COIL Rural CommuniTIES

COIL Rural CommuniTIES

February 16, 2024

1:00 pm-2:00 pm Eastern

noon-1:00 pm Central

11am-noon Mountain

10:00 am-11:00 am Pacific

Please join us for a special February session of our Global Studies Virtual Symposium, an event that connects global studies scholars and educators across community college campuses nationwide. The symposium offers an engaging teaching and learning forum for sharing best practices, ideas, and resources with colleagues.

COIL (Collaborative Online International/Intercultural Learning) is an important tool in connecting students to the world so they can build valuable global competencies. This is even more important in rural communities where many students do not have access to travel experiences or intercultural exposure.

The goal of the COIL Rural CommuniITIES project (sponsored by a U.S. State Department/Alumni TIES grant) is to facilitate the creation of virtual exchange partnerships between K-16 educational institutions in the U.S. and abroad, specifically focusing on rural communities. The goal of this project is to exponentially grow our COIL Rural CommuniTIES across America and across the world. The project aims to provide equity to students of all socioeconomic backgrounds to connect globally. Building skills of intercultural competence, empathy, critical thinking, collaboration, language acquisition, and global/local citizenship will open more doors for student success.

Our presentation will explain COIL and our rural grant project to participants and explain how to use virtual exchange to increase student engagement and build global competencies. Additionally, we will address how to find partner schools and create modules to use during the partnership.

Paul Edleman is a Professor of Political Science and Communication at Sauk Valley Community College. He received a doctorate and master’s degree in political science from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University and a master’s in communication studies from the University of Kansas.  In addition to his teaching duties, Prof. Edleman runs the study abroad program and international programming at Sauk Valley.  He is a member of the executive board of the Illinois Consortium for International Studies and Programs (ICISP) and is the coordinator of the Consortium’s Finland Professional Exchange Program. He is a member of the American Institute of Pakistan Studies board of trustees and co-director of the American Pakistan Educational Exchange (APEX) program.

Jodi Resch Brownell has been teaching Spanish for 28 years in Crandon, WI; since 2012 she has also taught dual enrollment courses through UW-Green Bay. She is a Kohl Teacher Fellow, National Geographic Certified Educator, Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms fellow, and the Wisconsin Rural Teacher of the Year. She is the advisor for her school’s Global Scholars club which is part of the WI DPI’s Certificate of Global Competency program. Ms. Brownell has participated in the Ohio State University’s SSAST program in Guatemala and Bolivia, the Embassy of Spain’s Master’s Program in Salamanca, and the Stevens Initiative Virtual Exchange Academy. 

María Cristina Montoya is an Associate Professor at SUNY-Oneonta. Dr. Montoya has been implementing COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning) in her language courses since 2014. Her Fulbright mission in 2019, “Intercultural Competence through (COIL),” focused on forming relationships to contribute to communities in becoming global. In 2022, her work continued, as a Fulbright Specialist at UniValle, disseminating and institutionalizing COIL.

Register here for COIL for Rural CommuniTIES

Questions? Please contact us by email: outreach@umn.edu

Sponsored by Title VI National Resource Centers at the Institute for Global Studies (IGS), University of Minnesota and the Center for Global Studies (CGS) – The Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington, in collaboration with Green River College and Ridgewater College