Many departments at JCCC have had to change and adapt to the current landscape, however by far the biggest changes have been in the Study Abroad program.
(Janette Jasperson) “Last year we were so, so focused on study abroad and we did other things too like we have a peace building conference which is right now by the way yesterday today and tomorrow. So we did those other things but we really spent the bulk of our time probably on study abroad working with faculty trip leaders who were planning trips working with students who were going on both our faculty trips and individually just so much so much of that which was awesome. But we also have the mandate from the college to internationalize the campus, so a lot of the way we had done that had been study abroad and so now were looking at ways where we can’t send you to the world, but we bring the world to campus.”
With most places around the world closed, the study abroad team has had to bring the experience to JCCC.
(Brooke Stock) “The idea came to do a virtual speaker series, so we have been doing that the last one is I think December first so it’s still going on. And we focused on three different topics, we talked about headlines from abroad where we have a partner from out of the country talk about what the headline news is in their country. Another one we have is the JCCC travelers. Jeanette and I actually took part in the Africa panel because we’ve both traveled and or lived in Africa before. And we have other sessions that focus on different continents. And then also international careers is one that we’ve done so talking to Peace Corp international banking and purchasing that was a couple who do they live in Poland and that’s what they do is international banking and purchasing and talking about what that looks like and how they ended up in these jobs and how they ended up living abroad and then international law is upcoming November 11 so that’s next week.”
Currently the study abroad program has had many different speakers and talks in order to bring different cultures to JCCC. The next abroad speaker will be on November 18, with the topic focusing on Pakistan. If you would like to learn more, you can visit JCCC’s study abroad page along with the speaker series page on the JCCC.edu website. Just because you can’t travel, doesn’t mean you can’t experience other cultures and countries. Reporting for the Campus Ledger, I’m Leo Fotovich.