NGCSU summer program expanding

DAHLONEGA - North Georgia College & State University is also expanding its summer institute language programs to include Arabic, Russian and French.

School officials say the expanded program is the result of the success of last year's Chinese language summer institute.

North Georgia is one of two schools in the country designated by ROTC Cadet Command as a strategic language hub for cadets who are commissioning through ROTC. The other is San Diego State University.

The summer institutes, June 23 through July 31, feature native-speaking faculty and teaching assistants and represent the North Georgia's strategic efforts to "internationalize" the campus and curriculum to promote students' understanding of the world and their ability to work and serve in a global community.

"The summer institutes are opportunities for students to engage in intensive programs to gain significant competencies in these languages and cultures," said Dr. Chris Jespersen, dean of North Georgia's School of Arts and Letters.

The summer institutes were launched in 2008 with funding support from a federal grant from the ROTC Language and Culture Project, designed to promote education programs for languages that are not commonly taught within higher education. North Georgia was one of eight U.S. colleges and universities to receive the grant at the time.

ROTC is partnering with the National Security Education Program (NSEP), a federal initiative designed to build a broader and more qualified pool of citizens with foreign language and international skills to serve the needs of national security and competitiveness, to focus on the critical languages and cultures of Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America.

North Georgia's Department of Modern Languages adopted Chinese as part of its language programs with a few courses before developing a full-fledged academic minor in Chinese. As part of the program, North Georgia has implemented a study abroad component in partnership with Tsinghua University in Beijing.

The Chinese institute, which offered nine credit hours in Chinese language, was the first college experience for virtually the entire class; 14 of the 16 students were freshmen. The students experienced almost complete immersion in the Chinese language and culture with a 14-hour daily schedule every weekday in addition to weekend trips.

North Georgia's Chinese language program has experienced rapid growth since it started less than two years ago with only two courses, subsequently becoming an academic minor. The university is making plans to offer students the opportunity to major in Chinese in the near future.

In addition to the language programs offered through the summer institutes, the university is offering courses in Strategic Issues in a Changing World and MATLAB. The Strategic Issues course is designed to introduce students to the history and theory behind the world's present conflicts and provide opportunities to discuss ancient conflict, terrorism and evolving security issues. MATLAB is used by scientists and engineers around the world working in aerospace, semiconductors, biotech, financial services, and earth and ocean sciences to perform sophisticated and efficient computing. In the MATLAB course, students will learn to design and construct algorithms and programs for scientific and engineering problem-solving, as well as the mathematics necessary for success in Calculus and future science classes.