When the job market continues to become a global endeavor, employees must be trained with the same cultural perspective to be competitive in their careers.
Alvin Community College English instructor Charlie Bevill feels that higher education content must adapt to internationalization standards to prepare students for the workforce.
“You learn so much when you globalize yourself and your curriculum as well,” she said.
Bevill was recently named a fellow of Stanford University’s Education Partnership for Internationalizing Curriculum (or EPIC) through the university’s Global Studies school. The EPIC program seeks to strengthen community college curricula to include an international perspective on the content used in college courses.
“Global education is important because our students don’t live in a vacuum,” Bevill said. “If they’re going to be working at global companies, they need to know how to communicate in that environment. Globalizing the college itself helps them to be successful as professionals.”
Internationalization includes presenting students with perspectives from other parts of the world to broaden their understanding of the material. Internationalization can be implemented in various academic and workforce programs.
Bevill, who is also the chair of ACC’s Study Abroad program, will work with other educators throughout the upcoming year to determine how the college can expand internationalized perspectives for students. Some instructors have previously utilized internationalization as part of their instruction.
“I have already internationalized my courses and I want to broaden that,” she said.
Bevill has visited the university as part of the program to learn more about the internationalization process. Throughout the year she will meet and share with other instructors about to implement content.
To learn more about the program, you can listen to the ACC Podcast interview with Bevill which is available wherever you get your podcasts.