Contact Information:
Buff Lindau, Public Relations
802.654.2536
blindau@smcvt.edu
The Saint Michael's College Applied Linguistics Department/Intensive English Program learned Oct. 10 that was awarded a $2,000 grant from Vermont Campus Compact (located at Middlebury College), with support from the Davis Educational Foundation and the Davis Family Foundation. The grant, titled "Engaged Department Initiative," will be used to incorporate service-learning into the Saint Michael's Intensive English Program. The grant could be supplemented in the second year by an additional grant of $1,500.
Lead Principal Investigators of the grant are Applied Linguistics (AL) Associate Professor Sally Cummings of South Burlington and AL Instructor Sheena Macpherson of Colchester. Other Applied Linguistics faculty members who will participate include Pat Hoffman, Polly Howlett, Rick Gamache, Dan Evans, Windy Uncles and Pat LaRose.
Students in the Intensive English program are in the process of learning English, and have been seen to benefit greatly by participating in activities and events in the community. The grant, in part, will help to discover and incorporate into the program community partners who will support and benefit from service learning projects with these students.
Founded in 1954, the Saint Michael's English language training programs are known worldwide for supporting international students and preparing them for the future. The mission of the Intensive English Program (IEP), in which this grant will be used, is to provide the highest quality English-language instruction to speakers of other languages in order to meet their personal, academic or professional goals.
Saint Michael's College, founded in 1904 by the Society of St. Edmund and headed by President John J. Neuhauser, is identified by the Princeton Review as one of the nation's
Best 368 Colleges. A liberal arts, residential, Catholic college, Saint Michael's is located just outside of Burlington, Vermont, one of America's top college towns and less than two hours from Montreal. As one of only 270 institutions nationwide with a prestigious Phi Beta Kappa chapter on campus, Saint Michael's has 2,000 full-time undergraduate students, some 500 graduate students and 200 international students. In recent years Saint Michael's students and professors have received Rhodes, Woodrow Wilson, Guggenheim, Fulbright, National Science Foundation and other grants, and Saint Michael's professors have been named Vermont Professor of the Year in four of the last eight years. The college is currently listed as one of the nation's Best Liberal Arts Colleges in the 2009
U.S. News & World Report rankings.