2006 - 2014

As VCU developed its partnership with teachers and administrators from the University of Córdoba, Spain, I made every effort to contribute to the partnership through my role as WSMC Director. In 2006, when a delegation of UCO administrators visited VCU to sign the MOU, the group visited the WSMC as I was unveiling the upgraded facilities after an 18-month renovation.

2007-09

During this time, I was fortunate to serve as a faculty mentor to visiting teachers and staff from UCO who visited VCU to engage in teaching and research while enrolling in the ESL program at VCU. The WSMC served as an instructional development center for visiting teachers and scholars from international partner universities. We developed media services and instructional resources for an emerging international film studies program offered through a partnership teaching initiative funded by an EU-U.S. Atlantis Program grant.

November 2009

I was invited to visit UCO and meet with teachers, staff, and students to discuss possibilities for future teacher and student exchanges through study abroad and using new distance learning technologies to synergize collaborative teaching activities. The desired outcomes were to heighten student interaction within the partnership through technology-enhanced cooperation.

I learned about distance learning in Spain and how UCO uses video conferencing, Moodle, and Adobe Connect Pro to deliver instruction through its Campus Andaluz Virtual, a network of ten public universities in Andalusia, Spain, allowing students to access "10 Universities with one click".

There was a consensus that videoconferencing and distance learning programs offer many rich possibilities for enhancing international cooperation. A shared view was that both schools face similar challenges regarding implementing and integrating educational technology, namely security, usability, functionality, scalability, training, and cost.

A comprehensive tour of the UCO campuses included visits to labs, classrooms, libraries and other instructional spaces, such as UCO Idiomas, Campus Menéndez Pidal, and the Servicio Central de Apoyo a la Investigación (SCAI)l, Campus de Rabanales.

A meeting with the director of UCO Idiomas was held to explore teletandem opportunities for face-to-face immersion and practice for UCO and VCU students.

The WSMC is committed to supporting VCU's international partnerships in language learning, cultural exchange, and international film and media studies and advocates the use of videoconferencing and distance learning to enhance and sustain these areas. The WSMC is equipped and prepared to support distance instruction implementation and delivery to UCO and other partner schools.

As a result of the site visit, working relationships and new communication lines were established with staff members in key technology positions at UCO. The following steps are to organize a pilot to promote technology-enhanced teaching and research ventures within the partnership. The site visit report to UCO-VCU Partnership Director, who responded with favorable comments regarding the visit and thanked the WSMC Director "for enriching the UCO-VCU partnership." Our goal was to heighten student interaction and purposeful cooperation between the schools' language resource centers.

2010-2012

I continued collaborating with UCO teachers and staff on using online teaching tools for future joint curricular ventures to enhance the partnerships with purposeful and mutually beneficial instructional experiences in the following areas:

- Foreign Language Studies

- World Film and Media

- Translation and Interpretation

By bringing the partnerships into VCU classrooms through teleconferencing and social media sharing, we delivered world-class learning experiences that fostered discovery and innovation in a global environment. The project was in alignment with VCU's strategic goals and with the teaching mission of SWS.

2013-2014

Upon completing my Ph.D., I accepted an assignment to teach and develop a Spanish Conversation and film course at VCU, SPAN 307, a curriculum that uses cinema to address social justice topics from the Spanish-speaking world, particularly as they relate to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

During a site visit in the summer of 2013, I met with the Cinema and Art Department faculty to discuss possibilities for future collaborations. I also met with the world-renowned scholar of Spanish film, Pedro Poyato, and a Spanish film professor at UCO's main campus in downtown Córdoba. We had a transformative conversation about our careers and the cinema of Pedro Almodóvar. Our rich discussion about the themes, messages, and symbols from Todo sobre mi madre and Volver resonated with me. Dr. Poyato also helped me assemble a list of essential-viewing films from Spain.