A Serendipitous Lunch

So I was invited to go to a lunch with representatives from SACS (Southern Association of Colleges and Schools) because LaGrange College is going through their accreditation process (which every school goes through every few of years to make sure they retain their accreditation). LaGrange College is implementing a new QEP (Quality Enhancement Program) focused on Global Engagement, which I'm really excited about. The college is putting a lot of time and effort to get it's students more engaged in things happening around the world. Something that I've always loved about LaGrange College is that they offer a Study Abroad Program during the month of January (during our Jan Term). I took advantage of this twice: my Freshman year I went to Paris for two weeks and then my Senior year I went to Greece for two weeks. They were both fantastic experiences! However, the college is now offering a voucher program that all students receive their Junior or Senior year (if they began at the college as a Freshman) which will cover $2,500 of the Study Abroad trip! I wish they had that when I was there! Those trips were pretty expensive, they range from around $1,000 for domestic trips, to $4,000 for international trips... but they are worth it. They are also about to start implementing study abroads that last for an entire semester or more which is really exciting. They are increasing the amount of time spent in classes here that focuses on global matters and we have a new program called 3-D Journeys (whose primary audience is the community around LaGrange College but is open to students as well) where professors at the college lecture about different aspects of a certain country and a group of people end up going to that country after all of the lectures are over. Brazil is the focus of this year's 3-D Journeys and it has had quite a turn out! So basically it's all very exciting and really resonates with me since I'm planning on going to Peru!

So the most exciting part of this story is that I sat next to Ana Maria Wiseman from Wofford College. She's the Dean of International Programs there. When she told us about her background, she mentioned that she grew up in Latin America so later during the lunch when the conversation had lulled I asked her where she grew up in Latin America. She was born in Argentina and grew up in PERU! I'm pretty sure my entire face flushed with excitment when she said that! So I told her my interest to move to and teach in Peru and we started talking about Peru and some of her experiences there. She even mentioned that she has sent 2 students from Wofford College to Lima to study abroad and is sending a third soon. She gave me her business card and told me that I can contact her with any questions that I might have about Peru! I just couldn't believe my good fortune!

By the way, we got a fantastic review from the SACS representatives! We impressed them so much that we are now their QEP model school.