Office Contact: (509) 527-5037
The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) provides resources to faculty for enhancing the teaching/learning process at Whitman College. Recognizing that excellent teaching maximizes student learning, and further, that there are diverse manifestations of excellent teaching, the center organizes programs and offers consultations to enhance pedagogy, classroom dynamics, modes of learning, and learning outcomes. All programs are completely voluntary, and include faculty luncheon-discussions about pedagogy, lectures and workshops given by nationally known experts, private consultations about teaching, classroom observations, and seminars for new faculty. The center is located in Penrose Library and houses a special collection of books and journals devoted to teaching and learning. A Web site for the center (www.whitman.edu/offices_departments/ctl) lists programs, an electronic newsletter on teaching and learning, and links to sites for enhancing teaching. The director works closely with the CTL Steering Committee to provide programs and set policy.
Advisers: Susan Holme Brick and Rebecca Miller Wyrwas
An understanding of a culture or region of the world other than one’s own is an important part of a liberal arts education and a key to developing leaders in an increasingly interdependent global society. The Study Abroad program at Whitman College is designed to provide a range of opportunities for qualified students to study in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and Oceania.
Information about opportunities for study in foreign countries, including application procedures, eligibility requirements, deadlines and fees, is available from the Study Abroad Office, Memorial Building 204. Students should consult with Susan Holme Brick, Director of International Programs; Rebecca Miller Wyrwas, Assistant Director of Study Abroad; or the appropriate faculty adviser listed below to determine the suitability of participation in a particular academic program overseas. Students who wish to apply any credit from overseas study to their Whitman degree need to complete a Whitman Study Abroad Leave Application and receive approval for their proposed course of study from the International Studies Planning Committee. Prior approval from Whitman is required to transfer credit from summer studies in a foreign country as well. Deadlines for the submission of Study Abroad Leave applications is February 4 (for fall and full-year programs), April 8 (for summer programs) and September 14 (for spring programs) unless stated otherwise below.
Students who intend to pursue overseas study are advised that careful planning is often needed in order to include study abroad as an integrated part of their four-year career at Whitman. For some destinations students will need to have completed at least four or five semesters of foreign language work at the college level to qualify. The college requires that students who have not yet completed the intermediate level of the local language enroll in the language during their period abroad.
The programs listed below are affiliated with Whitman College. Academic work undertaken in the affiliated study abroad programs will be recorded on the student’s Whitman transcript including the grades reported by the program. However, grades from courses taken abroad will not be used in the calculation of semester and cumulative grade-point averages. Students may apply need-based financial aid and merit scholarships that they receive through Whitman College to the fees of affiliated study abroad programs.
Adviser: Akira Takemoto
Whitman College, along with 15 other liberal arts colleges, sponsors the Associated Kyoto Program, a rigorous two-semester program located on the Doshisha University campus in Kyoto, Japan. The program offers intensive Japanese language classes and a wide range of elective courses in Japanese studies taught in English. Prerequisites include one year of Japanese language study and at least one area course, preferably premodern Japanese art, history, or literature. The application deadline for 2010-11 is Jan. 22, 2010.
Whitman students may apply to attend this semester-long acting conservatory program taught by British actors and directors in London offered through Sarah Lawrence College. Admission requirements include an audition.
Sponsored by the University of Minnesota, this program in historic Toledo, Spain, offers courses in Spanish literature, history, art history and other disciplines for international undergraduates. Four semesters of college Spanish or the equivalent is required.
IES conducts fall and spring semester programs in Beijing, Berlin, Freiberg, London, Nantes, Paris, Rome and Vienna in which students may study with local scholars at the IES Center or enroll in courses at local universities. A direct enrollment option is also available to Whitman students for study at the University of Melbourne in Australia through IES. Some locations require a background in the appropriate language.
Kansai Gaidai is an international-oriented university in Hirakata, Japan, with an Asian Studies Program specifically designed for international students who wish to study Japanese language and take Japanese area studies courses in English.
The Pitzer Botswana Program provides students with an opportunity to immerse themselves in both rural and urban life in Botswana by living in several homestays, taking courses related to Botswana, and working in field placements.
Adviser: Delbert Hutchison
Whitman College is a partner member of The School for Field Studies, which offers single semester and summer field-based study abroad programs in five locations worldwide. The academic program at each SFS center focuses on case studies related to a local environmental issue — Marine Resource Management in the Turks and Caicos Islands; Tropical Rainforest Studies in Australia; Marine Mammal Conservation and Coastal Ecosystems in Mexico; Sustainable Development Studies in Costa Rica; and Wildlife Management Studies in Kenya.
Whitman College is affiliated with the SIT programs in Ecuador and India. These programs offer hands-on field studies centered on a specific theme as well as a capstone independent study project. The affiliated SIT Ecuador programs are Ecuador Comparative Ecology and Conservation, and Ecuador Culture and Development. The affiliated India programs are India Arts and Culture program (based in Delhi) and India Culture and Development program (based in Jaipur). The Ecuador programs require proficiency in Spanish.
Through Whitman’s affiliation, qualified students may enroll directly for a single semester or an academic year at St. Andrews University, a Scottish university founded in 1411 and located on the eastern coast of Scotland.
The SACI program in Florence, Italy, is specifically designed for studio art students who wish to study painting, drawing, sculpture, photography and other arts in one of the world’s foremost centers for art and architecture.
Through Whitman’s affiliation with Syracuse University, qualified students may study art history, Italian language, history, politics and other fields of Italian studies in the city of Florence, known for its outstanding Renaissance art and architecture.
The University of East Anglia, in Norwich, England, is a comprehensive university of 13,000 students known for its interdisciplinary schools of study.
The University of Otago provides students the opportunity to enroll in a broad range of humanities, social science and science courses with New Zealand undergraduates. Its location on the South Island of New Zealand makes study at the university particularly well suited for students of geology and biology.
This six-week long summer program, administered by Whitman College in cooperation with Yunnan University in Kunming, China, is designed to give students an opportunity to strengthen their conversational Chinese language skills and learn about contemporary Chinese society firsthand. Participants enroll in a four-credit, intensive Chinese language course at the university and a two-credit Seminar in Chinese Studies course taught by the Whitman faculty director of the program (see Asian Studies 200). Prerequisites include at least two semesters of college Chinese language. Scholarships are available to qualified students from the David Deal China Exchange Endowment. The program is offered every other year and will be offered again summer 2010.
Listed below are additional study abroad programs with which the college maintains relationships. For the purposes of credit transfer and financial aid, these programs are treated like affiliated programs by the college.
Qualified students interested in the Middle East may study for a single semester or an academic year at the American University in Cairo in Cairo, Egypt. Course offerings include intensive Arabic language and Middle East Studies courses in English.
A broad range of courses in art history, archaeology, classics, and contemporary eastern Mediterranean studies is available through this program in Athens, Greece. Students may enroll for one semester or an academic year.
Qualified Whitman students may study through CIEE in either Taiwan or Senegal. The Taiwan program, based at National Chengchi University in Taipei, offers intensive Mandarin Chinese language and a course on Taiwanese society. Whitman recommends two semesters of college-level Mandarin prior to enrolling in the Taiwan program. The Senegal program offers a range of courses in the humanities and social sciences related to Francophone Africa. The Senegal program requires prior study of two semesters of college-level French or equivalent.
Qualified students of Spanish may enroll in one of three universities in Buenos Aires, Argentina, while living with local families, through this IFSA-Butler sponsored program. Five semesters of college Spanish or the equivalent is required.
Qualified students of Spanish may enroll at the Autonomous University of Yucatan in Merida, Mexico, through this IFSA-Butler-sponsored program. Participants take courses in the humanities, social sciences and/or sciences and live with a Mexican host family. Four semesters of college Spanish or the equivalent is required.
Through Middlebury College, qualified Whitman students may study in one of three locations in Spain — the Middlebury College’s School in Spain (Sede Prim) in Madrid; Universidad Carlos III in Getafe; or Universidad de Cordoba in Cordoba. The two university options give students the opportunity to study alongside their Spanish peers, while the School in Madrid is designed exclusively for U.S. study abroad students. Five semesters of college Spanish or the equivalent is required.
Qualified students may study humanities and social sciences alongside Irish students at the National University of Ireland in Galway through Butler University’s Institute for Study Abroad. Galway is a congenial university town on the coast of western Ireland, where traditional Irish culture still flourishes.
Through agreement with the University of Kansas, Whitman students may enroll directly at the University of Costa Rica, a comprehensive university in San Jose, Costa Rica. Five semesters of college Spanish or the equivalent is required.
The college also maintains a list of overseas programs that are not affiliated with Whitman but are approved for credit. Work completed on nonaffiliated study abroad programs is treated as transfer credit, and no grades are entered on the student’s Whitman College record.
Advisers: Helen Kim, Susan Holme Brick, and Rebecca Miller Wyrwas
Whitman College encourages qualified students interested in urban issues or government policy and those who want to engage in a preprofessional internship to consider participation in one of three affiliated domestic off-campus programs described below. Students interested in these three programs must complete a Whitman Study Abroad Leave Application and receive approval for their proposed course of study from the International Studies Planning Committee prior to enrollment in the program. Academic work undertaken on an affiliated domestic off-campus program will be recorded on the student’s Whitman transcript including the grades reported by the program. However, grades from courses taken abroad will not be used in the calculation of semester and cumulative grade-point averages. Students may apply need-based financial aid and merit scholarships that they receive through Whitman College to the fees of these affiliated domestic off-campus programs. Applications and additional information about the programs can be obtained from the Study Abroad Office (Mem 204). For the Washington and Philadelphia programs, the application deadline for Spring 2010 participation is Oct. 15, 2009, and for Fall 2010 participation the deadline is April 1, 2010. The Chicago program deadlines are Sept. 14, 2009, for Spring 2010 and Feb. 4, 2010, for Fall 2010.
The Washington Semester Program is under the aegis of The American University of Washington, D.C. There are several specific programs for which credit transfer is likely: American Politics, Contemporary Islam, Economic Policy, Foreign Policy, Public Law, Transforming Communities, and Peace and Conflict Resolution. Each of these programs consists of seminars, an internship, and a research project.
The Urban Studies Program in Chicago is sponsored by the Associated Colleges of the Midwest. It comprises a core course on urban problems, a seminar on a specific urban issue, an independent study project, and an internship involving three or four afternoons of work per week.
The Philadelphia Center, managed by Hope College, offers a seminar examining urban life and patterns of interaction, an additional urban study seminar, and 32-hour per week internship with professionals in a supervised placement in a wide range of fields including the sciences.
Adviser: Phil Brick
Whitman College Semester in the West is an interdisciplinary field program in environmental studies, focusing on public lands conservation in the interior American West. Our objective is to come to know the West in its many dimensions, including its diverse ecosystems, its social and political communities, and the many ways these ecosystems and communities find their expression in regional environmental writing and public policy. During the course of the semester, we typically have the opportunity to visit with 60 or 70 leading figures in conservation, ecology, environmental writing and social justice. Our goal is to explore the complexity of environmental issues in the West, while at the same time locating pathways toward meaningful individual and collective action to conserve and enhance the West’s natural and human communities. Each year our studies are focused around key themes that circumscribe environmental issues in the West, including water, public lands, climate change, restoration, social justice, energy, the urban/rural divide, and conservation.
Semester in the West is a program for Whitman College students only; sophomore status or higher is required to participate. The program is next offered Fall 2010.
Adviser: Susan Holme Brick
Whitman in China provides an opportunity for six Whitman College alumni to spend a year at Yunnan University in Kunming, Shantou University in Shantou, or Northwestern Polytechnical University in Xi’an, People’s Republic of China, teaching English or serving as an English language intern at the university level. Those selected will be paid a modest salary for their services and given free housing by the Chinese universities. Round-trip air travel from Seattle to Kunming, Xi’an, or Shantou also will be provided. No Whitman College credit is granted for participation in this program. A minimum of one year of study in the Chinese language and some teaching experience is strongly recommended.
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