By Nicholas Allen | March 5th, 2021
“Giving the opportunity to students to travel the world, opening their minds to new cultures and learning new languages is paramount, especially nowadays. I want everyone to have the chance to do this. When I say everyone, I include students, but also faculty and other community members. It is never too late to travel and learn!”
Liane She is a French and Spanish instructor and the Global Education Liaison at Stanly Community College. Her origins in global education, however, go back to her youth. Originally from Paris, France, she also studied and worked abroad in Spain before coming to the United States. “I can easily say that global education has been a passion of mine,” she posited, “Giving the opportunity to students to travel the world, opening their minds to new cultures and learning new languages is paramount, especially nowadays.” Her parents galvanized within her and her brother a taste for novel experiences: they loved to take trips and they emphasized an openness to new people, new foods and immersion in new cultures. She wants everyone to have similar opportunities. “When I say everyone, I include students, but also faculty and other community members. It is never too late to travel and learn!” she noted. And indeed, learning is a lifelong practice she hopes to instill in her students, but also practices herself.
Professor She has attended six UNC World View programs since 2017, including Innovation and Technology in a Global Age, Latin America and North Carolina, Global Migration, Confronting Poverty Globally and Locally, and Global Health: The Changing Prognosis. Despite the focus areas of her language instruction, she doesn’t limit her professional development to primarily Francophone and Hispanophone regions. She attended UNC World View’s East Asia: Traditions, Trends and Transformations in 2018 and is already registered for Africa and the African Diaspora: Past and Present, a K-12 and Community College virtual program slated for March 15th, 2021. Learning about new perspectives is a cornerstone of global education and a two-fold influence in Professor She’s teaching practice, augmenting her own world view and her students’.
While UNC World View has always strived to offer professional development to educators across the grade levels and disciplines, we don’t always see the effect that students feel as global resources and perspectives make their way into the classroom after a symposia or virtual event. “As far as students are concerned, they greatly benefit from having globalized content in the curriculum,” Professor She observed. “They ask questions and are overall more curious about having new materials to reflect on, and compare their own cultures and customs to others. Oftentimes, it gives them the urge to travel abroad more, and participate in the many multicultural activities that are offered on campus, either in-person or online.” She also noted that the N.C. Scholar of Global Distinction program is a great honor and valuable credential for successful candidates to add to their resume. “I have no doubt that their global perspective will open the door to many unique opportunities in their future careers,” she emphasized. The many benefits of an expanded global perspective for her students is good, but perhaps not good enough for the likes of Professor She.
When asked about bringing global content to classes which are inherently global, Professor She has irons in the fire to spare. “I know that I can always do more,” she replied, “Such as integrating more cultural aspects of French-speaking and Spanish-speaking countries in each chapter through external materials, pictures, narratives, and virtual exchanges with other students and speakers from around the globe.” Thanks to a colleague at Stanly, she recently connected with an English and French instructor from Durango, Mexico; the two are hosting their first Spanish-English language student exchange this month. She also took the initiative of spearheading a course globalization effort within her department, reaching out to offer assistance integrating diverse global content into a variety of subjects. Her work has already created new collaborations: she was recently approved for a course globalization grant alongside co-recipient Kimberly Miller, a sociology instructor at Stanly, to focus on Europe and the European Union.
Although first-person international travel feels a long way off, students are still getting valuable cultural experiences thanks to the tireless efforts of globally-minded educators like Professor She. “The pandemic has forced me to adapt my teaching strategies and be virtually creative,” she asserted. “For instance, as I cannot celebrate international holidays through the creation of exhibitions, sharing traditional dishes, watching a movie or playing a board game from a different country, I had to adapt it to an online format.” Her celebrations now take the form of traditional recipes shared through email in advance so that meals can be shared more cohesively via Zoom; exhibits are done on versatile platforms like Google Slides and watching movies is done by sharing her screen. Thanks to the pandemic, study abroad programs the world over have been cancelled (or as Professor She shrewdly amended, postponed); nevertheless there are many online international resources available such as speakers and virtual tours to museums, and various tourism sites around the world. She has been sharing them widely among colleagues at Stanly and across the state.
We’re so grateful for Liane She’s work as an educator and Global Education Liaison! Her sense of community and insistence on collaboration not only make her an educator we’re proud to put in the spotlight, but someone who embodies the core tenets behind global education.