Pictured from left to right are: (Back Row) John Proffitt, Adjunct Technology Instructor, Dr. Carl Hite, CSCC President, Rick Creasy, Director of Workforce Development; Dr. Mitchell Rhea, Dean of Mathematics and Science; and Dave Hudson, Director of the Small Business Development Center. (Front Row) Poul Kirkegard, EUC-Syd Representative; Hans Lehman, EUC-Syd Vice Principal; Finn Karlson, EUC-Syd Principal; Dr. Denise King, Vice President for Academic Affairs; Hurley Buff, Director of the Small Business Incubator; and Karen Wyrick; Associate Professor of Mathematics.
Representatives from EUC-Syd in Sonderborg, Denmark visited Cleveland State Community College in an effort to set up an exchange program.
Both colleges are members of the Transatlantic Technology and Training Alliance, or TA3. This is a membership consortium of more than 30 leading community and technical colleges, and several state system offices in the U.S., Europe and South Africa that promotes community colleges’ efforts to support their regional economies, and promotes the value and importance of a global perspective on community college missions.
The TA3 also seeks to be a leading alliance in fostering international exchange and insight among community and technical colleges, particularly among industrialized nations.
“We are members of the Transatlantic Technology and Training Alliance, and last year on a trip to Denmark, we visited EUC-Syd and started talking about partnering with them because there are some things that they do that we can learn from and vice versa,” stated Dr. Carl Hite, CSCC President. “We liked what we saw during our trip, and they liked what they saw during their trip, so we are in the process of creating a M.O.U. (Memo of Understanding) which will result in what we hope will be an exchange of faculty, staff, students, and ideas.”
Dr. Hite went on to state, “We were impressed by what they were doing with sustainability, and they were impressed by what we were doing with our Math Lab.” (CSCC recently won the prestigious Bellwether Award for their redesign of their developmental math program.)
According to Dr. Hite, Sonderborg, the city where the college is located, is planning on achieving a zero carbon footprint by 2029. “They are using alternative energy sources a great deal and have really incorporated sustainability throughout the curriculum, which is ultimately our goal here at CSCC,” stated Hite. “EUC-Syd is a smaller college in a smaller community that really mirrors Cleveland, so we felt that this would be a good fit. Another plus of this relationship is that they are from Denmark where they speak English, so there would be no language barrier. Both colleges are doing a good job, but we feel we are always looking to learn new and better ways of doing things. I think we have some opportunities to create some new programs we have never done before, and I am excited about these new possibilities."