Scott Northern Wake Campus
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919-866-5248 (office)
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Scott Northern Wake Campus
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919-866-5248 (office)
My first adventure off the North American continent was for an independent research project to Egypt on a Middle East Studies grant. Traveling independently, in the days before I had a cellphone or GPS, gave me a healthy dose of confidence! Since then, I've trekked across many countries, often in a rental car, seeking out the great unknown. I want to instill the same confidence and thirst for adventure in my students.
Most importantly, though, I want students to better understand themselves and the world around them. When the Greeks colonized Ionia, they met people having a far different culture from their own. This not only taught them about others, but also a great deal about what made them "Greek." Each time I travel, I learn as much about myself as I do those people I am visiting.
Students who study abroad make valuable connections, both to their classmates and to students abroad. They also have a greater chance of completing their course and program successfully. I'm always happy to share how students can make studying abroad a reality.
Southern Wake Campus
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919-866-5205 (office)
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Southern Wake Campus
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919-866-5205 (office)
"The greatest experience you can have is to live from a global viewpoint. Traveling to other countries allows you to touch, see and feel how others live. Diversity is highlighted, and expanded thought is created.
"Organizations are looking for leaders who can relate to people from all cultures, show respect for differences and understand others' viewpoints. These trips to a variety of countries add an unforgettable experience to your employment portfolio that global organizations will appreciate. They also allow you to fully develop your potential as an employee, citizen and person.
"Please consider signing up for a trip with Wake Tech. It will change your life!"
Scott Northern Wake Campus
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919-532-5639 (office)
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Scott Northern Wake Campus
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919-532-5639 (office)
The core concept of anthropology is diversity, and nothing provides exposure to the diversity of humankind more than travel. When you travel, you have direct access to encounter different natural settings, historical sites and cultural behaviors that you may have only read or heard about.
As one who grew up in the tobacco fields of eastern North Carolina, I participated in my first Study Abroad programs as an undergraduate student, first in the British Isles and then Barbados. Spending a month studying in each location taught me many things, especially to quickly adapt to different cultural settings, travel efficiently, make the most of my time and learn to live in an area with different normal and acceptable behaviors than our own.
Since I have been teaching anthropology, I have organized and led Travel Abroad tours through Ireland, England, France, the Yucatan region of Mexico, Italy, Greece, Amsterdam, Germany, and Switzerland.
For you, participation in such programs also looks terrific on a resume, as it shows potential employers that you are easily adaptable to changing conditions and can work with individuals and clients from different cultures. Equally as important, Study Abroad and Travel Abroad programs offered by Wake Tech will provide you with memories, experiences and friendships that will last a lifetime.
Southern Wake Campus
Building B
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357
919-866-5387 (office)
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Southern Wake Campus
Building B
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357
919-866-5387 (office)
American sociologist Seymour Martin Lipset said, "The person who knows only one country knows no countries." Traveling abroad is a transformational experience because, in order to understand our own country and culture, and even our own selves, we have to experience that which is different, that which is "other."
I learned this truism as a college student when I traveled abroad in Italy for three months during my junior year. Those months were some of the most exciting and exhilarating of my life to that point, and they were also some of the most challenging. Adapting to new foods, strange modes of doing things as simple as grocery shopping or taking a city bus, being surrounded by a language that I didn't understand was all revelatory. It opened my eyes to beautiful ways of life I couldn't have imagined, like the total shutdown of a city for afternoon siesta and freshly made pasta dressed with squid ink. It also gave me newfound appreciation for things I had taken for granted, like ice in water and air conditioning.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, traveling abroad was considered an essential part of a well-rounded education. A fully formed mind was one that had been shaped by contact with difference. In a world as interconnected as that of the 21st century, it has never been easier to make this vision of a well-cultivated person a reality. But even more significantly, in a 21st century culture where it is so possible to remain mentally segregated from others who think, speak, act and live differently than ourselves, and where division, bigotry and prejudice towards those who are different has never been more pronounced, we need the transformative experience of travel more than ever. Travel abroad isn't a luxury, though there is, of course, expense involved. It is a vital part of becoming fully formed minds capable of bringing harmony and beauty to our world.
Scott Northern Wake Campus
Building E
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337
919-532-5646 (office)
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Scott Northern Wake Campus
Building E
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337
919-532-5646 (office)
Travel and study abroad are foundational elements not only in my education but in my life. As an art historian, I am expected to understand not only the meaning of images but the roles they play in our lives and in the lives of others, both near and far, living or long gone. Accordingly, my studies and work have allowed me to live and study abroad at various points in my life. But traveling isn't only an academic endeavor; it gives you access to ways of life and cultures – foods, languages, daily routines and broad perspectives – that can both be vastly different from, and surprisingly similar to, our own. Experiencing the world from the perspectives of others, in the simplest terms, makes the world a better place.
As a Spanish major, I was able to travel in Latin America (Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela) and study my junior year in Salamanca, Spain. There, I traveled extensively within Europe with a rail pass, spending more than one night in train stations and city parks. I began taking French while in Spain and later took intensive language courses in both Lille, France, and Chicoutimi, Quebec. After college, I moved to Taipei, Taiwan, to teach English as my first "real job." Without ever studying Chinese, I quickly got over my deep-seated stage fright from public speaking by teaching schoolchildren. Afterward, I backpacked for several months throughout Southeast Asia and Nepal. Later, as I made choices for my career path in art history, I wanted to ensure that foreign study would remain possible, and I eventually moved with my family to France and Antwerp, Belgium, where I received a research fellowship to work at the University of Antwerp, studying Renaissance art and culture. While my daily work involved spending hours in the city archives, my joys were riding my bike everywhere, having accessible health care, relishing the joys of Belgian cuisine and building lifelong friendships.
As a faculty leader for Wake Tech's Art History program in Paris, I am proud to be a part of Wake Tech's Study Abroad group. I aim to not only teach students what's on the syllabus, but I also encourage them to develop their own curiosities, build self-confidence and foster new understanding and passions that will continue throughout their lives.
Southern Wake Campus
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919-795-9264 (office)
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Southern Wake Campus
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919-795-9264 (office)
Teaches Intro to Business, Consumer Behavior, Marketing, Sales and Management
"I believe that traveling to another country gives you a perspective of who you are and where you ought to go in life more than anything else. I have been to 47 countries, including the former East Germany and North Korea.
"My travel passion began in 1987 as a foreign exchange student in Salzburg, Austria, where I lived with an Austrian family. That experience gave me focus and motivation to travel the world.
"We live in one of 195 countries on this planet, and I believe you are a changed person once you have put yourself into another culture, even if just for nine or 10 days."
Southern Wake Campus
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919-532-5861 (office)
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Southern Wake Campus
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919-532-5861 (office)
Teaches Music Appreciation, Chorus
"Music is a fundamental aspect of every human culture on planet Earth. From the ancient Sumerian Empire to 21st-century America, we have created and used music as an integral means of expressing ourselves and connecting to one another.
"By virtue of my training and profession, I have had the pleasure and privilege of sharing music with others, so far, throughout the United States, Canada, the Bahamas, England, Scotland, France, Germany, Italy, the Czech Republic, Croatia, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Mexico, Norway and Austria. I have also studied and performed for extended intervals in Excideuil, France; Berlin, Germany; and perhaps most importantly, Salzburg, Austria. These experiences were so crucial to the development not just of my artistic sensibilities, but also to my growth as an informed, empathetic citizen of the world. In the words of the famous Maria von Trapp: "Music acts like a magic key, to which the most tightly closed heart opens."
"To study music abroad in the very environments where composers like Mozart and Beethoven lived and worked will fundamentally transform your perception and experience of the world. I hope you'll take the leap, discover the world through music and, in doing so, discover yourself!"
Southern Wake Campus
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919-866-5864 (office)
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Southern Wake Campus
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919-866-5864 (office)
I believe that developing humble confidence is one of the most important qualities that will help us thrive personally and professionally as communicators.
Traveling abroad is one of the biggest influences in developing my own humility – an understanding that I can learn from others who experience the world in different ways and that my way might not be the best or only right way to do something. Going abroad has also strengthened my confidence by giving me a chance to take risks, expanding my comfort zone and helping me to find the capacity to do, listen, move and be with others in new ways.
I try to incorporate this perspective and hopeful attitude in my teaching and believe that you will benefit from taking on diverse experiences as well. I love teaching Interpersonal Communication – think family, friends, co-workers, romance – and Public Speaking – think giving presentation in class, at work or at special occasions.
My first experience abroad was spending five weeks backpacking across Costa Rica after my sophomore year in college. It was one of the best and hardest things I have ever done. Now, I seek out new places to go, including Israel, Cambodia, Belize, Turkey, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, Spain, Mexico and more. I look forward to going on a trip with you and growing alongside of you as we deepen our abilities to relate to others and believe in ourselves.