This past academic year, Heartland Community College used Title VI grant funds provided by the University of Illinois’ Center for Global Studies (CGS) and Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies (CEAPS), to improve and expand curriculum to provide internationally focused learning opportunities to students who would not otherwise be exposed. While Heartland is working to expand study abroad opportunities at large, not all students are able to afford, either in time or money, such experiences although all students, including and especially underserved student populations, benefit from bringing global education to campus. These funds provide equity in access and create meaningful learning opportunities through regular coursework.
Some projects focused on single courses like those of Stephanie Kratz and Zach Petrea, both Professors of English. For his part, Petrea developed a new course syllabus for International 112, Culture and Civilization of Japan. For her work, Kratz focused on internationalizing English 101 through discussion of the “high cost of health care in India and the use of crowdfunding to help patients and their families avoid financial hardship due to medical bills” to “compare this issue as it stands in India to similar situations in the United States and other countries. Students conduct research to discover their own articles from other (non-USA) countries.”
Other projects increased collaboration across disciplines and even work across community colleges. Within Heartland, several instructors collaborated on integrating learning opportunities through combined curriculum and student projects. Professor of Humanities and Religious Studies, Wayne Bass, worked with Phil Vandiver, Professor of Digital Media, to create a cross-curriculum project where students in Digital Media 245, Advanced Video Production, worked on a large summative project with students in Humanities 203, Non-Western Humanities. This self-guided research project culminated with students teaching the content they learned to the class by way of a self-designed active learning experience.
Similarly, Sanae Ferrier, Adjunct Instructor of English Literature and Modern Languages created a combined class with Rebecca Shaefer, Adjunct Instructor of Humanities and Fine Arts, which integrated Humanities 101, Introduction to Humanities, with Interdisciplinary 102, Introduction to East Asian Culture and Society. This combined course focuses on establishing cultural connections between Japan and the United States via the arts. Representative works in areas including literature, film, music, and architecture introduce students to cultural patterns and encourage discovery and reflection on commonalities shared.
Sanae Ferrier also collaborated with Ruijie Zhao, Professor of English at Parkland College to create content for both College’s respective courses on Introduction to East Asia. Ferrier’s expertise is in Japanese language and culture, while Zhao’s expertise is in Chinese language and culture. The instructors collaborated in developing recorded lectures and synchronous guest lecture opportunities for each other’s classes.
Taken together, these projects, funded by Title VI funds provided by CGS and CEAPS, helped Heartland to promote equity in student access to educational resources and opportunities by increasing students’ exposure to international studies.
