Summer Academic English students at the Lincoln Memorial.

I recently welcomed to campus our new first-year international students who are participating in the Summer Academic English Program.

Organized by Professor Shoko Hamano, director of the Columbian College Language Center, the program is designed to ease the cultural transition of incoming international students while giving them a head-start on academic requirements. The students experience dorm living, have access to University libraries, facilities, advisors and faculty, and participate on field trips to museums, monuments, and other venues to learn their way around Washington, DC. While getting acclimated, the students earn seven credits towards their undergraduate degrees.

Among the courses is “American Multi-Cultural Perspectives,” which teaches the conventions of university-level academic writing, and an academic skills workshop that teaches specific strategies for critical reading and discussion of presentation skills.

It was a joy to meet this summer’s group of six students and wish them well on their GW academic experiences in the fall.