AgriLife Extension helps deliver ‘real-life’ education to international students, faculty
SAN ANTONIO – The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service is collaborating with the Alamo Community College District, or ACCD, to provide “real-world educational opportunities” for international college students, faculty and administrators coming to San Antonio to improve their English.
The five Alamo Colleges of the ACCD serve Bexar County by offering associate degrees, certificates and licensing in occupational programs, plus arts and science courses transferable to four-year colleges and universities.
“Our international participants stay for four weeks and are given intensive classroom instruction in English as a second language during that time,” said Carol Fimmen, Alamo Colleges district director for international programs. “During that time, we also try to provide them with supplemental out-of-classroom educational instruction on topics or subjects in which they have expressed a personal interest.”
Fimmen said they look for partners who can not only teach participants about these topics, but are also willing to help them get first-hand experience practicing their English with people in professional positions.
She said the program has hosted students from Colombia, Georgia, Korea and Mexico, and is in the process of setting up additional programs to host groups from China, Russia and Brazil.
“We have had a number of our participants express an interest in subjects we knew AgriLife Extension had done programs on or could provide instruction for,” she said. “In particular, we felt they could help with those students expressing an interest in agricultural topics, natural resource protection and conservation, and horticulture.”
Fimmen said other educational and businesses involved in helping provide technical training and first-hand educational opportunities for program participants include the University of Texas at San Antonio’s MBDA Global Business Center, University of Incarnate Word, Geekdom, Café Commerce and Asociacion de Empresarios Mexicanos.
The first international group AgriLife Extension worked with was 18 students from various colleges and universities in Colombia who came to San Antonio last fall, said Roy Flora, AgriLife Extension agriculture and natural resources agent for Bexar County.
“They were interested in learning more about how to produce feed for livestock and about the green industry, especially how a commercial nursery works,” Flora said. “Many of them were already involved in or were studying about these subjects and wanted to know more so they could take that information back home and share it with others. And since they were learning English and many of them knew a lot of it already, we didn’t have any communications issues.”
Flora said he and other AgriLife Extension personnel provided instruction to the group, as well as taking them on tours of Allied Feeds Inc., an area livestock feed mill, and Peterson Brothers wholesale nursery.
“Some of the students had agricultural backgrounds and were interested in the ingredients that go into feed products for livestock,” Flora said. “Many foreign countries have more agrarian economies, so it’s good to be able to share agricultural information so others can learn how to improve their food security.”
David Rodriguez, AgriLife Extension horticulturist for Bexar County, spoke to the students about the financial impact of the green industry in Texas and locally. He gave them insights on commercial landscaping and ornamental plant production and distribution, plus how to most efficiently irrigate and maintain plant materials. He also told them about careers available in the green industry.
“I spoke to the group about rainwater harvesting, and they had lots of questions about irrigation equipment and about point-source irrigation,” said Troy Luepke, AgriLife Extension water program specialist for the county. “I think we all learned a lot from our discussion on how American irrigation practices differ from those used in Colombia.”
In February, AgriLife Extension provided educational opportunities for a group of 20 faculty and administrators from Brazilian colleges and universities involved in the Alamo Colleges international program. This time, agency experts were asked to provide information on aquaponics and large-scale rainwater harvesting.
Aquaponics is a food production system that combines conventional aquaculture, or the raising of fish or other aquatic animals, with hydroponics, the production of plants in a water medium, usually supplemented with mineral solutions.
“We want to provide the students, faculty, administrators or whoever participates with some technical training and expose them to Texas’ educational objectives and the sort of resources we have in this state,” said Fernanda Uribe, ACCD international program specialist.
The Brazilian group met at the William R. Sinkin Eco Centro, located near San Antonio College, where they were given a tour by center personnel, who spoke about alternative energy, low-water use landscaping, composting and other topics.
“We got Albert Motz, a rainwater specialist and member of our Bexar County Master Gardener volunteer program, to do a presentation on rainwater harvesting,” Flora said. “And we got Steven Sumrow from Aquaponics Systems USA, who we’ve worked with before on aquaponics programs at the AgriLife Extension office, to present on various aquaponics systems.”
“Our experiences in the program have taught us a lot,” said Janaina Zanchin, a psychologist and the student support director for the Instituto Federal de Santa Catarina – Câmpus Palhoça Bilíngue in southern Brazil. “Last week, we learned about entrepreneurship and ecological topics. Now we’re getting information about conserving water, growing food and finding other solutions to important issues, all while learning English. “I hope we can take what we learn here and use it to help improve and sustain our communities.”
