This winter an exciting partnership with Waukesha County Technical College (WCTC) hit the ground running! Despite the cold winter during COVID-19, a fabulous group of administrators and teachers from WCTC, ROC Midden Nederland, and Mexico’s Prepa UDEM took on CLICK training and learning so their virtual exchange (VE) modules can blossom in their courses starting this spring. Three teaching teams worked with Gazelle Intl for a round of Explore, Connect, and Design workshops to bring a collaborative, engaging, international experience to their students.
Melody Reichoff, WCTC’s Global Education Coordinator, joined our Explore workshop in July sponsored by CCID. With her regular projects “on ice” due to the pandemic, she decided to seize the opportunities VE could afford her institution and students. Melody and several colleagues met with Nancy and the team to brainstorm how VE could help WCTC achieve campus, student, and faculty goals and deepen internationalization of the curriculum. WCTC’s objective is “Grow Global: Adding Virtual Exchange to Global Engagement.” The Global Education Center has relished this occasion to dive into CLICK--to use VE as a multiplier for mobility programs, expand their institutional partnerships, improve access to international experiences for more students, prepare students for a global workforce, and more!
Here’s what Melody says about working with the Gazelle Intl team:
We have enjoyed working with Nancy [Ruther] and the team at Gazelle International. She has helped us develop current partnerships and find new partners to allow us to continue to offer international and cultural experiences for our students. Nancy makes the workshops and development of CLICK projects interactive and engaging and I have appreciated her thoughtfulness throughout the process. We’re looking forward to our continued work together and I’m excited to see the CLICK Projects implemented in our classrooms.
Check out the avatars for two of our ready-to-run CLICK modules, created by the innovative and creative faculty at WCTC and Prepa UDEM:
CLICK module “(Re)Programming Cultural Awareness” connecting Course 1 Cultural Competencies (Prepa UDEM high school students) and Course 2 Web Development (WCTC Dual Credit enrollment high school students)
CLICK module “When Psychology Research Goes Wrong” connecting Course 1 Psychology (WCTC college students) with Course 2 Ethics of Knowledge (Prepa UDEM high school students)
Furthermore, we have a third collaboration connecting two international business teachers. This spring, two students from WCTC will join 10-12 students from ROC Midden Nederland in developing an international advertising and promotion strategy. Another ROC Midden Nederland teaching partner hopes to join and run a variation of this project in Fall 2021.
We are looking forward to taking the next group of great teachers through the Explore - Connect - Design workshop series this spring term with WCTC and a new partner, University of Sunderland (UK). It is always amazing to nurture the creative sparks and help the magic happen as teachers make their matches and start “CLICKing”!
Have we piqued your curiosity? Read more here to start exploring how Gazelle International’s Institutional Services can help you realize your goals. We’re here to help you explore the possibilities--whether you hope to start a CLICK VE program on your campus, create a Turnkey Project to introduce this type of work to faculty and students, develop curriculum and pedagogies to integrate VE into your institution’s internationalization strategies, and more!
March 3, 2021