Annual Program Review CIEE Study Center in Buenos Aires, Argentina 2006

Transcription

1 Annual Program Review CIEE Study Center in Buenos Aires, Argentina 2006 CIEE Program Director: Christine Wintersteen, CIEE Resident Director: Andrea Rizzotti (Associate Director), Dr. Daniel Filmus (Academic Director) CIEE Academic Consortium Board Program Evaluation: CIEE Academic Consortium Board Monitor: Al Balkcum, University of Minnesota Each summer, program directors write a Study Center Review for each CIEE Study Center program commenting on the previous academic year. The program director writes the review based on input from the CIEE Academic Consortium Board members, resident directors, sending institutions, and student evaluations. Each report is made public on the CIEE website at Program Goals The CIEE Study Center in Buenos Aires, Argentina is designed to help students with a strong command of the Spanish language and interest in social sciences and humanities gain an in-depth knowledge of Argentine and Spanish-speaking South American politics, economics, history, literature and society. The program is unique due to its being housed at the Facultad Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO), a pre-eminent social science think tank, as well as offering direct matriculation at the Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA), a premier public university in Argentina, and the Universidad Católica de Argentina (UCA), a highly regarded private university, in a wide range of disciplines in the social sciences and humanities. In addition, students may take for-credit art courses at el Instituto Universitatrio Nacional de Arte (IUNA) and non-credit art courses through Centro Ricardo Rojas. Through course offerings at each of these institutions, the program provides students with a critical appreciation of Argentina and its importance in Latin America from the perspective of the social sciences and humanities. The program is known for attracting students who want to be intellectually challenged while immersing themselves culturally in a cosmopolitan Latin American city. Overall, students evaluated the program very well and program goals are being met. The most important recommendations from the 2005 monitoring process were to assess the impact of the elimination of the two-week intensive Spanish language course and the requirement of the semester-long Spanish course and to strengthen the two new CIEE courses being taught at FLACSO (Community Service and Volunteerism; and the Culture, Women and Civic Engagement in Argentina). Academic Program The academic program begins during orientation with general introductory classes on the history and culture of Argentina and Buenos Aires (led by Dr. Daniel Filmus, the Academic Director, and Dr. Diego Raus, professor of one of the CIEE specially-designed courses, Seminar: Argentine Reality. During orientation, students also participate in a Porteño Spanish workshop, which is 8 hours long. During the regular semester, students enroll in a minimum of 2 and maximum of 4 credits in Spanish language at the Laboratorio de Idiomas at UBA. In addition, students enroll in courses at the various host institutions. 1

2 New Spanish Language Requirement The two-week intensive Spanish language course had received very mixed evaluations for many years and did not adequately prepare students for the challenging direct enrollment courses at UBA and UCA. Therefore, this course was eliminated in fall 2005 and replaced with a semester-long requirement that would better serve the academic goals of the program by ensuring that there is continuous and structured linguistic work for all participants and better equip students to succeed in direct enrollment courses and their general adaptation to Argentine life. Semester Spanish Language After completing a language placement exam, students can complete the language requirement in the following ways: Spanish language course that runs the duration of the regular semester (68 hours/4 credits). Intensive Spanish language course (covers the same material as above) that is only 2.5 months in length (68 hours/4 credits). Most advanced students and/or students who will not receive language credit must enroll in two of the following: Literatura argentina y latinoamericana, Cultura y conversación, Redacción académica y Escritura creativa (24 hours/1 credit each). Students must enroll in a minimum of 2 credits and a maximum of 4 credits at the Laboratorio de Idiomas at the UBA. During both fall 2005 and spring 2006, roughly 90% of the participants were placed in the intermediate to highest levels of Spanish (5-7 on a scale of 1-8) and about 10% were placed in the lower levels of Spanish (3-4). These students received extra support, such as individual tutoring to reinforce and improve their communicational and grammatical skills. FLACSO Courses During the course registration period, FLACSO professors presented course syllabi and explained the evaluation process so that students were better able to select their courses. The FLACSO courses tend to be taught in an interactive method and with continuous assessment, more familiar to U.S. students. During the fall 2005 semester, 95% of participants enrolled in at least one FLACSO course and in spring 2006, 89% of participants did so. The following six elective courses were offered each semester. There were two new courses begun in spring Due to the large size of the program, beginning in spring 2006 some of the courses, in which there are a high number of students enrolled, were divided into two sections in order to maintain a lower teacher-student ratio. International Relations of Latin America The Political Economy of Argentina s Development Seminar on Argentine Reality Cultural Issues in Argentine History, (2 sections in spring 2006) Culture, Women and Civic Engagement in Argentina Seminar on Community Service and Volunteerism, (2 sections in spring 2006) 2

3 Students consistently evaluate the FLACSO courses very highly. The two latter courses are new as of spring 2005 and continue to receive good but mixed evaluations. The Associate Director is working with the professor of the gender course to improve the coordination between the guest lecturers and will closely monitor the course in the coming year. Improvements in the volunteer course included creating links between the students practical experiences in the field with the methodology course (led by the Internship Coordinator), relationship-building between the professors that led different sections of the course and the community service sites, and creating more placement options and organizing them around following themes and types of community work: Centro Comunitario del Barrio: Area of Interest children, English (teaching), poverty Casa del Niño: Area of Interest children, English (teaching), poverty, sports, music and health Intercambios, NGO: Area of Interest HIV-AIDS, Health, Drug Politics, English (translations) FEIM (Fundación para el Estudio e Investigación de la Mujer): Area of Interest gender, women, health, publications, youth CLAYSS Centro Latinoamericano de Aprendizaje y Servicio Solidario: Area of Interest education, english (translation) Help Argentina: Area of Interest development, economy, poverty social sector, fundraising Madres de Plaza de Mayo: Area of Interest Human rights Familiares dedesaparecidos y Detenidos por Razones Politicas: Area of Interest Human Rights The course did improve but the Associate Director will continue working with the Internship Coordinator and the professors to continue the work they started this past year to better organize and improve the course. Direct Enrollment Course Registration The Argentine academic system differs greatly from the U.S. academic system and is often perceived as bureaucratic and decentralized by U.S. students. For instance, UBA is divided into several Departments, each autonomous from one another, and each maintaining different schedules, accommodations, policies and rules, including the course registration process. CIEE has agreements with the Liberal Arts Department (Facultad de Filosofía y Letras), the Social Sciences Department (Facultad de Ciencias Sociales), and the Language Department (Laboratorio de Idiomas) at UBA and also with the Argentine Catholic University (UCA); the National Institute of Art (IUNA) for advanced Art Students and FLACSO (Facultad Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales. As in past years, CIEE staff assisted participants with the registration process in every way possible. The CIEE registration has the following stages: Pre-registration During this first stage, students are separated into smaller groups of 25 and assigned a CIEE resident staff member and 5 tutors that are contracted for the length of the semester. During this stage, students are advised of their options and a general orientation is given on how registration works. Students may look for a specific course 3

4 description on the CIEE Argentina intranet (roughly 2000 course descriptions are listed), the tutors (graduates of the different host institutions) provide first-hand information to the students regarding the professor and difficulty of the course (about courses). Students may also express personal concerns and individual requirements to CIEE resident staff and tutors. Students are strongly encouraged to register for more courses than a normal course load due to two primary factors. First, scheduling conflicts may not allow students to register for exactly what they want, and; second, a course that may initially seem attractive may not ultimately be appropriate (or vice versa). Shopping Period This stage lasts two weeks and provides CIEE students the opportunity to attend as many classes as they would like to before deciding their final enrollment. During this period, students may add and drop courses at the many institutions. They may also check with their home universities and advisors about credit transfer once they have more detailed information such as course descriptions and/or syllabi. Drop Period During this stage, students may drop courses in which they do not plan to enroll. Please note that the shopping and drop dates may differ between institutions and universities and students often experience frustration in keeping these staggered dates straight CIEE Argentina maintains the important academic dates on their intranet. Final Registration In order to complete the registration process, students must complete an Englishlanguage course description for the on-line CIEE Argentina intranet and submit a syllabus to the resident staff. The system can then automatically create a CIEE Course registration, which is signed by the student and the CIEE Associate Director and mailed to CIEE headquarters. This period lasts one week. Withdrawal Period After final registration, students have one month to decide to withdraw from a course. These courses will receive a W on the CIEE Academic Record. To conclude, this process can be long and stressful, especially for U.S. students that are accustomed to smaller and much better organized universities and because the timing is just when students are adjusting linguistically and culturally to Argentina. However, this is the only way to allow students a diverse choice of enrollment possibilities and provide a truly immersive academic experience while in Buenos Aires. In order to facilitate the process, CIEE holds an academic session during orientation, small group meetings during the pre-registration process, individual meetings, provides ample time to shop for courses and drop courses and ultimately, withdraw, if needed. Tutorials Ultimately, students find many of the direct enrollment courses challenging and academically rigorous and greatly enjoy being in the classroom alongside Argentines. For those students that encounter difficulties, specific tutorials are offered to assist individual student needs, according to the course work and subjects that students are taking at the University. CIEE greatly encourages participants to take advantage of the tutorials in order to prepare for the demanding final exams and papers that most direct enrollment courses require. 4

5 Non-academic Features Orientation As in previous years, all students stayed in a hotel next to FLACSO for the first day of orientation. Students moved into their residencia or host family after two nights at the hotel but the orientation continues for two weeks. The activities included: identifying different city neighborhoods, using the transportation guide of the city; learning about personal security and safety, and workshops on cultural aspects and adaptation. Overall, the orientation was well evaluated. However, students remark that the orientation is very long and could be shortened. The resident staff will explore ways to shorten the length of the orientation without losing the value of the information provided. In addition, the resident staff will work on ways to improve the session on gender and minority issues. Finally, with such a large group of students, the resident staff will work on finding ways to divide the group into smaller numbers whenever possible during the orientation and will divide the housing orientation between students that will be in homestays and those students in residence halls. Housing This is one of the few CIEE Study Centers in Latin America that offers students two options in housing: a home stay or sharing a room with a native Spanish-speaker in a student residencia. During the academic year, roughly 90% of students lived with host families. Although students evaluated the housing as very good to excellent, many students did not like the meals provided, particularly at the residencia. The resident director will consider how this issue might be improved. During each semester, there is an activity called Family Night where groups of host families and their students enjoy a progressive dinner together and walk from house to house to better establish relationships between families with students that live near one another. Cultural Activities The program organizes several cultural activities throughout the semester. Students attended soccer games, went to movies and the theater, participated in day trips in and out of the city, and visited places of historic and cultural interests. These activities are always accompanied by a member of a group of historians called Los Eternautas. These guides are specialized in historic circuits around the city and outside the city as well. During the first weeks of the program the students participated in the following activities: Buenos Aires: La Aldea Metrópolis ; Buenos Aires Sur and Buenos Aires Aristocrática to better focus and understand the variety of neighborhoods in the city. Other cultural activities were planned during the semester including a play called El Fulgor Argentino performed by residents of one of the oldest neighborhoods of Buenos Aires, La Boca. Field Trips Students are divided into two smaller groups (roughly students each) to participate in two four-day field trips. The first field trip is academically focused on the Present and Past of the Andino World and takes place in Tilcara, a small village in the Jujuy province in northern Argentina near the border of Bolivia. Different professionals guide the students on a tour of the 5

6 history of Quebrada de Humahuaca, a region that has recently been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This field trip was very well evaluated by students. The program also organized a 4-day excursion outside of Buenos Aires to show students the rural side of the country, visiting Esteros del Iberá in the province of Corrientes near the Brazilian and Paraguyan border. Academic year students are offered different field trips during their second semester. Many students also traveled independently within the country to several national parks in Patagonia, or to other Latin American countries including Chile, Uruguay and Brazil. Internships and Volunteer Work Students may participate in volunteer opportunities through the FLACSO course, Seminar on Community Service and Volunteerism. Volunteer placements were outlined above in the Academic Program section. Student Welfare CIEE organized several counseling sessions for the students to work through culture shock and various aspects relating to adaptation to the city and the different academic environment. Each student can also arrange personal meetings with the counselor during the regular semester. Students Enrollment Gender Semester 172 Male 77 Academic Year 47 Female 142 Average Student GPA 3.44 Top Enrollments by Major Spanish Language/Literature International Affairs International Relations Political Science History Top Sending Schools Brown University Georgetown University Tulane University University of Colorado at Boulder Wesleyan University Future Directions In the upcoming academic year, the resident staff hopes to work on strengthening some specific components of the program including the orientation; meals provided by the two housing options, the creation of a non-credit volunteer option, and the quality of the two new FLACSO courses. 6