Left to Right: Karen Jogan, Ph.D., professor of Spanish; Vanessa Saldias, University of Tara paca exchange student; Ana Heredia, visiting professor of Spanish; and Kathleen Cunniffe '02.

When students in Karen Jogan’s advanced Spanish classes need help with their Spanish compositions, they don’t have to go to the professor; they can go to their Chilean friends on the computer.

In 1992, when Jogan went to Chile as a Fulbright Scholar, she created an exchange program between Albright College and the University of Tarapaca in Arica, Chile. The collaboration involves faculty and student

exchanges, as well as projects such as e-mail exchanges between students in the English Teaching Program in Chile and students of the Spanish Program at Albright.

Ana Heredia, visiting professor of Spanish from the University of Tarapaca says that this exchange, "has strengthened the academic and professional links which make our institutions more professionally distinctive and more modern in the sense that both enhance truly international collaboration."

Heredia, who has been at Albright since fall 2000, says her teaching at Albright has been "interesting, revealing and rewarding." She adds that the e-mail exchange in which the two universities participate focuses on the "constructivist approach in education. Students are the ones who truly construct and direct their language learning by actually doing things, by discovering things for themselves, and by thinking critically about what they are doing and what they are learning. The e-mail experience has brought the students, the world into the classroom and has taken their classroom out into the world."

Jogan agrees that the e-mail exchanges have been a constructive learning tool. "The students get feedback on their compositions. They coach each other and provide cultural insights that they might not get in the classroom."
However, for Albright student Kathleen Cunniffe ’02 and University of Tarapaca student Vanessa Saldias, e-mail exchanges just weren’t enough.

During the fall 2000 semester, Cunniffe studied in Chile, and met Saldias who had already signed up to study at Albright during the spring 2001 semester.
Cunniffe, who stayed with a host family while in Chile, says her experience was wonderful. "The people were the best part of it," she notes.
"College life, in general, is different in Chile," Cunniffe says. "There aren’t any dormitories. Students live with their families and not a lot of students go away for college. It seemed like the family unit was much closer down there. And, people are much more open too."

This difference has made Saldias’s adjustment in the U.S. a rather difficult one. Although she is ecstatic about all of the amenities Albright offers that the University of Tarapaca doesn’t, such as many food choices in the Dining Hall, a "great" computer lab and a library with stacks and stacks of new books, adjusting to living in a residence hall, being away from her family and working more independently in class have been challenges.

"In my country classmates share a lot more and help each other. Here, it’s much more independent. Everyone works alone," she says.

Cunniffe adds that her experience made her see that "Americans keep more to themselves. In general," she says, " Americans aren’t as patient with foreigners," especially when it comes to the language barrier.

Saldias agrees. "When talking with a group of people in Chile they try to adapt to (foreigners) and speak slower. Here, they don’t really explain things."

Academically, though, Saldias says Albright keeps her on her toes. "The classes are so good and require all of my time. The level of education is higher here."

Plans to expand the exchange program are in the works, says Jogan. In April, Professor of Biology Dick Heller, Ph.D. traveled to the University of Tarapaca to research exchange opportunities for both faculty and students involved in the sciences. And, Rodney Warfield, Ed.D., professor of education, plans to go to Chile in October 2001 to attend the Ninth International Conference of English Teachers hosted by the University of Tarapaca. He will teach a course to Chilean educators on how to incorporate theatre into the elementary classroom.