By Nicholas Allen | March 5, 2020
If we train our students to communicate and work effectively across cultures, we are investing in our community while preparing our citizens to adapt to a highly competitive global market.
Andrea Freile is a communications instructor at Wayne Community College. “I teach 105 students who are engaged, passionate and willing to learn the importance of communication studies in their lives.” The passionate engagement of Freile’s students no doubt correlates with that of their instructor. Freile’s efforts to improve her skills as an educator and the offerings of her classes are seemingly tireless. “Since participating in World View’s Global Education Leaders Program, I am intentional, every day, to bring a world-class education to my students.” She was chosen as the Class Representative for the Global Education Leaders Program Class of 2019. She has also attended the Globalizing Your Curriculum Workshop hosted by Davidson County Community College in collaboration with World View and is a 2019-2020 N.C. Scholar of Global Distinction grant recipient. Through the Global Distinction program she is working to globalize COM 140 by integrating cultural intelligence and global competence skills that will enable her students to communicate effectively outside of their primary cultural framework. “I feel confident in my vision to globalize my courses thanks to the resources we obtain from World View. My students feel the energy and they welcome it! Their participation in cultural events is increasing and their interest for travel opportunities is growing strong.”
Freile is working closely with Allyson Daly (a fellow Wayne Community College instructor and member of the 2019-2020 grant cohort) to spearhead the N.C. Scholar of Global Distinction Program at Wayne. World View works hard to support the burgeoning partnerships in Global Distinction, but Freile noted that she also found guidance and encouragement from Global Distinction colleagues at other institutions. Freile’s efforts to bring global lenses to the classroom and engage her students with the wide world beyond our borders have the potential to effect cultural change in North Carolina. “Allyson and I believe that Wayne Community College is the heart of our community. If we train our students to communicate and work effectively across cultures, we are investing in our community while preparing our citizens to adapt to a highly competitive global market.”
Freile’s work in global education truly embodies Wayne’s core values of communication, compassion, diversity, excellence, leadership, service and teamwork, and she’s only just getting started. “I plan to take things to the next level by creating and adding resources for other communication studies instructors who hope to globalize COM 110, COM 231 and COM 140. Allyson and I are planning on writing grants to increase the number of students who can travel to experience places where their world views can expand and their communication skills can take even more strides forward.” Besides her academic work, Frelie also organized a team of students for the 2020 Leap for the Colors event. The team comprised 36 of her students and raised $2,000 for Southeastern Cancer Care and The Arts Council. She emphasized to her students that service and fundraising “increases our adaptability, sparks awareness of global issues, invites diversity into our circles and supports our efforts to create global citizens and great community members.”
Look for Freile and Daly’s globalized course modules on the World View website in May, but you may hear from them before that as Wayne’s Scholar of Global Distinction Program gains traction in Goldsboro and beyond.