ACC Is Awarded a Four-year Grant from the
Department of Education
Associated Colleges in China (ACC) has been awarded a
four-year GPA grant from the Department of Education. Associated Colleges in China is a study abroad consortia
with member schools of Hamilton College, Oberlin College, Lawrence University, and Williams College. The proposed project, the ACC Intensive Language
Training Program for Students and Language Professionals, has three components.
It will create 12 new full-year scholarships, enabling more students to join
the ACC's existing advanced language and culture study aboard program; provide
16 fellowships for ACC's field studies program for advanced speakers; and
establish a new summer Chinese language teachers' institute for 10 K-12 teachers
whose native language is not Chinese.
ACC’s intensive year-long Chinese
language and culture program has been in existence for more than a decade,
graduating over 1200 students with advanced Chinese language proficiency from
more than 50 universities and colleges in the US. With the generous grant, ACC
will be able to offer full year fellowships to provide much needed financial
relief to talented and motivated students who simply don't have the resources
to enroll in the program.
The field studies program enables
students who have already completed a term or more of study in China
to participate in a language-intensive and experience-based language and
cultural internship in rural China
for eight weeks during the summer. The goal for the field studies initiative is
to make it possible for students to gain first hand experience in rural China and retain and expand upon what they learned during
their initial study abroad experiences.
ACC is particularly excited about
establishing the new program for K-12 teachers. To respond to a serious
shortage of Chinese language teachers at K-12 levels, many colleges and
universities are beginning to offer teacher training programs for Chinese
language. However, Jin pointed out that many of these programs target native
Chinese speakers and focus training only on pedagogy and materials development.
For more information regarding the
fellowships and programs, please visit www.hamilton.edu/academic/acc