Building Healthy Communities in the Dominican Republic is an undergraduate research and study abroad Creative Inquiry (CI) project led by Dr. Arelis Moore de Peralta. The project is an interdisciplinary, holistic effort dedicated to improving the health of Las Malvinas, a poverty-stricken community in the Dominican Republic (DR). Moore de Peralta holds a joint appointment with the Department of Youth, Family and Community Studies and the Department of Languages.

A trip to Las Malvinas in November 2016 allowed for planning and partnership building with the Universidad Iberoamericana, the DR’s Ministry of Public Health, and Las Malvinas community members. Joining Moore de Peralta on the trip were David Vaughn, Professor of Practice, Clemson Engineers for Developing Countries (CEDC), and two of his students who are also program coordinators (Hunter Lee and Jack McLeod); Dr. James H. Spencer, Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Education, CAAH; and Katherine Brown, a CI Project Research Team Leader.

Community members in Las Malvinas hope for an organized community health plan and local government’s involvement in sustainable improvement projects. The Clemson CI project aims to conduct a Community Health Assessment and to develop a Community Health Improvement Plan in Las Malvinas. This experience improves students’ cultural competence and critical thinking skills, and allows them to develop evidence-based learning skills to conduct research beyond the CI class.

Building Healthy Communities in the Dominican Republic will take a spring trip in March 2017.

The Department of Languages welcomed the following new faculty members at the beginning of the Spring 2017 semester.

Alma García Rodríguez, Lecturer of Spanish

Alma, a native of the Dominican Republic, earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Spanish at St. John’s University in New York. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Florida and expects to finish her dissertation this year. Her research focuses on the representation of the city in six novels from the Hispanic Caribbean: Santo Domingo, La Habana and San Juan. She is taking a Neo-Baroque perspective to study these cities as elements that stand against an established order and authority in order to create a new identity that governs itself. She plans to continue researching Caribbean literature after finishing her dissertation. Alma teaches elementary Spanish at Clemson. In her free time, she loves to spend time with her husband and to dance.

Toshiko Joerger, Lecturer of Japanese

Toshiko was born and raised in Okayama, Japan. She graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Physical Education from Tokai University, Japan. She teaches elementary Japanese as well as Japanese conversation and composition at Clemson. In her free time, she regularly volunteers to present Japanese culture to elementary and middle school students in the Greenville area. Toshiko lives in Greenville with her husband and their four children.

Erin Stigers, Lecturer of French

Erin holds a Bachelor’s degree in World Language Education and a Master’s degree in French linguistics from the University of Georgia. Her research interests include sociolinguistics, second language acquisition, and foreign language pedagogy. Erin teaches intermediate French at Clemson. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, playing piano, and baking.

Saori Suto, Lecturer of Japanese

Saori obtained an M.A. in Linguistics with an emphasis on teaching Japanese as a Second Language from California State University, Long Beach. She teaches first- and second-year Japanese at Clemson. Outside of teaching, she enjoys spending quality time with her family and friends. She is also a big fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Associate Professor of Spanish Mónica Rojas de Massei has been appointed to the Provost’s Global Learning Task Force. Read the announcement from Inside Clemson below.

Provost convenes global learning task force

By Sharon Nagy, Ph.D.
Vice Provost for Global Engagement

To support the implementation of the ClemsonForward call to infuse global learning throughout the curriculum, Provost Bob Jones has formed a Global Learning Task Force comprised of faculty from across the university.  The Global Learning Task Force will spearhead a faculty-led process to identify global learning outcomes and develop an implementation plan for the delivery and assessment of Global Learning in the undergraduate curriculum. With the support of the Offices of Global Engagement and Undergraduate Studies, the Global Learning Task Force will prepare a recommendation for the Provost and ClemsonForward Steering Committee by the end of the spring semester 2017.

June Pilcher, alumni distinguished professor of psychology, was selected through a call for applications to serve as Faculty Fellow for Global Learning and to chair the Global Learning Task Force.  Representatives from Clemson University’s six colleges plus the libraries serve on the committee. During the fall semester, they were engaged in initial meetings to set a timeline for the project and collect initial information on global learning both at Clemson and at peer institutions. Toward this end, task force members attended conferences on ‘Global Learning and the College Curriculum’ in Colorado and the Annual Colloquium on Engineering Education in Rhode Island.

The task force representatives include: Dr. June Pilcher (Chair, BSHS), Dr. Lisa Benson (CECAS), Dr. Vince Gallicchio (CoS), Dr. Pam Havice (CoE), Dr. Michal Jerzmanowski (CoB), Mr. Ed Rock (CU Libraries), Dr. Mónica Rojas de Massei (CAAH), Dr. Dil Thavarajah (CAFLS), and Dr. Melissa Vogel (BSHS).

During the coming spring semester, the task force will solicit feedback from campus stakeholders through multiple avenues including a survey open to all faculty members, meetings with key faculty committees, and college focus groups before finalizing and delivering the plan to the ClemsonForward Steering Committee.

For more information about the ongoing work of the task force, please contact your college representative listed above.