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This weeklong Education Internship is designed in collaboration with the Chicago Center for Urban Life and Culture.  Students spend a week in Chicago and earn 40 clock hours toward the required 100 hours for the ESL or bilingual endorsement.  Students will have the opportunity to learn about bilingual program models and earn some of their clock hours as they observe and assist in bilingual classrooms.  Other hours are earned as students participate in community and cultural activities in some of Chicago’s diverse neighborhoods in order to raise awareness regarding multiculturalism for educators.  The Chicago Center Education Internship provides students with direct experiences in bilingual programs and diverse communities, important experiences for teacher candidates who will be working with bilingual children and students from diverse families in their future classrooms. (You can also observe Special Education classrooms based on your desired endorsement.)

“The world has never been so densely diverse than I experienced it to be during the Chicago internship. I could see much of this reflected at the Allesandro Volta Public School, however none of the students, their cultures, or their languages were discriminated against, but encouraged by the school staff in a way to make a stronger and more unified and diverse population of students that are inclusive, open-minded, and who strive for their highest potential.” (Sierra Cowan, Jan. 2017)

“Though the immersion was short, it was meaningful because of the actual hands on experiences and the readings involved with the ED 172. Through it all, I gained so much knowledge and am very thankful for the opportunity of being able to see what it is like to teach in the Chicago Public Schools. I gained on my thoughts on multicultural appreciation, bilingual program systems, classroom settings, teacher perspectives, lifestyles of different communities, and so much more. With no doubt, everything that I learned will help shape me into a more round, well aware, and well prepared teacher candidate for the near future.” (Heidy Perales, Jan. 2017)

Education students are encouraged to participate in an immersion experience during their program of study.  An immersion is a course that includes travel, global topics, ethical reasoning, and experiencing different cultures.  Immersions can range from one week to one semester.  Immersions are planned by Education faculty as well as faculty in other departments.

Some of the many options for international immersion studies at Millikin University include:

• Becoming inspired in your studies of English language learners and taking a course that immerses you in another culture.
• Being transported to your favorite novel's setting.
• Joining an international immersion experience to the beautiful Catalonian region of Spain and study at our partner school, University of Lleida.
• Attending a global studies course with a travel component to Changchun, China to teach English to children at a large subsidiary school of Northeast Normal University. 
• Transporting yourself to the magical world of JK Rowling's hometown and country through a travel course to the locations that inspired the books and defined the movies of Harry Potter while studying the dark themes that run throughout the series.