Amber Tidwell, an adjunct English instructor at Columbus Technical College is saying goodbye to her colleagues as she heads to China to teach English.
“I'm totally nervous but it's just an adventure and it's exciting. [I have] fears about the language. I don't know Mandarin or even a few words of it,” said Tidwell.
The technical college Tidwell is headed to asked Columbus Tech for help with its curriculum. Tidwell hopes this budding relationship can also benefit local students.
“This is kind of the first step of the partnership. We are hoping that in time we are going to be able to send some students, even just for a few weeks, that they can get an idea of the culture and vice versa,” said Tidwell.
Back in June a group of university delegates from China stopped in at Columbus Tech to exchange ideas.
“We really just felt like we clicked with them. They are a technical college as well so their mission is very similar to ours which is a professional technical program for workforce development to help our students get a great start in life so they can have a great career and be successful,” said the Director of International Education and Outreach, Dr. Ian Bond.
Dr. Bond said education is a lot different from 50 years ago and developing global partnerships with school's can help keep future workers competitive.
“We are a global economy. We are training people for a global workforce and we want Columbus, Phenix City, and Chattahoochee Valley students to have the best opportunity to be successful,” said Dr. Bond.
Dr. Bond said Columbus Tech is working on setting up a Chinese culture and language study tour for the summer of 2013.
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