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E-mail: srunews@salve.edu
Press Release Archive
Release Number: 09-052
10-Jul-09
For Immediate Release
Contact: Matt Boxler
Contact Phone: 401-341-2156
Contact E-mail: newsrelease@salve.edu
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SWISS TEACHERS, ITALIAN STUDENTS ARRIVE NEXT WEEK FOR SALVE REGINA'S INTERNATIONAL SUMMER SCHOOL
NEWPORT, R.I. - Salve Regina University's International Summer School will be in full swing next week when 21 teachers from Switzerland and 30 students from Italy arrive on campus for three weeks of rigorous study.
The Swiss Teachers Program, an intensive three-week continuing education program facilitated by Salve Regina University professors and coordinated by Pierre-Yves Martin and Elizabeth Hardegger, will run on campus from July 13-Aug. 1.
The Italian Student Program, which brings together 30 high school students ranging in age from 14-18 for three weeks of language and culture immersion, will run from July 15-28. This year marks the first time that the program, coordinated by Antonio Loricchio and Anna Rumano, is being held in the United States. The course was developed and is being taught by Dr. Karen Abbondanza, assistant professor of modern languages at Salve Regina. She will be assisted by 2009 Salve Regina graduate Jackie Mokaba and Salve Regina senior Erin Vardaro.
"The only proper way to learn a language is though total immersion, preferably in the target country of the languge," Abbondanza said. "Learning any language effectively requires having fun and suspending preconceived perceptions of oneself. If you make people laugh when they're learning, especially at themselves, they will never forget a lesson."
Abbondanza's program will include plenty of laughs, but it is as rigorous a language program as they come. All the Italian students participating, most of whom will arrive with an intermediate grasp of English, have signed a pledge to only speak English while here.
Classroom sessions will be conducted each weekday at Salve Regina's O'Hare Academic Center, but the Italian students will also enjoy several excursions, including attending a Newport Gulls game, movie nights, visits to Redwood Library, Touro Synagogue and Trinity Church, a picnic dinner at the Newport Navy Base, a group trip to New York City, and a harbor cruise in Newport.
Returning for their second year, the Swiss teachers also have a full agenda. Sessions facilitated by Salve Regina professors include: "Puritan Massachusetts/Pluralist Rhode Island," presented by John Rok; "Revolutionary Newport" and "Newport from the Roaring Twenties to the Depression Years," presented by James C. Garman; "Forging a Government: Articles of Confederation and Constitution," presented by Clark Merrill; "Gilded Age Authors" discussion of Edith Wharton, Herman Melville and Mark Twain by Sarah Littlefield, and Henry James by Sister Pat Combies; "The Nativist Reaction," presented by John Quinn; "Reconstruction Years: 1865-1877," presented by Tim Neary; and "America's Pastime: The Rules of Baseball," by Thomas Brennan.
The Swiss teachers will also visit the Newport Casino/Tennis Hall of Fame, Norman Bird Sanctuary and Marble House, take a Newport Harbor cruise, tour Linden Place in Bristol, tour the Newport waterfront, visit Boston, and more.
Members of the media are invited to any of the sessions and interviews with participants are encouraged. For more information, please contact Matt Boxler at 401-341-2156.
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