Radford celebrates Brazilian students' success

Charlene Dandrow (left), associate director of the Language and Culture Institute at Radford University, takes one last group photo with BSMP students in front of the Radford planetarium in the new Center for the Sciences building.

On April 28, the Language and Culture Institute at Radford University held a farewell celebration for the 13 students of the Brazil Scientific Mobility Program who attended the LCI@RU pre-academic intensive English program in July and then went on to complete an academic year in mostly STEM-related coursework at Radford University.

"We are so fortunate to have hosted the BSMP students this academic year at Radford University," says Charlene Dandrow, associate director of the LCI@RU. "When I first met the BSMP students, I was truly impressed by their high caliber and motivation. I believe this U.S. educational and cultural experience has equipped them with the essential skills and knowledge to enable them to be successful at their upcoming summer internships, and more important, when they return to their Brazilian universities to complete their undergraduate studies in their respective STEM fields. I wish them all the best of luck!”

Mateus Lopes says goodbye to Radford
professor Karen A. Ughetta.

Students and their majors

• Michael Alexandre Da Silva Sampietro, Computer Science
• Isabela Romeiro Simoes Cintra Rosa, Computer Science
• Joao Henrique Goncalves Veras, Computer Science
• Mateus Alves Gomes, Computer Science
• Diego Menezes Bonfim, Biology
• Igor Reginato Dulgher Araujo, Information Systems
• Lorenna Rocha Reis, Chemistry
• Ana Carolina Pereira Pla , Nutrition
• Marcela Ribeiro Basso, Statistics
• Renan Luigi Martins Guarese, Computer Science
• Diego Vitoriano Da Silva, Computer Science
• Mateus Lopes Teixeira, Information Systems
• Phillipe Alcantara Fonseca Lopes, Information Systems

For their summer internships, most of the Brazilian students have been invited to conduct research at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago.

Some of their research topics

Marcela Marcela Ribeiro Basso and Renan Guarese:

Our research is called Research in Construction and Testing of Adaptive Monte Carlo Algorithms with Applications to Financial Risk Management. This research will develop new Monte Carlo algorithms that automatically adjust the sample size to reach the desired error tolerance. These algorithms will also employ variance reduction methods. Their effectiveness will be demonstrated through various option pricing and other financial risk applications.

Diego Vitoriano da Silva:

I’m going to Illinois Institute of Technology, and I'll be conducting research on Integrated GPS and INS Embedded Systems. In other words, it's basically an implementation of INS (inertial navigation system) technology to work along GPS (global positioning system) when the latter fails in systems like Raspberry Pi's (2, 3 and 0), Beagle Bone Black, etc., which are small computers.

Mateus Lopes Teixeira, Michael Alexandre Da Silva Sampietro and Isabela Romeiro Cintra Rosa:

We’re going to IIT to do a research in Information Search and Retrieval at IIT. A brief description is that will the focus will be on three critical issues in modern search engines, namely volume, velocity and veracity. We will explore parallel and distributed solutions for text and multimedia retrieval.

Mateus Alves Gomes:

I will be doing research in Cloud Platform for Internet of Things at IIT. I will be performing hands-on research, which may include learning and applying new laboratory methods and concepts and/or developing and applying software/hardware programs to generate data relevant to this research. I will also attend regularly scheduled seminars that augment the faculty-mentored research, covering topics such as engineering ethics, safety, communicating research findings and project results. 

Paul Currant (right), director of Radford University's International Education Center, watches the BSMP farewell celebration. 

LCI@RU students volunteer at Radford's Beans and Rice

Daniel Doolittle (second from left), an AmeriCorps volunteer from Pulaski, Virginia, shows LCI@RU students how to set up the weekly food distribution site. The students (from right to left), Almandhar Al-Rawahi of Oman, Ahmed Khaled of Jordan, Abdulrhman Alalshaikh of Saudi Arabia, and Faisal Aljaber of Saudi Arabia, loaded the trailer with boxes of donated food.

Students at the Language and Culture Institute at Radford University volunteered recently with Beans and Rice Inc. The Radford nonprofit works to improve the economic well-being of low- to moderate-income families through hunger relief, afterschool programs that improve educational opportunity for at-risk children, job creation for low- to moderate-income families, and savings programs that help families buy their first home and children save for education.

The LCI@RU students helped set up the weekly food distribution center and distributed donated food. Read about their experiences below.

Blacksburg, Radford classes canceled for Monday, Feb. 15

Virginia Tech's Blacksburg campus, including the Language and Culture Institute, will be closed Monday, Feb. 15, 2016. All classes are canceled.

Classes are also canceled at the Language and Culture Institute at Radford University.

For the latest information, visit the Virginia Tech homepage (www.vt.edu) or Virginia Tech News (www.vtnews.vt.edu), or call the campus weather hotline at 231-6668.

 Visit www.btransit.org for the latest Blacksburg Transit information.

Classes canceled Friday, Jan. 22

Virginia Tech's main campus in Blacksburg will be closed Friday, Jan. 22. All classes, including those at the Language and Culture Institute, are canceled. All university events scheduled for Friday will be canceled.

Classes are also canceled at the LCI's locations in Fairfax and Radford.

For the latest information, visit the Virginia Tech homepage (www.vt.edu) or Virginia Tech News (www.vtnews.vt.edu), or call the campus weather hotline at 231-6668.

Visit www.btransit.org for the latest Blacksburg Transit information.

Radford students volunteer at Elf Shelf

For the second consecutive year, students, faculty, and staff from the Language and Culture Institute at Radford University donated their time at the Radford Elf Shelf store.

They assisted with setting up the store and arranging Christmas gifts donated by local residents. These presents will be given to low-income families in the area who need assistance with providing presents to their children.

"I believe these types of community service experiences are extremely beneficial to our international students," says Charlene Dandrow, associate director of the institute. "Through participation, our students learn a lot about American values and culture and how to better understand and appreciate diversity. By getting involved in activities that serve the public good and have a positive impact on the community, they gain a strong sense of social connectivity and responsibility as well as a sense of belonging and purpose."

Language and Culture Institute at Radford University celebrates first graduation

Brazil Scientific Mobility Program students and faculty and staff from the Language and Culture Institute at Radford University celebrate the institute's first graduation ceremony. 

Students play an LCI@RU version of "Jeopardy."

The Language and Culture Institute at Radford University held its first graduation ceremony, on Friday, Aug. 14, 2015, in Heth Hall.

Nine students sponsored by the Brazilian government as part of the Brazil Scientific Mobility Program received certificates from the institute. The program is a one-year, nondegree program for Brazilian students to study abroad in the United States. It is part of the Brazilian government's larger initiative to grant 100,000 university students the opportunity to study abroad at the world's best colleges and universities.

See more photos at the LCI@RU site.

Radford students celebrate at first annual spring cookout

Students, teachers, and staff at the Language and Culture Institute at Radford University cheered the end of spring classes and the arrival of summer at the first ever LCI@RU spring cookout.

The picnic was held at Radford's Bisset Park right after students finished their writing test. It was a good stress reliever, joked Associate Director Charlene Dandrow.

Attendees were treated to grilled hamburgers and hot dogs as well as a variety of other picnic classics. They played Frisbee, badminton, and soccer.

See more photos below.

Seeing it differently: New perspectives in art education with international students at Radford

Two Radford students discuss perspectives with a student teacher from Mexico.

Random objects, creative name badges and mask making brought new insights when Radford University art education majors shared an interactive class with nine students from Mexico.

On the Covington Center classroom front desk sat four items: a glue gun, a rock, a hammer and a stuffed animal. Discussing the similarities and difference among these items, RU students mingled with their international guests.

In this exercise, Richard Bay, professor of art education, explained such activities used in an elementary classroom setting help school children increase their perspectives through the comparison of the objects’ textures, weight, volume, size, materials and usage.

Seemingly different items have more in common than one might expect, much like the two cultures that combined during this unique class opportunity. The inverse can be true as well. It is all about perspective. Through this class, both cohorts gained a deeper understanding about each other’s perceptions and cultures.

“When RU students interact with international students, they acquire a different set of skills,” said Charlene Dandrow, associate director of the Language and Cultural Institute at Radford University (LCI@RU). “They develop an important 'literacy' that enables them to successfully engage with diversity, which nowadays is a crucial skill to have in the competitive global market.”

Read more about the visit.

LCI names Sondra Schreiber as student services director

Sondra Schreiber has been named the assistant director for student services at the Virginia Tech Language and Culture Institute.

As part of the administrative team, she will counsel the institute’s staff and students on immigration matters, provide academic advising and placement assistance for prospective university students, and develop engagement programs with the greater university and local communities. 

“I am looking forward to getting to know our students and supporting them during their transition to the United States and throughout their stay,” Schreiber said.

Read more about Sondra here.

Read the Roanoke Business story about the LCI at Radford

LCI partners with Radford University to open new center

Virginia Tech has partnered with Radford University to establish the Language and Culture Institute at Radford University.

The collaboration combines the 40 years of experience the Virginia Tech Language and Culture Institute has in providing English language programs and the unique academic opportunities available at Radford.

Operated by the Virginia Tech Language and Culture Institute, the new center will provide instruction in English language and academic study skills geared toward international students while also facilitating intercultural understanding and offering support and guidance on nonacademic issues. The institute is scheduled to open in March.

Read more here.