AASU Preservice Teachers to Work in Central Asia

Savannah, GA—November 18, 2003—On November 23, Patrick Thomas, assistant professor of middle/secondary education at Armstrong Atlantic State University, and four students who are enrolled in the College of Education will depart from the Savannah-Hilton Head International Airport for Astana, Kazakhstan. AASU students Heather Cecil, Susan Croon, and Quinton Moore, along with Savannah State University student Roslynn DeLoach, will travel half way around the world to experience teaching in the public schools of the capital city of Astana. The group will arrive at the airport at 10 a.m. and will depart at noon on Northwest Airlines.

The students will work along side the teachers of an Astana school for 28 days. They will teach lessons on American culture, American civics and from their areas of teaching concentration. The students will work approximately 45 hours per week in the school. They will also get the chance to experience Kazakhstan culture by attending the opera and ballet, visiting historical sites in and around the city of Astana, meeting with civic and university education officials, and celebrating the Kazakh Independence Day on December 16.

The students will share their culture and experience the culture of a people on the other side of the world. They will bring back to their classrooms all of these experiences and make the world a little smaller and interesting for their students. Thomas is hopeful that this first team of preservice teachers will only be the start of many such overseas teaching experiences.

Kazakhstan is the largest of the former Soviet Republics located in Central Asia. Kazakhstan declared itself independent from the Soviet Union in 1991 and has been working for the past 12 years at becoming a democratic republic. Kazakhstan has a population of just over 15 million with a very diverse cultural makeup. Kazakhstan is thought to have oil reserves the size of what has been found in Saudi Arabia.

For more information about the trip to Central Asia, contact Pat Thomas at 921.5547.