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AGENDA ITEM BACKGROUND
TO: GOVERNING BOARD
DATE
FROM: PRESIDENT
February 6, 2012
SUBJECT:
International Student Delegations Program – Annual Report
2011-2012
ENCLOSURE(S)
Page 1 of 2
REASON FOR BOARD CONSIDERATION
INFORMATION
ITEM NUMBER
D.6
Background:
Cabrillo has now hosted five groups of students from Denmark for an intensive cultural experience. Our
most recent group came from two small colleges on Denmark's Jutland peninsula, Herningsholm and
Holstebro. The two colleges combined efforts in order to form a group, and won financial support from a
European Cultural organization that helped fund this enrichment program for their students.
After months of correspondence and joint planning, Herningsholm College sent a group of four professors to
Cabrillo in August 2011 to meet Cabrillo's International Program Coordinator and evaluate how well
Cabrillo and Santa Cruz County would meet the needs of their students. The professors toured the college,
met staff, and were taken to various local points of interest by the Program Coordinator and her Assistant.
Enthusiastically, the professors returned to Denmark to begin promoting the fall program.
The 15 Danish students were hosted in Santa Cruz families for their stay from November 6 through
December 3. Twice-a-week they attended an ESL class designed and taught by the program chair of
department and a cross-cultural communications class taught in the Communications Studies department.
The students were integrated into the regular credit course, providing rich opportunities for grounding the
theory for the Danish and Cabrillo students.
A section designed specifically for the Danes followed this class.
The academic instruction was supplemented with a variety of field trips. Students were enthusiastic in their
response to a day spent touring the Monterey Bay Aquarium and walking around Carmel, another day of a
walking tour of San Francisco and the Ropes Course provided by APEX Adventures in Scotts Valley. The
students also enjoyed the San Jose Tech Museum and a morning of volunteering at Second Harvest in
Watsonville.
The professors were delighted that we could provide their students the opportunity to volunteer, something
none of them had ever done before. Coming from a country where the government provides jobs, food, and
housing for everyone--they had never seen a charitable organization in action. We arranged for two different
volunteer activities, and this was a very impactful event.
(continued)
Administrator Initiating Item:
Rock Pfotenhauer, Dean, CEED
Renée M. Kilmer, Vice President, Instruction
Academic and Professional Matter
If yes, Faculty Senate Agreement
Senate President Signature
 Yes  No
 Yes  No
Final Disposition
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Another enrichment in this program was the active involvement of several of the families, who suggested and
organized additional activities for the students. One host mother noticed that we were having unusually warm
weather and suggested a beach campfire for two evenings later -- and almost all of the students and their host
families gathered at Twin Lakes State Beach to roast marshmallows around a fire and share their impressions
of California. Another family opened their home and invited all of the students to a pizza party one evening,
including several young people from their teenage children's circle of friends. The Danish students loved this
opportunity to meet other young people (many of them Cabrillo students) in an informal setting and share
ideas.
The impact on the Cabrillo community was very positive: six of the homestay families have a family member
who works at Cabrillo and half of the homestay families included a Cabrillo student, who became a good
friend to the Danish student and helped introduce them to many other young people. All of the receiving
families indicated that they had enjoyed the experience and would definitely consider receiving a Danish
student in the future.
The positive response to Cabrillo's Danish program was overwhelming among the Danish students. The
following comment was received at the program's finish from the Danish professor who organized the
program from their end:
"The main objective when we first started this program was to create an outstanding inter-cultural
experience for the students - and from the feed back I have just received we have been very successful
and for that I am deeply in your debt."
We began and ended the four-week program by gathering all of the students and their California families at
Cabrillo for a meal together. At the brunch on Saturday, December 3, each student received a certificate of
completion and a family member was called upon to say a few words about their student and the experience
of hosting them. Tears flowed freely from the Danish men and equally from Santa Cruz families who had
extended their family and felt that they were losing their new family member too soon.
We have received an inquiry from a Korean school that would like to organize a group to come to Cabrillo
for an ESL and intercultural experience, and the program Coordinator is exploring this possibility. These
students might well stay to continue their studies at Cabrillo. We are also working with IT to complete a
Cabrillo website to present our International Student Groups program. Herningsholm and Holstebro have
already indicated their intention of sending a group next fall.
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