A teacher’s travels
CLACKAMAS COMMUNITY COLLEGE’S GLOBAL LEARNING COMMITTEE CHAIR TALKS TRIPS
BY JAR ED PREBLE
DESIGN EDITOR
Ida Flippo teaches crim inal justice at
Clackam as Com m unity College and
is the chair o f the G lobal Learning
Com m ittee. The Clackam as Print sat
down with her to discuss study abroad
opportunities for students and the
work she has done internationally.
The Clackam as Print: W hat is your
background w ith study abroad?
Flippo: W hen I first started we had
a very robust kind of national thing
goin g on. We had som e fu ll-rid e
exchanges where some of our faculty
and staff would go to England and some
o f their sta ff would come over here
and work. That went by the wayside
when budget cuts came around and the
administration wasn’t real supportive
of internationalization efforts.
I was a Fulbright scholar w hich
means that I was chosen to go abroad
during my first sabbatical. I went to
the Caribbean to a little island called
Saint Lucia and I set up a program at a
community college that’s really similar
to what we have here. As a Fulbright
scholar I had to commit to promoting
international education and so I take
that seriously.
TCP: W hat is happening w ith study
abroad at CCC?
F lip p o : O ne o f th e reaso n s we
revamped the Global Learning
Committee is because we would have
somebody who’s teaching Japanese and
they wanted to take students to Japan.
They would just say they wanted to
take students next month and go, biit
we had no policies and no procedures
in place and that’ s really dangerous,
especially for the college’ s liability.
We’ve kind of taken a step backand put
a moratorium on everything. There’s a
whole bunch of hoops to jump through.
It’ s not an easy thing to plan.
TCP: W hat would you say to students
who are considering going abroad?
Flippo: There have been some recent
studies oh community college students
and studying abroad; students who
study abroad are m ore lik e ly to
Clackamas Print -----------------------
Ida Flippo, right, with a Saint Lucian student and corrections office at the Bordelais Prison in Saint Lucia.
fin ish on tim e. They’ re more likely
to tran sfer, if they are planning to
transfer. Their GPA is higher, usually.
New research is coming out which has
to do w ith em ployability and study
abroad.
TCP: How much does it cost per trip?
Flippo: It depends on the country.
Costa Rica for two weeks would be
$3,200 and our students would pay
$1,600. Short term study abroad is very
expensive.
I have a proposal ready to go for
criminal justice students, and that is
in Ireland and England because that’s
what our entire criminal justice system
is based on. So w e’ll see if that will
be approved. We have plans to visit
the Tower of London. For the Ireland
portion I think we have a court visit, a
lecture froni one of the law professors
over there. Oh and Jack the Ripper, of
course.
TCP: How is study abroad different at
a tw o-year student than a four-year
student?
Flippo: When we think study abroad
a lot of people my age think you go
and spend a semester in Florence. The
model that CCC is using is a short term
faculty-lead model where students are
in a class, they go with the faculty for
1 week, 10 days, two weeks, if you get
much longer than that then students
can’ t really fit that into their lives.’
TCP: Why should students go abroad?
F lip p o : I t ’ s a great experience^ I
th in k the interculturaj interaction
is really important for students. I’m
on a diversity subcom m ittee th a t’ s
looking at how we’re going to measure
students cultural competencies. So this
is one way to gain some intercultural
communication skills and things like
that. .
a lot of interest in there, faculty is
really interested in it. A lot of stu ff at
CCC is faculty driven. So if faculty says
something is important than usually
we can push it through. W e’re going
to include a list of preferred providers
so for example the Institute for Study
Abroad is on our list, Cross Cultural
Solutions. Faculty will be able to reach
out and see who has a program that
m ight fît in with their idea for what
they want to accom plish. So I think
that will grow, and once we get the
web page up.
TCP: Is the college trying to develop
regularly scheduled trips?
Flippo: We discussed maybe having
one set time per year for two weeks.
We’re thinking the first two weeks in
December.
TCP: Do you th in k the college w ill
allow m ore fu n d in g fo r th e study
abroad programs?
TCP: Are there any popular locations?
Flippo: Yes. Just form ing the global
learning committee and getting that
charge w here w e’ re focusing on it,
I think is a good thing. And there’ s
Flippo: A few years ago We did a study
abroad survey. We asked where would
you like to go, the N0.1 answer was
Ireland. Costa Rica was up there.
theclackam asprint.com
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _____ : January 25, 2019