Sometimes the greatest discoveries can be from your own backyard.
Alvin Community College History and Study Abroad instructor Chris Chance has helped students learn about places all over the world. But he realized one day that there is one place students should also travel to and discover: Texas.
“The state used to have a marketing campaign called ‘Texas: It’s like a whole other country,’” he said. “I have discovered there are really different places throughout Texas.”
Chance was awarded a $2,000 grant from the ACC Foundation Innovative Initiative Grant to provide students with the opportunity to travel throughout Texas and learn more about their home state.
The grant was awarded through the Foundation’s Innovative Initiative program. The Innovative Initiative Grant program is designed to encourage, facilitate, recognize and reward innovative and creative approaches to fulfill the mission of the college. The grants will be used for the 2025-26 academic year.
When Chance first arrived to teach in Texas 20 years ago, he didn’t know much about the state and he began reading and traveling to in order to teach the class effectively. What he learned was that there were so many different regions in the state with a wide array of culture.
“I wanted to do it justice,” he said of the course. “Texas is not only geographically varied, each of those geographies come with their own history and their own cultural expressions.”
Working with students as an instructor, Chance said many of them have not traveled in their own home state and there were opportunities for them not far from the classroom. Traveling locally will provide opportunities for more students than for trips overseas, he said.
“One of the big goals of Study Abroad is to put students in a new geographic context and a cultural context that they can’t have at home,” he said. “You can do all of that right here in Texas.”
To learn more about the program check out the podcast interview with Chance at www.alvincollege.edu/news/podcast.html or wherever you get podcasts.