School for International Training
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School for International Training, or SIT, is an accredited college in Brattleboro, Vermont. The president is Carol Bellamy.
[edit] History
The School for International Training is the educational branch of the Experiment in International Living (renamed World Learning). The campus consisted of a small collection of dorms around a Carriage House on a scenic farm on the north end of Brattleboro. Early Peace Corps volunteers took lessons in "exotic" languages, materials and teachers from the language training for Experiment trips (1934-present). When language and culture training began to shift to "in-country", SIT filled a need of returned Peace Corps Volunteers by offering a graduate degree in International Development. By 1968 the small but increasing number of RPCVs were requesting a degree in Teaching English as a Second Language, a new speciality. In 1969, two graduate programs were developed-- ICT: International Career Training; and MAT: Masters in Teaching Languages (French, Spanish and ESL).
The first MAT class consisted of 3 students. Then 10 students. Then 38 and finally the class reached 50 students and stayed there for many years. ICTs spent part of their program on campus and part in internships around the world. MATs originally went to Mexico or Quebec for student teaching but by 1972, students began to develop other sites around the world. Eventually, the ICT program changed to PIM: Programs in Intercultural Management and developed specializations in NGS's and Civil Society, Peace and Conflict Transformation, Social Justice, Socially Responsible Management, Sustainable Development,International Education, Language and Culture, Teacher Preparation. Jody Williams, an MAT graduate, won the Nobel Prize for her work on banning land mines. Wangari Maathai, a board member, won the Nobel Peace Prize for her work in Kenya. The International Leadership Project brings community activists, legislators and regional leaders to campus to study the means of bringing peace to such war-torn places as Rwanda, Ireland, Bosnia or Israel/Palestine.
In the 1980s there was an undergraduate program called World Issues Program. Initially it was a two-year program for transfer juniors and seniors. Based on a speech by United Nations leader U Thant, the program provided classes in Peace Studies, Alternative Energy Sources, Population Studies and Environmental Studies. After one semester on campus, students had four internships in different sites around the world in each of these areas. The final semester consisted of research into one of these areas on a topic of the student's choice. Eventually nearby Marlboro College adopted this program and offered it on their campus.
In the mid-eighties the MAT program created the Summer MAT program for teachers who study over two summers and are supervised in their existing jobs in the intervening year.
In the late 1990s the MAT department created the Teacher Knowledge Project as a way for teachers to work together, using the reflective cycle, to inquire into their practice. This project resulted in research in schools in New England focusing on reflective teaching, mentoring and structured language immersion. Other offshoots of the MAT program include a four-week TESOL certification program that offers basic preparation for teaching English as a Foreign Language and the ACCESS program that helps content teachers develop skills for working with English Language Learners in their classes.
Since 2002 the School for International Training has hosted the Nord-Amerika Somera Kursaro (NASK), North America's leading college-level program in Esperanto.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- SIT
- SIT Program Info
- Experiment in International Living
- Teacher Knowledge Project
- SIT TESOL Certificate Program
- ACCESS
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