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Vic Students to Teach in China Canada’s Future Teachers to Get International Experience Victoria University president Paul Gooch took a significant step forward in increasing undergraduate access to international experience this past April. He travelled to China to establish an exchange program between Victoria University and Beijing Foreign Languages School for students in the Victoria College/OISE Concurrent Teacher Education Program. The agreement between the two schools grew out of the Isabel Crook Student Exchange established in 2009 by President Gooch with BFLS-affiliated Beijing Foreign Studies University. Educator and activist Isabel Crook Vic 3T6 is one of BFSU’s President Gooch (seated, second from left) was joined by Victoria College principal David Cook and Vic’s concurrent teacher education program coordinator Sheila Cook (seated, far right) in China to finalize the founding instructors. international exchange with Beijing Foreign Languages School. The first students to participate in this study abroad opportunity travel to China in February, where they will gain valuable teaching develop a whole new perspective on Canada.” experience. They will complete a four-month internship Students taking part in the exchange will fulfill 12 hours at BFLS as well as take two courses in Chinese culture or of in-class instruction a week at BFLS, teaching at the language and a course in comparative literature. primary and secondary education levels. They will also receive “Our students will benefit from the exchange on a number a monthly stipend and accommodation as part of the of fronts,” says Sheila Cook, coordinator of the Victoria exchange program. College/OISE Concurrent Teacher Education Program. Beijing Foreign Languages School is one of China’s premier “Not only will they get to completely immerse themselves in schools for pre-university study in foreign languages. Since another culture and learn another language, the exchange 1959, the school has been providing elementary and high will help to prepare them for teaching in highly diverse school-level education under the leadership of Beijing Foreign environments. Also, in teaching Chinese students about the Studies University, China’s first institution specializing in English language and Canadian culture, our students will foreign language studies, founded in 1941.
Photography: (Opposite page) Peg McCarthy; Beijing Foreign Languages School
2010 Distinguished Alumni Award
CALL FOR NOMINATIONS Do you know a Victoria College graduate who has distinguished her or himself through extraordinary contribution to: • Society • Business • Politics
• Education • Culture • Religion
Nominate her or him today. Visit www.vicu.utoronto.ca/alumni.
The Victoria College Distinguished Alumni Award is presented in recognition of a graduate’s recent or lifetime achievement. The scope of her or his contribution may be at the local, national or international level. Nominations for the Distinguished Alumni Award’s 2010 recipient must be received by Nov. 19, 2010.
vic report autumn 2010
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