Northshore Technical Community College Selected for Inaugural CIEE Access Grant
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CIEE: Council on International Educational Exchange today announced that it has awarded the first CIEE Access Grant to Northshore Technical Community College (NTCC). NTCC, based in Louisiana, will use the $20,000 grant to support an innovative faculty-led study abroad program in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. The grant will open doors for NTCC students who have never traveled abroad before or who don’t have the resources to study abroad to participate in an international experience.
Over the semester, NTCC and CIEE’s Faculty-Led and Custom Programs team will work together to create the Northshore Technical Community College Global Maritime Abroad Collaboration (GMAC) program for freshmen and sophomores pursuing degrees in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), including industrial maintenance technology, drafting and design, industrial electrician, and welding. The program will focus on providing workforce training and industry credentials that are relevant to NTCC students’ future employment, while also offering intercultural skills training that will help prepare them to enter the global economy following graduation.
“The Global Maritime Abroad Collaboration program is inspired by a progressive and transformative maritime collaboration between our college, our public school system, our regional university, and our maritime advisory consortium. The foundation of this proposal, by design, is centered on advancing global educational pathways that promote mentoring, service-learning, internship, and project-based experiments,” said William Wainwright, Ph.D., chancellor of Northshore Technical Community College. “Through this groundbreaking opportunity with CIEE, meaningful student engagement will lead to earned college credit through a scalable program that will impact our college, our community and technical college system, and our global economy.”
NTCC Provost and Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs Daniel Roberts, Ph.D., who authored the Global Maritime Abroad Collaboration program proposal, added, “We are very thankful for CIEE and their commitment to funding a customized, faculty-led study abroad program centered on students in workforce pathways. Our students now have the opportunity to experience the global economy firsthand while obtaining their degrees.”
CIEE received nearly 50 proposals from schools across the United States for its inaugural grant. CIEE created the Access Grant to recognize innovative programs that increase access to study abroad, particularly in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and math. The grant program is part of CIEE’s commitment to Generation Study Abroad™, a national challenge initiated by the Institute of International Education to double the number of students studying abroad to 600,000 by the year 2020.
“CIEE is excited to award the first-ever Access Grant to the Northshore Technical Community College. Their program truly supports our goal to recognize innovative programs that increase access to study abroad on every level,” said Kellie Sullivan, director of Faculty-Led and Custom Programs at CIEE. “We know there are many barriers to study abroad, chief among them cost. In addition, community colleges have been traditionally underrepresented in study abroad. By offering Northshore Technical Community College students access to a valuable international educational experience, we’re helping empower a new generation of community college students to engage with diverse cultures, which will ultimately help them to become more effective leaders in today’s globalized world.”
For more information about CIEE’s commitment to Generation Study Abroad, visit: http://www.ciee.org/generation-study-abroad/.