Objective

The objective of my collaborations with USP faculty, students, and staff at the language center, Centro de línguas, was to strengthen the VCU-USP partnership in support of a credit-bearing Brazilian Portuguese language course sequence, which I proposed, co-developed, and led between 2008 and 2014.

Activities 2006-2010

The activities listed below are excerpts from the blog I used to document activities related to the VCU's partnership with Universidade de São Paulo (USP) between 2006 and 2010. When I received information about VCU formally entering into a partnership agreement with Universidade de São Paulo (USP) in São Paulo, Brazil. The areas of interest include medicine, chemistry, engineering, language studies, and religious studies.

February 2007

Attended reception for USP Rector during a site visit to VCU when MOU was signed. (See image right)

March 2007

The former Office of International Education planned my first site visit to USP. My itinerary included meetings with the director and staff of Centro de Linguas and the director of Comissão de Cooperação Internacional. Discussions commence on the prospects of enhanced cooperation between USP and VCU in language learning and student and teacher exchanges. USP students and staff provided a day tour in Sao Paulo. We visited the world-famous Avenida Paulista and other sites in Sao Paulo, including the Museo da Língua Portuguesa, the tour's highlight.

August 2007

I wrote a proposal to offer a complete sequence of courses in Portuguese to support the new partnership. The idea gained traction among colleagues very quickly. I helped a group of highly interested students to apply for a student organization with start-up funding. Clube Brasil was formed to advocate for Brazil, Brazilian students, and the Portuguese language at VCU. Students assisted with promoting new courses and campus events. We quickly filled up new courses. I provided teaching assistance throughout the semester, delivering instruction and promoting the program.

April 2008

Tony Brinckwirth submits a proposal to VCU International University Partnerships Initiative to invite a visiting instructor from USP to teach Portuguese and assist in developing and promoting a Brazilian Portuguese language program at VCU. The proposal is approved, and the search for an instructor begins.

June 2008

The new instructor, Ms. Eliete Sampaio, a USP graduate specializing in Portuguese as a Second Language, was selected as the primary teacher for a new visiting instructorship at VCU. The primary objective was to create a new Portuguese language curriculum. I served as Ms. Sampaio's faculty mentor and assisted Ms. Sampaio with the curriculum design.

August 2008

The new instructor from USP, Ms. Eliete Sampaio, arrives in Richmond and begins teaching the Portuguese language sequence at VCU. She taught a 2/4 course load and assisted me with program development.  

September 2009

We decided to house the program in the newly-renovated WSMC and develop the curriculum with media and technology-enhanced pedagogy. Courses filled quickly, and the program achieved stellar success in its first year. The program was re-funded for a second year and the next steps identified were to bolster the new VCU-USP International University partnership.

October 2009

Brinckwirth visited a Teletandem workshop at Georgetown University and met Dr. João Telles of Universidade Estadual Paulista - Assis. We exchanged contact info for possible future collaborations.

November 2009

I immediately contacted Dr. Telles to inquire about the possibility of choosing Teletandem as the topic for my dissertation. Dr. Telles could not have been more helpful. We began exploring every opportunity for initiating a Teletandem exchange between Portuguese language students at VCU and English language students at Universidade Estadual Paulista - Assis (UNESP).

January 2009

Sampaio and Brinckwirth develop a summer study abroad program at USP in cooperation with Centro de Linguas Director.

May-June 2009

The First VCU-USP Summer Portuguese language program takes place at USP with six students from VCU. The itinerary was divided into two 2-week segments; an intensive 2-week Portuguese course at USP in São Paulo and two weeks of travel along a historic mining route between Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro.

October 2009

My VCU Ph.D. advisor and I conducted our first teacher-to-group videoconference with USP Professor of Linguistics Zilda Aquino-Gaspar. We used a Polycom system. Dr. Aquino presented on USP campus culture, student activities, life in São Paulo, and what to expect in a study abroad experience at USP.

December 2009

We organized and conducted our third teacher-to-group videoconference with USP Professor Zilda Aquino-Gaspar and who presented a lecture on Portuguese linguistics for language students at VCU. Dr. Aquino asked me to serve as a reviewer for Conselho Editorial da Revista Linha D’Água, Universidade de São Paulo (2009-2010), a Brazilian scholarly journal on language and linguistics.