In the picture above, you can see Guilford County Community College, or GTCC, students enjoying France. Dr. Beth Pitonzo, the Senior Vice President of Instruction, says they were taking a humanities course.
“The nation is realizing the importance of the global economy and the fact that there’s a lot of companies here that are from overseas, as well as a lot of US companies in foreign countries,” said Dr. Pitonzo.
It’s why she thinks the federal government began including more community colleges like GTCC in their grant programs designed to expand study abroad programs.
“We have Marshall Aerospace coming, Toyota Battery Manufacturing and so we need to train and educate students on how to work for companies that are maybe have different values, different systems,” said Dr. Pitonzo.
The IDEAS grant gave GTCC 35,000 dollars.
“And that 35,000 dollars will go into marketing and advertising the program, it will go into developing professional development for faculty,” said Dr. Pitonzo.
It will make it possible to go to Argentina, where students will learn about conservatorship, and Ireland, where the college has a sister program with GTCC which trains advanced manufacturing technicians.
“We’re hoping to send 20 students to Argentina and 20 to Ireland,” said Dr. Pitonzo.
Students will be able to apply to the grants online after the grant money is made available to the college in August.