Notes & News, May 2017

Here you can access the newsletter of the International Institute, Notes & News: Notes & News, May 2017

Building bridges of cooperation and friendship

by Pilar Piñon, Executive Director

The Institute is successfully advancing in the establishment of new links with other institutions as well as in the projection of activities and programs outside its headquarters. All this with the aim of favoring the exchange of practices and knowledge between North American and Spanish citizens. In the field of teacher training and in association with the Community of Madrid, promising developments can be seen in the project that began in the summer of 2016 with the teachers who arrived from Brookline. Thus, in July 2017, two training courses will be given to teachers at bilingual centers in the Community of Madrid: “Weaving Science and Literacy. A course for teachers of English Language Learners” and “Speak Better: Increasing Student Discourse in the English Language Learning Classroom”. The expansion of the North American Language and Culture Program beyond the classrooms of Miguel Ángel 8 has borne its first fruits in two educational centers in Madrid, the Decroly school and the Fortuny Institute, the latter belonging to the network of public bilingual centers of the Madrid's community.

The institutional link between the International Institute and the Carlos III University, sealed by the agreement recently signed between the President of the International Institute and the Rector of the Carlos III University of Madrid, illuminates a new and suggestive way of expanding the Institute with this Madrid university .

With success and vision, the relationship with Technovation was established and developed, thus giving continuity through this initiative of North American origin to the expectation and enthusiasm generated towards technology among the young participants of the #GirlsTech program.

Initiatives such as the American Cultural Bites sessions given in public libraries in the city of Madrid, contribute to a better knowledge of North American culture throughout the metropolitan area.

Likewise, the Institute has continued to build alliances with prestigious cultural institutions such as The Hispanic Society of America in New York or the Sorolla Museum in Madrid. As a result, this quarter a cycle linked to the presence of the Hispanic Society collection in Madrid was organized.

 

Since its foundation, the International Institute has taken care of other bridges, those that are built from friendship and, in particular, those that unite it with its students and teachers. These alliances have endured through decades and have become one of the hallmarks of the Institute. So from here, we say goodbye with sincere sadness to Peter Gimbel, a student at Miguel Ángel and a member of the Institute's Corporation, and to Lee Buckley, a professor in the Institute's Department of English for the last fifteen years of his life.