Students gain practical work experience
By Chung Hyun-chae
The State University of New York (SUNY) at Fredonia, one of the oldest schools in New York State, boasts a long tradition of turning out good teachers ― one that dates back to 1826.
"Definitely one of the most popular programs that we have is in the College of Education," said Jessica Gatto, SUNY Fredonia's assistant director of admissions. "The reason is that we offer certification in almost every single program."
The New York State certificate program is one of the more rigorous programs out there, Gatto explained. "Students are able to use that certification (even) if they want to go to another state as it's internationally recognized," she said.
"As our students have teaching experiences in a wide variety of different schools of different sizes, different socioeconomic backgrounds, they become sought-after educators after graduation."
The university considers more than academics when evaluating applications, she continued.
"Applicants usually are in the top percentile in graduating high school classes," she said. "But we see if they are heavily involved in outside classroom activity as well. It's very important for us.
"It's important for students to study hard, go to class, get good grades, but we'd like to see well-rounded students. We have clubs, organizations in which all international students can do things outside of the classroom hand in hand with domestic students, which is very important to us.
"We also provide students with real-life work experience outside the classroom, as well as internship programs."
SUNY Fredonia's strength in education led it to form sisterhood ties with Gimpo Foreign Language High School last week.
In March, the university also began cooperating with Wooshin High School in Seoul's Guro area.
Over the past three years, SUNY Fredonia has welcomed more than 200 Korean students, 177 of whom benefited from The Korea Times' Education Abroad program, which helps students prepare for their U.S. study experience before departure.
"It's the largest population among many other foreign student groups," Gatto said. "They really do have a great presence on our campus. It's a great opportunity for domestic students to learn about different countries.
"As the school campus is close to the Canadian border, there are also a lot of Canadian students, as well as Japanese and Chinese students."
Together, those groups account for a large proportion of the student body, she added. Asked why SUNY Fredonia attracted so many Korean students, she replied that it offered a very different experience.
"And we've been making huge efforts to increase the diversity of our population of students in the past few years," she added. "Students represent countries all around the world. Besides, we want domestic students to have an international experience."
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| Jessica Gatto |
The State University of New York (SUNY) at Fredonia, one of the oldest schools in New York State, boasts a long tradition of turning out good teachers ― one that dates back to 1826.
"Definitely one of the most popular programs that we have is in the College of Education," said Jessica Gatto, SUNY Fredonia's assistant director of admissions. "The reason is that we offer certification in almost every single program."
The New York State certificate program is one of the more rigorous programs out there, Gatto explained. "Students are able to use that certification (even) if they want to go to another state as it's internationally recognized," she said.
"As our students have teaching experiences in a wide variety of different schools of different sizes, different socioeconomic backgrounds, they become sought-after educators after graduation."
The university considers more than academics when evaluating applications, she continued.
"Applicants usually are in the top percentile in graduating high school classes," she said. "But we see if they are heavily involved in outside classroom activity as well. It's very important for us.
"It's important for students to study hard, go to class, get good grades, but we'd like to see well-rounded students. We have clubs, organizations in which all international students can do things outside of the classroom hand in hand with domestic students, which is very important to us.
"We also provide students with real-life work experience outside the classroom, as well as internship programs."
SUNY Fredonia's strength in education led it to form sisterhood ties with Gimpo Foreign Language High School last week.
In March, the university also began cooperating with Wooshin High School in Seoul's Guro area.
Over the past three years, SUNY Fredonia has welcomed more than 200 Korean students, 177 of whom benefited from The Korea Times' Education Abroad program, which helps students prepare for their U.S. study experience before departure.
"It's the largest population among many other foreign student groups," Gatto said. "They really do have a great presence on our campus. It's a great opportunity for domestic students to learn about different countries.
"As the school campus is close to the Canadian border, there are also a lot of Canadian students, as well as Japanese and Chinese students."
Together, those groups account for a large proportion of the student body, she added. Asked why SUNY Fredonia attracted so many Korean students, she replied that it offered a very different experience.
"And we've been making huge efforts to increase the diversity of our population of students in the past few years," she added. "Students represent countries all around the world. Besides, we want domestic students to have an international experience."
