By Olivia Howes | April 5, 2019
[I plan] to work with more instructors on how to globalize their classes [so that their students] can see the multicultural world around them whether going on to university or into the workforce.
Rick Laws is a full-time history, humanities and religion instructor at Wilkes Community College. Although he teaches full time at the Ashe Campus, he also oversees Wilkes Community College’s main campus, and the Alleghany Center for the Global Prospective Scholars Program as well. Collectively all the campuses have about 1,967 female students and 1,465 male students.
Rick Laws began his work with World View by attending the Global Education Leaders Program in 2017. Within this five-day program he was part of a group of K-12 teachers, administrators and community college educators that was led by university faculty to engage in dialogue that explored key global topics and leadership strategies to bring back to their school, districts and college campuses. Following this program Rick attended the 2019 East Asia: Traditions, Trends and Transformations Seminar, and most recently, he was a participant in the 2019 Global Migration seminar.
By attending World View programs Rick has been able to use the tools and resources given to him to help him teach his history, humanities and religion classes with content that educates his students about an increasingly diverse and evolving world. Moving forward Rick also plans “to work with more instructors on how to globalize their classes [so that their students] can see the multicultural world around them whether going on to university or into the workforce.” Recently Rick has been working on a project sparked by his interest in learning about different aspects of East Asian culture at a 2018 World View seminar. He hopes to create his own global education program at Wilkes Community College by bringing Abigail Washburn and Wu Fei, two folk music artists that use music as an international and cultural bridge, to Wilkes Community College’s annual music festival called Merle Fest. Rick says, “I think that can be used to combine the love of music with a greater awareness of the world of East Asia.” World View is excited to continue to partner with Rick as he uses the takeaways he’s gained from World View programs to continue to discover innovative ways to bring a global perspective to his community college campus.