2014-2015 internationalization activities
Fall 2014
On Thursday, October 30, Samira Hussein, professor of Business and Women’s Studies at Johnson County Community College, visited PCC. She spoke about Islamic Finance at Rock Creek to Richard Birk’s Personal Finance class, and spoke about the “veil” at Sylvania to a packed PAC lobby.
On Thursday, November 20 as part of International Education Week, Ahmad Borazan, economics instructor at University of Utah and originally from Aleppo, Syria, spoke at Rock Creek about ISIS and the conflicts in Syria. He also spoke about the conflicts in Syria to Rose Bettencourt’s U.S. Foreign Policy class at Sylvania Campus, and to Michael Sonnleitner’s Peace and Conflict class at Cascade Campus.
On Friday, November 21, the PCC team won 3rd place at the World Affairs Council of Oregon Trivia Contest! Team included: Dr. Jeremy Brown, Dave Stout, Bryan Hull (English), John Sparks (ESOL), Christina Friedle (Geography), Salomeh Moadab (English), Jeffer Daykin (History), and Sarah Bentley (Spanish).
In December, the new Global Studies Focus Award and new course, Introduction to International Studies (INTL 201), were officially approved by PCC’s curriculum committees! A cohort of five faculty members began working on developing curriculum for the course to be taught in ’15-’16.
Winter 2015
In January, PCC became a member of the Oregon East Asia Network (part of the UofO’s Title VI National Resource Center for East Asian Studies), which includes one other community college (Lane Community College), Oregon four-year colleges, universities, and also other institutions (e.g., the Japanese and Chinese Gardens, Northwest China Council, Portland Art Museum).
On Thursday, February 5, renowned Nigerian filmmaker and author, Biyi Bandele, spoke at Cascade about how Africans are represented in films and novels.
On Wednesday, February 18, Dr. Nabil Boudraa, professor of Francophone studies at Oregon State University, gave a talk (in French!) at Sylvania Campus about North Africa and France relations.
On February 20, Jeffer Daykin and Rachel Stevens attended the annual conference of Community Colleges for International Development (CCID) on behalf of the Internationalization Steering committee.
On Thursday, March 5, Penda Diakite, Malian filmmaker, gave a talk at Rock Creek about women’s issues in Mali as part of the International Women’s Day celebration.
Spring 2015
On Friday, May 1, Dean of Global Education at Middlesex Community College, Dona Cady, visited PCC to meet with faculty and share her experiences with internationalization.
On May 5 and 6, two rounds of “speed culturing” happened. The Rock Creek session involved a philosophy class and an ESOL class, and the Sylvania session involved a Modern Art History class and an ESOL class.
On Friday, May 15, Chris Siems (Program Director of wireless market development and communication and devices group at Intel) and Bill Tung (Vice President of International Distributors and Asia Direct at Columbia Sportswear) spoke at the PCC Rock Creek Business Transfer Days workshop about the importance of international education.
The Asian Studies Focus Award Celebration happened on Wednesday, May 20, including opening remarks by Consul General of Japan, Hiroshi Furusawa, and a traditional Iaido Martial Arts demonstration and talk by Dr. Suzanne Johnson, interim Sylvania campus president.
- Watch the Asian Studies Focus Awards Celebration on YouTube
On Friday, May 22 the cohort of faculty preparing to teach Introduction to International Studies concluded their work with a presentation of modules.