assessed professionals’ perceptions in three main areas: current …

Experiential Language Learning: A Short-Term Study Abroad Program To Quetzaltenango, Guatemala For Canton High School, Michelle Traub

Capstone Collection

Canton High School (CHS) is a 485 student, small upper-middle class public school located in Canton, Connecticut. The mission of the school involves preparing productive, tolerant and responsible citizens with the character and independence to embrace and contribute to the global world. However, CHS is limited in its ability to provide students with opportunities to connect with the world outside of Connecticut and the United States, both linguistically and culturally. Although the majority of Canton students take a language class freshman year, the number of students continuing on in learning a language drops every year thereafter. Many students state that …

Engaging In Social Justice With Toddlers, Susan M. Nasiombe

Capstone Collection

This study was created as a way to highlight and begin filling a large void in academic information regarding the ways caregivers engage in social justice with the toddlers they care for. Through an online survey, participants were asked to explain their role and experience as caregivers, give their definition of social justice, share the social justice resources they use to help inform their engagement with toddlers, and list the limitations and barriers they face in achieving their goals in this area. Participants were also asked to assess their value of various elements commonly used to engage toddlers in social …

Language Diversity In Trainings: Analyzing The Use Of English In A Writeshop Process, Elis Cardoso Motta

Capstone Collection

This capstone paper discusses a learning process called “writeshop,” and the role played by language use in a writeshop I co-facilitated in November 2013 in South Africa. A writeshop is a workshop to collectively create a written product for publication. This paper starts with a description of my experience in co-designing and co-facilitating a writeshop as part of my practicum, followed by a reflection on the process and the different roles I played, from a trainer lens. The third part of this capstone paper presents an analysis, based on a survey and individual interviews conducted with the writeshop participants, of …

A Holistic Approach To Homestay: A Homestay Program Proposal For Cats Academy Boston, Nora Salmon

Capstone Collection

The following is a proposal for an academic yearlong homestay program for international students attending high school in the United States. This proposal examines what research conducted on homestay programs says about the effects of living in a homestay, what the perceived benefits of living in a homestay are and what is the role of homestay hosts in the homestay experience.

The homestay program developed is entitled the CATS Academy Homestay Program. This proposed program design incorporates the homestay experience as part of the students’ overall education at the high school CATS Academy, located in Newton, Massachusetts. It uses a …

The Culture Conundrum: Training Faculty And Staff For Effectively Working With International Students, Mckenna S. Pencak

Capstone Collection

Over the past five years, the number of international students studying at the University of Notre Dame has increased by 30 percent. The increase in the numbers of undergraduate international students, as well as Chinese international students, has been even more significant. This rapid growth in the number of international students has created challenges for University faculty, staff, and administrators, both inside and outside of the classroom. International students typically face different challenges adjusting to an American university from their American peers, stemming from differences between their home country cultures and American culture. When an international student is facing a …

Long-Term Impacts And Outcomes: Sit Study Abroad, Marianne Mcgarrity

Capstone Collection

This capstone reports on the results of the SIT Study Abroad Long-Term Impacts and Outcomes survey, a research project designed to investigate how alumni would self-report impacts of their study abroad experience with regard to academic, personal, and professional outcomes. The principal question the study sought to answer was “How and to what extent do SIT Study Abroad programs impact alumni in the long term?” This paper focuses largely on the career outcomes of the alumni who participated in this research. A large percentage of SIT Study Abroad alumni report that impacts to their career choices were significant and that …

Teaching The Moral Imagination: How Global Education Aids In Peacebuilding, Charlee Bianchini

Capstone Collection

In this paper I present distinctive information from written resources and in-depth interviews with 17 constituents who are in some way involved in the incorporation of Global Education curriculum in the US. I specifically looked at Brookwood School in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts, a private school looking to develop programming around this subject. I also looked at World Learning Youth Programs in order to gain insight from an institution solely focused on GE. The aim of the research was to learn why and how Global Education programs are being incorporated into curriculums, what skills schools are aiming to have their students learn …

Wildcats International Neighbors: Bridging International Students With Local Community At Northern Michigan University, Manato Kaisho

Capstone Collection

In Fall 2013 semester, Wildcats International Neighbors (W.I.N.) was designed and implemented as a pilot program for the International Programs Office (IPO) at Northern Michigan University (NMU). It was a cross-cultural program to connect international students and local community members for mutual cultural exchange. Moreover, this program served as a support program for international students during their transition to American culture. Fall 2013 semester was first time when the IPO implemented this program. At the end of the semester, the IPO conducted a program evaluation, and the office discovered there were several aspects of the program that needed to be …

Intercultural Communication In Brazil: An Approach To Engage Multicultural North Dakota State University Students In Study Abroad, Allison Wright

Capstone Collection

Intercultural Communication in Brazil (IC Brazil) is a course-embedded program aimed at multicultural students by building off of the curriculum in one of the general education requirement courses at North Dakota State University (NDSU). It has been designed to fit within the confines of NDSU’s existing study abroad structure and uses a targeted approach to student recruitment that can be utilized by other faculty-leaders at NDSU, universities, and members of the IE field.

IC Brazil is an experiential learning course-embedded program that contains on-campus learning, fieldwork in Rio de Janeiro, and course reflections upon the students’ return. IC Brazil students …

Mi Cultura, Su Cultura: A Cultural Exchange Program For Central College, Whitney J. Longnecker

Capstone Collection

Central College is a 1,500-student, liberal arts higher education institution located in Pella, Iowa. The College boasts a study abroad participation rate of over 50 percent; however, the institution seeks to internationalize the campus beyond study abroad. At the request of Central College President Dr. Mark Putnam, a global taskforce consisting of faculty, staff and students formed to consider internationalization strategies and the taskforce is keen to welcome international students to the institution. Currently, a very small number of international students attend Central College and international student support services are decentralized and limited.

Mi Cultura, Su Cultura (MCSC) was developed …

Intercultural Communication In Florida: The Immigrant Story - A Program For Adult Learners, Stephanie V. Wobensmith

Capstone Collection

Although participation in university study abroad programs has grown steadily within the United States in recent years, many students are still being left without access to the important intercultural learning that it allows. Adult learners, students over the age of 25 who often have family and work responsibilities outside of the academic setting, are frequently included in this underrepresented demographic. In order to create a more accessible program for these students, the Intercultural Communication in Florida: The Immigrant Story (ICC in Florida) program uses the same learning paradigm as short-term study abroad but combines it with lessons learned through newer …

Exploring Service Learning In Study Abroad: An Evaluation Of The Umbra Institute’S Urban Spaces Course, Lisa M. George

Capstone Collection

Over the proceeding decades, service learning programs combining academic study with community service have been growing in popularity at U.S. institutions of higher education. This growth has been equated to service learning’s ability to assist students with achieving personal and academic goals, as well as broader goals of civic engagement for communities. With these programs occurring in an increasingly interconnected world, that is also seeing growth in study abroad participation, it is only natural that students would seek out similar service learning opportunities in their international destinations.

Today more than 80% of students enrolled at The Umbra Institute in Perugia, …

Preparing Teen Girls To Enter The Workforce Through A Job-Readiness Training Program In The Dominican Republic, Genevieve F. Corrin

Capstone Collection

A recent shift has concentrated international community development efforts on women, many specifically aiming to work with adolescent women. This capstone explores the design, facilitation and potential developmental impact of work-readiness training for teen girls in Cabarete, Dominican Republic. Such training comes with many challenges and possibilities for positive outcome. Methodologies and frameworks introduced through SIT courses aid in the examination of these challenges, the solutions used to transform them and possible preventative approaches. Tools gleaned from the spring SIT TDEL course, to which this capstone is linked, inspire the creation of the training. These tools are also used to …

North Dakota State University Study Abroad Strategic Plan: Enhancing Student Mobility For The 21st Century, Krysta Gorder

Capstone Collection

This study analyzes current study abroad efforts at North Dakota State University (NDSU) and aids in the design of a strategic plan to grow student mobility numbers. The NDSU study abroad office (SAO) desires to increase the number of students studying abroad from two percent to five percent of the study body by the year 2019. In order to establish accountability across the entire infrastructure of the institution, NDSU has signed onto a commitment with the Institute of International Education (IIE) and its Generation Study Abroad (GSA) initiative that aims to double the number of U.S. students nationwide that study …

Volunteering And Social Development Across Cultures: A Credit Bearing Course For The Alliance For Global Education's Global And Public Health Program At Manipal University (India), Katie Jo Walter

Capstone Collection

This course-linked capstone presents full details for the creation, facilitation and evaluation of a new field-based course for the Alliance for Global Education’s (Alliance) Global and Public Health program at Manipal University in India. Operating in partnership with Manipal University’s Volunteer Services Organization (VSO), the course will increase opportunities for participant interaction with people both on and off campus, actively respond to participants’ stated interest in volunteer work, and strengthen institutional ties between the Alliance and Manipal University.

The plan for the course, titled, “Volunteering across cultures: India and the United States”, incorporates best practices and theories from international service …

An Expanded Field Guide On Cross-Cultural Learning For Faculty Leaders Of University Of Missouri Study Abroad Programs, William Palmieri

Capstone Collection

As the term global citizen becomes ubiquitous in our world, it is imperative that faculty-led programs abroad challenge students’ understanding, as such. Therefore, by accompanying students abroad, educators must adopt methods that guide and challenge students to have a command of the impact of the experience. This paper will present the rationale for maximizing the impact abroad for faculty-led programs and ways students can gain an informed global perspective in their respective fields. Participant partners were University of Missouri and The School for International Training in creating an Internet –based resource manual, An Expanded Field Guide on Cross-Cultural Learning for …

Internationalizing The Study Abroad Classroom: An Intensive English Program At The American Graduate School In Paris, Jordan A. Caley

Capstone Collection

The American Graduate School in Paris (AGS) is a not-for-profit institution founded in 1994 to provide U.S. higher education in France to students from around the world pursuing graduate degrees in International Relations, Diplomacy, and Business. Since 2008, AGS has partnered with Arcadia University located in Glenside, Pennsylvania, USA, to provide summer, semester, and academic year undergraduate study abroad programs in these fields. While current study abroad participants are undergraduate students pursuing degrees at U.S. institutions, AGS has recently received permission to internationalize the study abroad classroom by recruiting students from around the world. Because AGS courses are delivered exclusively …

International Students In The Classroom: A Faculty Learning Community, Carolina De La Rosa

Capstone Collection

International students represent about 5.4% of the total student body at the State University of New York College at Plattsburgh. However, roughly a third of academic dishonesty cases which have been reported since the 2010-2011 academic year have been international students. The needs assessment and literature review presented in this paper point to the importance of involving academic departments in strengthening support for international students not only in avoiding plagiarism, but also in being academically successfully. Furthermore, it is argued that international students’ cultural diversity holds incredible potential for enhancing the educational experience of all students.

Based on that rationale, …

Amended Incoming International Student Orientation For The College Of The Atlantic, Bar Harbor, Maine, Monica Hamm

Capstone Collection

This proposal was created in order to design and implement a theory-based Incoming International Student Orientation program for the College of the Atlantic (COA) Office of International Student Services in Bar Harbor, Maine. This is a Course-Linked Capstone Proposal (CLC) for the two-day orientation that prepares incoming international students for life at a small American college and touches on aspects of immigration regulations, culture, transitions, and student development.

After reviewing the program Needs Assessment and past orientation programs for incoming international students at COA, it was clear that there was an active need for an orientation that touched on more …

Global Ambassadors Returnee Program: Can We Change Campus Culture?, Lynn Butler

Capstone Collection

The Education Abroad office at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) is in a growing phase, quickly expanding and working conscientiously to increase the numbers of students studying abroad. In the midst of VCU’s transition from a commuter school to a residential campus, the administration seeks to internationalize the university, citing study abroad as one of its main goals. While VCU consistently works to create affordable program options for students of all majors, what VCU lacks is an institutional culture and awareness of study abroad. The Global Ambassadors returnee program seeks to create returned student programming that provides reflective opportunities and professional …

Global Duos: An Internationally-Minded Reflection And Mentorship Program For International Students And Study Abroad Returnees, Amanda C. Batista

Capstone Collection

The Center for Global Engagement (CGE) at the College of New Jersey (TCNJ) in Ewing, NJ is a primary catalyst in the cultural and physical exchange of students in higher education. The office sends nearly 300 students abroad every year, worldwide, while also overseeing the intake of a growing number of international students incoming to the United States studying for a semester or a year at TCNJ. While these two groups of students are ever more supported and challenged by the CGE, there is a clear disconnect in terms of interaction, exchange of resources, and communication between American students studying …

Community Internationalization: Developing The Host Family Program At The University Of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Alicia Haley

Capstone Collection

The aim of the proposal design related to the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater (UW-Whitewater) Host Family Program is to increase cross-cultural competencies for undergraduate and graduate international students, develop multicultural awareness among the local community and support internationalization goals of the university.

International students who do not reach outside their comfort zones and integrate effectively within his or her new environment become more isolated and less likely to make friends with Americans (Bowman, 2012a). It is important to provide opportunities for international students to interact with the community due to the homogenous nature of the local population and the low number …

Study Abroad And Identity: The African American Experience, Alicia Ranney

Capstone Collection

Not all students are alike, nor should they be treated as 'one size fits all' in study abroad. Students have different backgrounds, goals, and expectations of what they will gain from an international academic experience. Minority students face different types of challenges in study abroad than their non-minority counterparts.

This paper seeks to answer the question “does study abroad change the identity of African American students?” and examines the challenges of identity and racism and how those two factors may decrease participation rates of African Americans in study abroad. Students from Marygrove College in Detroit, Michigan were surveyed before and …

American Ways: A Course In Contemporary U.S. Culture For International Students, Christopher D. Fitch

Capstone Collection

International student populations are increasing in large proportions at universities across the United States. The onset of culture shock and difficulty communicating and relating with their new peers compounds an already difficult situation. Universities and colleges need a method to accommodate these students and help facilitate their transitions into a completely new academic and social environment.

“American Ways: A course on Contemporary American Culture for International Students” is a semester-long university level course designed to give knowledge and understanding of “American” culture to international students attending U.S. higher education institutions. It will cover topics surrounding U.S. culture that …

Analysis Of National Association Of Bilingual Education, Sam J. Baumer

Capstone Collection

This research illustrates the benefits in coalitions as mechanisms for bolstering advocacy by bringing together diverse perspectives to help fuel more creativity in the process of furthering bilingual education and social change. This case study examines the role of the National Alliance for Bilingual Education (NABE) and its policy advocacy approach in the midst of the debate surrounding how best to educate our nations school children. An examination of the historical context of the issue and the current political paradigm that NABE navigates illustrate their approach to tackling the contested issue.