A Commitment to International Studies

A Message from International Education Director Annouska Remmert, Ph.D.

Lorain County Community College is committed to international studies. College President Roy Church, as well as college administrators and faculty, have long believed that community-college education must include an international focus. Consequently, an International Initiatives Committee was formed with the initial task of developing an international mission statement. This led to the establishment of objectives to internationalize the curriculum.

In 2000, LCCC applied to the U.S. Department of Education for the Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language Grant (more commonly referred to as a Title VI-A grant) for the 2001–2003 academic years. The request was for $167,454 over two years. The goal of the proposed program was to augment the Associate of Arts degree by developing the Associate of Arts Degree with a Specialization in International Studies.

Specifically, the grant was used to:

• Enhance the expertise of the faculty in their disciplines so they could effectively internationalize their courses. Seven faculty workshops and a two-day international education conference were held to achieve this objective.
• Fully integrate international components of each subject through a minimum of three-week instructional modules in 16 revised courses.
• Develop two “umbrella” courses, Principles of International Studies I and II, to be included in the requirements of selected Arts and Sciences and occupational disciplines.
• Generate two coordinated courses over two years.
• Create two additional new courses in the Arts and Humanities and Allied Health to be called, respectively, World Literature and Health Technology in Developing Nations.
• Strengthen the foreign-language offerings by adding two years of Chinese. The Chinese language courses were developed on the Internet and made available to students locally and regionally.

LCCC is strategically placed to educate and train individuals to function successfully in a multicultural and advanced technological environment that crosses all boundaries of education, communication, language, and business.