By Martina Treviño/nw news editor
TCC will offer students two opportunities in 2007 to participate in a European international study program.
Dr. Tahita Fulkerson, associate vice chancellor for teaching and learning, said the district will select 10 students to attend a summer session and 10 students to attend a fall session of the Salzburg Seminar International Study Program in Austria.
“ The Salzburg Seminar opened my eyes and helped me realize there is a bigger world out there,” Shirin Rahmani, who attended the seminar last June, said, “We do not hear or see much of it in the news; we must seek it out.”
Rahmani credits the seminar with providing direction for her future.
“ This experience helped me find who I was and what I need to do in life to reach my goal of becoming a global citizen,” she said.
Students for the upcoming summer session will enroll in a special six-week mini-term that will focus on globalization.
They will receive credit for Geology 2407, field geology, and Drafting 2421, topographical drafting. John Haglund, geology instructor and department chair, and Margaret Debenport, CAD instructor and department chair, will teach the courses and accompany the students to Europe.
The class will spend two days studying Alpine geology in the Berchtesgaden National Park, Bavaria, Germany. Activities will include a boat trip and a guided tour of a mine that has been in operation since the 1500s.
A hike along the Wimbachklamm, a canyon cut though the Alps by glacial melt-water, to observe stream and aquifer processes is among the planned excursions.
The course will culminate with the Salzburg Seminar’s Global Citizenship America and the World ISP, an intensive week of exploration and study of international issues with well-known international lecturers and students from other U.S. colleges.
TCC will pay the greatest part of the cost for the trip: meals, airfare, hotel accommodations, tuition and textbooks.
Fulkerson said the funding for the program comes from external sources secured by Dr. Leonardo de la Garza, TCC chancellor.
“ This enables TCC to provide these extraordinary opportunities for faculty and students,” she said.
The participants will pay $600, including a $100 non-refundable deposit that is due upon the students’ signing their written acceptance into the program. The remaining $500 will be due May 1.
Students will be responsible for personal expenses, such as souvenirs, and the cost of obtaining a passport or visa.
To apply, students must be currently enrolled at TCC, have at least a 3.0 grade point average and have completed at least 18 semester hours.
Those interested must complete a student application, write a required essay, present a letter of recommendation and submit a current official TCC transcript in an application package.
Applications for the summer session must be submitted by 5 p.m. Friday, March 2.
To obtain complete detailed instructions and to download the required documents, students should visit www.tccd.edu/travelstudy.
The Collegian will have details on the fall program in a later issue.