Villagers write about "walls still to fall" on fake sections of the Berlin Wall at International Day

This weekend (July 23 – 25) Waldsee hosts a celebration of its 50th summer alongside a conference on the future of the German language in the US.  Ambassador Klaus Scharioth will attend the conference and address the Waldseefest participants.  The event also features villagers and conference participants discussing the “walls still to fall” in our society.  Even after the fall of the Berlin Wall there are walls of ignorance, racism, and poverty that impede the progress of peace and global citizenship.  The villagers started writing about these “walls” in the form of graffiti on pieces of a fake Berlin Wall at Waldsee which will then be torn down at the Waldseefest.

Elke Rühl, German Language Consultant, (Fachberaterin für Deutsch) helped host a national essay contest and the winners received a stipend to come to Waldsee.

“President Jolicoeur provided remarkable leadership for Concordia,” according Board of Regents Chair Ron Offutt. “Her relentless commitment to excellence has positioned the college for a promising future. Certainly her many contributions to the college and all of higher education will long be remembered. We will miss her dearly.”

Jolicoeur assumed the presidency of Concordia College in July 2004 following a 32-year career at California Lutheran University, Thousand Oaks.

She helped to complete a $100 million capital campaign, which included the construction of the Knutson Campus Center. She established the vision for new initiatives in the sciences and the Concordia College School of Business, while enhancing Concordia’s leadership in global education.

”President Jolicoeur espoused a worldview that underscored the importance of preparing our students to thrive in today’s global environment,” notes Christine Schulze, Executive Director of the Language Villages. “During her tenure at Concordia, she strongly supported the initiation of the Arabic and Portuguese Language Villages. She was an inspirational leader for me personally, and for our institution as a whole.”

Jolicoeur was one of a select group of American college presidents invited by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings to participate in a summit on international education. She also was one of 30 college leaders who participated in an international conference that looked for ways to strengthen exchanges between American and Muslim majority colleges and universities.

She presented at the Center for Health, Population and Development Seminar at the Independent University, Bangladesh, and met with Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus at the Grameen Bank Headquarters in Dhaka. She was instrumental in establishing a student exchange program with the United International College in Zhuhai, China, through the Minnesota Private College Council.

Jolicoeur earned her undergraduate degree from Santa Clara University and her doctorate degree in sociology from Purdue University. At CLU she served as Provost and Dean of the Faculty from 1996 to 2004. She was a member of the sociology faculty from 1972 to 1993 and served as vice president for academic affairs from 1993 to 1996.

She served on the boards of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, Minnesota Private College Council, Minnesota Public Radio/American Public Media and the Greater Fargo-Moorhead Economic Development Corporation.

An endowed scholarship has been established in the memory of President Pamela M. Jolicoeur through the Concordia Language Villages Development office to support the Arabic and Portuguese Language Villages.  For more information or to contribute to the endowed scholarship, please follow this link.

Click here for more information about Soiva.

Waldsee

The conference will coincide with the celebration of  Waldsee’s 50th summer and will also provide an opportunity for Ambassador Scharioth and the other guests to engage in a  running conversation with Waldsee villagers and staff on “the walls still to fall” in today’s world.   According to Hamilton: “We are also marking another milestone this summer — the fall of the Berlin Wall and Germany’s reunification 20 years ago.”  Recognizing that racial, linguistic, religious and socio-economic walls continue to impede global understanding is a core element of the mission of the Language Villages.

The goal of the conference is to produce an action plan for the study of German in the U.S. going forward while increasing synergies between individuals and organizations that are important stakeholders.

Waldsee, and the enthusiastic villagers who work, play, and learn together each summer, provides a setting that the organizers believe will contribute to the success of the conference.

While visiting the Language Villages in August, Under-General-Secretary Shaaban will also help celebrate the twin milestones of Al-Waha’s fifth anniversary and the 50th celebration summer of Concordia Language Villages.

Follow this link for more information about International Day.

Teachers use Language Village programs to improve classroom practice.

Concordia College offers a Master of Education in World Language Instruction that combines onsite study at the Language Villages and online learning throughout the year. Boasting another full cohort of 12 students this summer, the program has been a success for the Villages and Concordia College. However, this program is also contributing significantly to the discourse of language instruction in the US and around the world. The students have designed a number of projects and authored a variety of theses that explore important topics in the study of language and culture. From an analysis of sports in China to a study of clothing in the Middle East to exploring food culture in Spanish-speaking countries, these projects provide teachers with valuable insights and resources. Click here for a more detailed description and the original texts.

Follow blog updates from the programs this summer via Twitter!

Concordia Language Villages is now on Twitter and is providing Tweets and other content twice each day. Follow ConcLangVillage for updates on programs, announcements about scholarships, news about language-learning, and fun links. Over the first four days in operation, almost 100 people began following the Villages.

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