Thank you, Katharine and Leslie, for your thoughtful comments. It might help you to know that we have current endowed funds designated to support initiatives that give students broad exposure to issues that affect and concern women around the world. We also have a student opportunity fund that, among other things, supports student spring break travel with faculty members. Recent trips have been to Austria, Mexico, and Italy. Some of these will be repeated next year; in addition, trips to England and Ethiopia are being planned. The Easterling Endowed Travel Fund supports faculty travel, as does a small fund given in memory of Solange Dispas. We have also recently established a relationship with Christel House International. I visited their school in South Africa in November, and Trudy Hanmer taught English for a few weeks this summer at their school in Bangalore, India. We are hopeful of starting a teacher exchange with the five schools in this network. We would be thrilled if donors wanted to enhance these programs or create new travel opportunities.
In addition to the language classes we offer, students, faculty, and staff are able to access Rosetta Stone online language instruction in a wide variety of languages, and our practicum program affords ample opportunity for students to pursue instruction in languages that may not be offered as part of the curriculum. As you have learned from Julile Fontana, several of our international students use practicum to offer instruction in their native languages to fellow students. They are very hard task masters!
Students seeking an international exchange can travel abroad for one or both semesters junior or senior year and have great flexibility in choosing the program and countries in which they would like to study. Depending on the type of program they choose, their tuition dollars may follow them. In other cases, there are limited funds available through an application process. We also have both a student and a teacher exchange with the Red Maids School in England, and of course, we still send girls to the U.K. as part of the English-Speaking Union Exchange.
I hope this information is helpful. Thank you again for taking time to write.
