ASU journalism fellows to share global experiences with Yavapai College


February 7, 2014

Ten international journalists and communicators at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication are visiting students and faculty at Yavapai College in central Arizona, Feb. 7, for a daylong event on globalization and international cooperation.

The international mid-career professionals at Cronkite are part of the prestigious Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program, an initiative of the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs administered by the Institute of International Education. At Yavapai College’s Prescott campus, the Humphrey Fellows will participate in a classroom discussion on religion, interact with faculty and students in a public forum and watch the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympic Games. Download Full Image

The event is part of the Humphrey Associate Campus Partnership Program, which fosters partnerships and engages people from various nations in cross-cultural exchanges. It aims to establish alliances between Humphrey host campuses and colleges, universities and community colleges, especially those with significant minority populations or those in rural areas that serve students who may not regularly have opportunities to interact with international visitors.

“Our relationship with the Humphrey Fellowship Program benefits both colleges,” said Penny Wills, Yavapai College president. “It gives our students the rare opportunity to interact with and gain a deeper appreciation of multiple cultures from around the world. Our international friends learn about this uniquely American phenomenon, community colleges, from one of the best in the country.”

B. William Silcock, Cronkite School associate professor, director of Cronkite Global Initiatives and curator of the Humphrey Fellowship Program at ASU, said the visit gives the fellows the opportunity to learn more about U.S. higher education institutions and the communities they serve.

“Bringing our friends and colleagues – the Cronkite Humphrey Fellows – to Yavapai College is an extraordinary opportunity to connect citizens of the world at a world class college,” Silcock said. “An added bonus is being there on the opening day of the 2014 Olympics – a chance for the Cronkite School to bring the Olympic spirit to our friends around the state.”

The Humphrey Fellows are leading TV reporters, public relations specialists and newspaper editors in their home countries, which include Bangladesh, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Croatia, El Salvador, Malawi, Pakistan, Trinidad and Tobago, and Turkey. During their 10 months at Cronkite, they study journalism, receive leadership training and forge professional affiliations with news organizations in Arizona and across the country.

Yavapai College is a community college based in Prescott, Ariz., with six campuses in Yavapai County. It offers certificates and associate degrees in 76 areas of study, as well as nationally recognized educational and training programs. The Yavapai name comes from the indigenous group that originally populated the region.

The Cronkite School is one of the nation’s premier journalism schools, grounding students in the time-honored media values espoused by its namesake, Walter Cronkite. It has been recognized as a leader and innovator among mass communication educators nationwide by entities including The New York Times, The Times of London, American Journalism Review and multiple journalism foundations.

Reporter , ASU News

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Latino author makes economic case for teaching ethnic studies in schools


February 7, 2014

Making an economic case for teaching ethnic studies in America’s schools and universities is the focus of a book talk presented from noon to 1 p.m., Feb. 11, by ASU’s School of Transborder Studies. Author Jim Estrada, a corporate marketing consultant and former San Diego television journalist, suggested there is a substantial information gap about the nation’s largest non-white European populations that could negatively impact the United States economy.

Estrada’s book, "The ABCs and Ñ of America’s Cultural Evolution: A Primer on the Growing Influence of Hispanics, Latinos, and mestizos on the USA," offers important insights into today’s 53 million U.S. Hispanics – including how their history and culture are influencing the nation. Download Full Image

The author said that he believes sharing accurate, non-subjective information about America’s Latinos, their histories and their contributions to our nation will lead to better understanding of their growing influence as consumers, students, taxpayers, voters and members of the workforce.

Registration for the lecture in Interdisciplinary Building B, B161-B, on ASU’s Tempe campus is required. RSVP to Lillian.Ruelas@asu.edu.

According to ASU’s Morrison Institute for Public Policy, Latinos constitute Arizona’s most rapidly growing ethnicity and could represent more than 50 percent of the state’s population by mid-century. Its 2012 report, Arizona’s Emerging Latino Vote, noted in particular the state’s disproportionate growth in young Latino citizens. “The ramifications will be profound, with major impacts to be felt in the health care industries, at all levels of education, the workforce population and in state budgeting – just to cite a few,” the report stated.

“There are many thoughts on how to create cultural competence,” Estrada said. “The logical place to start is in educational institutions, which are charged with expanding the knowledge base that affects our personal and organizational missions, goals and objectives.

“So it’s really up to our schools to address this critical need for ethnic studies. For students entering the marketplace, it will enable them to adapt successfully to a changing world.”

Estrada is owner of Estrada Communications Group, based in Austin, Texas. He has worked with major corporations, such as AT&T, Anheuser-Busch and McDonald’s, advising them on outreach strategies to Latino consumers for the past three decades. He said every few years, as his client contacts would change, he would need to re-orient their staffs about the Latino market: “My job was to help them avoid making mistakes, cultural faux pas, in their marketing communications.”

After many years, Estrada realized that what he was teaching marketing clientele could benefit a broader audience if compiled in a book. The primer’s 10 short chapters are a collection of essays about different aspects of Latino culture and history, from the Spanish conquest of Mexico to Latino voting rights. A book review by National Hispanic News noted that topics range from language, cultural diversity and history to relationships with the dominant majority, law enforcement and each other.

“Each of these chapters touches on historical and cultural tidbits neither likely to be known by the average non-Hispanic nor by the segment of Latinos themselves who lack exposure to their own contributions to society, or who know little of their place in U.S. history,” the critic observed.

Estrada said the media and entertainment industries are also responsible for projecting a less than positive image of Latinos, as well as those of other non-white, racial, ethnic and immigrant groups. He explained that for decades, mass media have misrepresented Latinos to the nation’s mainstream Eurocentric society through acts of “commission,” use of stereotypic portrayals in media and acts of “omission,” failing to provide factual information about the many Latino contributions to America, and even by historical revisionism.

“Creating cultural awareness and competency takes time and cannot be too daunting a task,” Estrada said. “Providing readers with basic facts, or the ABCs, together with a rudimentary understanding of the influence Hispanics, Latinos and mestizos are having on them and their personal interests can create a sense of ease about learning.”

The School ofTransborder Studies is an academic unit in ASU's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.