As reported in the Fall 2002 State of the College address at SCC, the Missouri Community College Association’s Missouri Consortium for Global Education (MCCA/MCGE) has received approval for a massive proposal by the U.S. Department of Education.

   St. Charles Community College has two faculty members who are participating in this project. Associate Professor David Parker (Computer Science) has been at work on a project involving Asia and the Pacific Rim; in 2004, Associate Professor Michael Kuelker (English) will develop human rights educational materials with an emphasis on the Caribbean and Latin America.

   The Consortium, with assistance from the U.S. Department of Education, will provide leadership, training and resources to internationalize curricula, develop and offer a global studies certificate stressing language and culture, increase offerings and competencies in foreign languages in community colleges across the state of Missouri, and deliver parts of the internationalized curricula via distance learning. This will provide students greater access to international education opportunities. The result will be to enhance the potential of students, in community colleges spread across Missouri, to contribute positively as citizens in an increasingly global society.

   These global studies enhancements will occur as a result of faculty development, enrichment and training opportunities.  These will take the form of workshops and seminars, consultation, “immersion experiences,” training in distance course delivery techniques, and time and incentives to focus on offering quality global education programming for Missouri community college students.  This endeavor will strengthen global education offerings already available at the colleges as well as provide new courses and curricula by:

• Expanding the foreign language course offerings that would become both available and accessible to every Missouri community college student (either through traditional or distance learning technology), including offerings in the less-commonly taught languages.

• Internationalizing more than 100 courses and curricula, taught by 68 faculty at the 17 Missouri community colleges, and providing support to faculty to deliver some of these via web-based instruction.

• Developing and offering a global studies certificate in Language and Culture, which, as a result of the previous two activities, will be available to all community college students, not just those attending larger urban colleges.

The Missouri Community College Association’s Missouri Consortium for Global Education is deeply committed to the concept of educating for global competence. The strong cost-sharing portion of the budget for this project reflects that commitment. However, the proposed initiatives and activities could not be carried out without the support of the U.S. Department of Education.

The consortium will receive a total of $264,069 in federal funds over a three-year period to carry out the project. The major portion of the total budget concentrates on the development of faculty through workshops and seminars, individualized consulting and mentoring, group immersion experiences, and stipends to encourage the development of quality curriculum products.

Dr. Jim Kellerman, Executive Director/CEA of MCCA, provided material for this article.