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Community Engagement in the English Language Academy

Greetings from the English Language Academy!

We are off to a great start in the ELA this semester. We have welcomed new students from China and Italy, and we have been up to our usual with community engagement.

Here are a few highlights of how we are tapping into our campus and larger community in order to learn, share, and gain new perspectives.

Last week, we participated in the Spring Diversity Forum’s Cultural Conversation event. Special thanks to our student Aurora Barassi from Italy and our peer mentor Montserrat Cuevas for volunteering to be table leaders at this all-inclusive campus event. All students had a chance to engage in conversations to explore topics ranging from clothing to social expectations and discuss how these topics relate to gender. We all appreciated a supportive and safe environment where we could listen to alternative views.

Aurora from Italy acted as a facilitator at the Diversity Forum.
Spring Diversity Forum Cultural Conversations event

Another event we participated in last week was our visit to Fairhaven. Every semester, our ELA students are paired with friends from Fairhaven to engage in multiple cultural exchanges. Some exchanges take place at Fairhaven and others are on our campus. Thank you to our Fairhaven partners for always being kind and helpful. We chatted about everything from holidays to World War II.

Blyth from China visits with his Fairhaven friend Dee Dee.

This semester we have also enjoyed educational visits to the Chamber of Commerce, The Book Teller, Roberta’s Art Gallery, Career and Leadership, our campus TV and radio stations, and more. We would like to thank our campus and community for always being warm and welcoming.

Leo from China and Pierre from France got to check out the TV studio during their tour of our campus radio and TV station. Thank you to Professor Lucas for showing us all of the amazing equipment and showing us what happens behind the scenes.

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Cheese Tasting Event Wednesday, October 16, 2119

English Language Academy at UW-Whitewater

Celebrates 5th Anniversary by

Hosting 5th Annual International Cheese Tasting Open House

October 2, 2019 (Whitewater, WI): The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater’s English Language Academy (ELA) is thrilled to announce its five-year anniversary and 5th annual Cheese Tasting Open House. The event will take place at the UW-Whitewater campus on the 4th floor of Heide Hall in Rooms 460 and 466 on Wednesday, October 16th from 11:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

International students from China, Japan, Zimbabwe, Italy, Russia, and France will host the interactive, educational event as they offer up Wisconsin cheese along with bits of Wisconsin dairy history and fun facts about select Wisconsin cheese companies.  There will be games, displays, survey results, and an unusual variety of cheese to sample. The public will have the chance to try some specialty cheeses, learn some new information, chat with some of our UW-Whitewater international students, and vote for their favorite cheese.

“The Cheese Tasting is always our most popular event with the campus and by far the most rewarding for our international students,” says Anjie Kokan, ELA instructor and coordinator. “We are especially excited that it’s our five-year anniversary this year, and we are happy to celebrate that with our campus and community through a project-based learning event.”

Brianna Deering, ELA coordinator and Business English teacher for international students adds, “The business students gain the opportunity to research Wisconsin cheese companies, and then they create flyers and displays highlighting the feature cheeses from the companies. It’s a great way to tie business and culture together in an authentic learning environment.”

This year, students from Dr. Rossitza Ivanova’s English US Culture class will be interviewing people in the campus and community prior to the event to establish what kind of cheese is Whitewater’s favorite. The results will be revealed at the Cheese Tasting along with a chance to try Whitewater’s most popular cheese.

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Meet English 163

These students from Dr. Rossi Ivanova’s class are studying about the culture of the United States. They will be part of the Cheese Tasting event on Wednesday , October 16 from 11:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. in Heide 466. The students from Japan, Russia, Italy, Zimbabwe, and China are currently surveying our campus and community to find out which cheese is the most popular. Please come to cheese tasting and find out the results. #UWWELAcheesetasting

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Students in photo: Brenda (China), Yuki (Japan), Luca (Italy), Danila (Russia), Lainah (Zimbabwe), Haruka (Japan) 

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Welcome Students and Friends of the ELA!

Students from the ELA along with teachers and friends enjoyed an interactive scavenger hunt at the Whitewater City Market by the lakefront on Tuesday, September 17.

This semester our English Language Academy is thrilled to welcome students from Japan, China, and France. Our students seem to be doing very well adjusting to their new home here at the University of Wisconsin – Whitewater. We have kept them very busy as they have taken part in the Student Involvement Fair and the Global Experiences Fair. They have also ventured out to meet with the Chamber of Commerce and visit our Whitewater City Market on the lake for a Scavenger Hunt. Students enjoyed mingling with the area merchants, trying new foods, and listening to live music at the market. We have more adventures coming up next week. Please check us out on Instagram and Facebook.

As always, we appreciate the warm welcome our students have received from both our Whitewater campus and local community.