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Saturday, August 02, 2008

Visiting European Education Students at UAA

Yesterday afternoon I had the chance to do a two hour workshop with a group of European education students (one is already a teacher) who are in Anchorage for a month studying education topics, and if I understand it right, with a focus on teaching about diversity. This is the third summer I've worked with one of these groups and they've always had a very interesting mix of students and this year's group is no exception.



There are students from Germany, Spain, France, and England this year.



The German groups have always sent students with diverse ethnicity. This year among the German group were people of Albanian, Greek, and Turkish descent.



The official title of this program which is administered by the American Russian Center at UAA is 2008 Summer Institute for Outstanding European Students in Education. (Actually, the paper I have has two similar titles. The other one is for "European student leaders.")

The participants all speak excellent English and have great senses of humor. They'll be getting classroom teaching and, if the program follows last year's, they'll be making various education related field trips - to ,schools in the Anchorage School District, McLaughlin Youth Center, etc. They are not a shy group and I asked their before posting the pictures.

4 comments:

  1. Well It is not really clear for me what the aim is of this program but usually they send the smartest students to programs like that so I am not surprised by your positive feedback about my "colleagues". Well, yes, in German there are quite many nations due to many workplaces but Hungary is also a kind of melting pot but I don't really know why.

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  2. Thanks for posting on the photo permission... I always wonder!

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  3. I cover my hair quite a bit-- I get asked if I am a nun or if I am Muslim. I do it mostly during our fasts and feasts, but as of late I have been more frequent. Does the lady who covers get a lot of questions, too?

    I'm glad they are up here!

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  4. We have had a great time here Alaska (hello, it's the German-Greek student) and we are here to represent our countries, yes. The thing about Germany is that it is still very hard to graduate from the school called "Gymnasium" when your parents and you are an immigrant (google it, you'll see). Only when you graduated from this particular schoolyou will get the permission to go to university. That is one of the reasons - I guess - why the Fulbright Commission decided to get us -diverse- students from Germany to Alaska. That is the message behind it...A changing "Face of Europe"... :-)

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