CIEP
Chinese IEP director Sigrid Berka and Assistant Professor of Chinese Yu Wu jointly wrote an article on “The Chinese International Engineering Program: History, Development, and Curriculum Refinement”, which will come out in a volume on Chinese for Business and Professionals in the Workplace: Reaching across the Disciplines with Routledge.
The article describes the history and development of our unique educational model, the Chinese International Engineering Program (CIEP) at URI, and the necessary cornerstones of how to get a program that bridges STEM and Humanities disciplines off the ground, while also featuring an integrated year of studying and interning in China. Expansion of the CIEP to other institutions and to other disciplines, e.g. through the Chinese Language Flagship Program, is covered as well as several career success stories and strategies for program adjustments during the Covid-19 pandemic. Special focus is placed on the creation of a corporate network of internship hosts and a Chinese internship course which creates interventions to move learners along in their language proficiency and cultural competency development.
FIEP
Nine incoming first-year students signed up for the French IEP over the summer of 2020. Among them the IEP welcomed the second IEPer (and third URI student) from the Erickson family to the French IEP this Fall. Brinik Erickson is the youngest family member. He joined the French IEP as a freshman after spending a gap semester in New Zealand! Meanwhile, his older sister Montara, a CVE and GIEP alum, is back at TU Braunschweig to pursue a master’s degree in Civil Engineering. And Malia Erickson, a Writing and Rhetoric plus German double major, is again tutoring students in our German program this year! What a talented multi-lingual family. French IEP director Lars Erickson could not be prouder!
GIEP
In an effort to create community, we utilized the gaming platform Discord to bring faculty teaching and students studying German together in one realm. Thanks to Associate Director of the GIEP Dr. Niko Tracksdorf, who set up Discord rooms for all, faculty and students now hold and attend office hours, section meetings, coffee hour, German conversations, the initial German Club meetings. Additionally, announcements could be made, e.g. through the German IEP channel, students and faculty could share their favorite German music, any noteworthy cultural developments (most recently on zero-energy houses and on winter light effects both in RI and the German countryside), answer course-related questions or just chat or play with one another, all in this common virtual space. It has been quite popular with our students and hopefully creates the kind of connectedness many students find to be lacking during these socially-distanced times.
In other news, we are truly proud of Dr. Niko Tracksdorf, Assistant Professor of German and Associate Director of the German IEP, who received the Nelson Brooks Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Culture at the annual convention of the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) on November 20th, 2020. The award “recognizes the contributions of a preeminent author and teacher whose work and writings [have] changed the course of our profession”. An award typically bestowed upon senior professors, previous recipients include Bill VanPatten, Heidi Byrnes and Claire Kramsch, all of whom have played a huge role in what everyday instruction looks like in a language classroom. He was nominated for the award by the American Association of Teachers of German. You can see the award presentation on ACTFL’s YouTube channel here.
IIEP
The Italian IEP and Italian Section hosted its Fall Social within Remo on November 12th, 2020. Students had an opportunity to hear about the benefits of studying Italian and the various options for study and internships abroad. Attendees mingled with program faculty and returnees, while also having a chance to practice speaking in the target language. Brian DuBois and Evan Arnott, current IIEP 5th years, were more than happy to share about their time in Calabria during the previous academic year!
JIEP
The JIEP started out the year with a new hire in Japanese, Ms. Nahoko Nishitani Collis, who joined us from Brown University. This appointment is partially supported by a $30,000 salary assistance grant from the Japan Foundation in Los Angeles. The JIEP received the grant before when the program was launched. We are happy to have garnered this additional assistance to aid Assistant Professor Tatsushi Fukunaga, who, in delivering the Japanese curriculum during the academic year and through summer courses, has done a superb job of creating a Japanese learner community at URI and has enriched students’ learning experiences in a variety of ways: video projects, starting a Japanese book club, the addition of a Shaberiba conversation hour and more.
Because of COVID-19, there are no students currently in Japan. However, three students are hoping to go there and live for one year starting in the fall of 2021.
SIEP
While all IEP directors presented at the ACIEE on their various expertises, Spanish IEP director Dr. Iñaki Pérez-Ibáñez was especially effective in teaming up with Christoph Merkelbach, head of TU Darmstadt’s Center for Intercultural Communication. Using cultural incidents in various breakout groups during their Intercultural Competency Development and Assessment session, they succeeded in garnering first prize for having run the most interactive and engaging concurrent session.