Make the Connection! General Education and the 'Real' World
Make the Connection! General Education and the 'Real' World
Date: 30 January 2012 (Monday)
Speaker: Prof. Melissa Fitch (University of Arizona)
As educators in General Education programs, we are often asked to defend the value of what we do. What critics often overlook is that the very skills learned in GE courses are those most prized by employers. This seminar will share the findings from the 2007 American Association of Colleges and Universities LEAP (Liberal Education and America’s Promise) report “College Learning for a New Global Century” as well as the UGC report from December of 2010 “Aspirations for the Higher Education System in Hong Kong.” After the seminar, faculty members will be able to:
- explain the relationship between the skills learned in GE classroom and those most requested by employers in the ‘real’ world;
- identify specific examples of success stories from former students in GE courses;
- identify ways to build and sustain ties to graduates, integrating their success stories directly into GE courses to provide models and inspiration to future students.
About the Speaker
Prof. Melissa Fitch is a Visiting Fulbright Professor in the area of General Education at CUHK and an Associate Professor of Spanish & Portuguese at the University of Arizona, where she received the University of Arizona's Five Star Teaching Award, the institution's highest teaching honor, in 2008 and the General Education Teaching Award in 2004. Since 2002 Prof. Fitch has been editor-in-chief of the academic journal Studies in Latin American Popular Culture (University of Texas Press). She is author of Side Dishes: Latin/a American Women and Cultural Production (Rutgers University Press, 2009) and well as numerous critical essays. While in Hong Kong, she is finishing revisions of her second book, a study on Argentine tango in the global imaginary, as well as conducting research for her third and fourth book-length projects, both related to the presence of Latin American popular culture in greater China.
