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] 2 " SEPTEMBER 8. 2006
THE COLUMBIA STAR * S C
@
By Sydney Kornegay
On Sunday, August 27, 2006, a group of
students left their homes in Romania and
came to Columbia. By Thursday, they could
have passed for native South Carolinians.
"I am the Gamecocks' biggest fan!" one
of the students exclaimed as he showed off
his garnet and black T-shirt. "And I love the
Flora Falcons!"
The student was one of eight teenagers
and seven English teachers from Romania
who visited Columbia as part of an English
Immersion Camp. The program is collabora-
tion between the World Affairs Council, Darla
Moore School of business, and A.C. Flora
High School, which has several Romanian sis-
ter schools.
The students spent a week living with
host families and immersing themselves in
American culture. They visited Riverbanks]
toured downtown, and met with commu Seven teachers
Zoo,
anl
nity leaders. For most of the students, howev World Affairs Court
er, the highlight of the week was the Tuesday
tour of A.C. Flora.
Each group member was assigned a Flora student to arts or sci
shadow for the day. The students and teachers attended Des
classes, learned about American high school and shared several o
their own culture with Flora students. CIub coll
Miruna Grecea, a senior from Romania, pointed out schools iJ
some of the differences in her high school, to the sc~
to practic
a teacher
as part of
"Our campuses aren't as spread out, and we don't
have as many people in our classes," she said. 'We can also
choose to focus in one particular subject area such as the
opinion on
eight students from Romania visited Columbia as part of a partnership betweer the
:fl and AC Flora Key club Pictured are the exchange students at A. C. Flora High School.
races." The partnership between Flora, The World Affairs
oite their differences, however, the students share Council and the schools in Romania has been an educa-
immon ties. Last fall, members 6f the Flora Key tional experience for everyone.
ected over 1,000 English books to send to high "It was a lot of fun just getting to know the students
Romania. These books were welcome additions and hearing about their lifestyle," said Amy Betenbaugh,
ool's libraries, which needed books for teenagers who escorted one of the Romanian students. "It really made
their English. The following spring, Linda Smith, me want to travel there."
at A.C. Flora, visited the sister schools in Romania
the exchange program.
A Tami McCraw, Hair Stylist
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AbOVe 3723 Covenant Road, Columbia
803.782.3847 or 803.446.8136 cell
ByJohnDixon
Congressman Joe Wil-
son is "just plain folks" and
seems comfortable wherever
he goes and with whomever
he's with. The Columbia Star
caught up with him on the
evening of August 29, at the
Mid Carolina Gun Club where
he was being honored for his
support of a strong America
and the Second Amendment
nights of his constituents.
After club president,
Robert Clarkson, presented
Wilson with an honorary dub
membership, Wilson took
time to address the members
and answer questions from
those assembled. After finish-
ing his question and answer
session, Wilson voiced his
opinions about the state of
public education in South
Carolina.
Wilson's position on
vouchers and/or tax credits
for students attending private
schools was somewhat guard-
ed. He quickly qualified his
response by saying "If you are
in a failing school system, you
should have the right to go to
an adjacent school system or a
school that is working. I don't
think it is right that you would
tell people they will be going
to a school that's failing and
then say well in about ten
years it will be better. That's
destroying lives and people in
that county should have a
right to transfer to other pub-
lic or private schools when a
school has a failing grade."
Wilson serves on the
Education and Workforce
Committee in the U.S. House
of Representatives. The first
thing he told the chairman of
that committee is that the
improvement of public
schools is a state issue. "I want
education issues to be deter-'
mined by the state, and in par-
ticular, I want them to be
determined by local school
boards. So I want the Federal
role to be near zero."
Wdson noted that there
may be some federal funding
necessary in some areas,
especially for special educa-
tion, but he supports working
on teacher quality in poor
schools by using loan forgive-
ness programs for teachers
agreeing to teach in ~fle One
schools with high numbers of
students on free and reduced
lunch. He states that after that,
federal control should be min-
imal.
Wilson believes in a
strong America and feels the
primary functiqn of the feder-
al government should be
national defense and the pri-
mary job of the state should
be education.i "The people
who should be running the
schools should be school
board members who are
elected and/or removed by
the voters," said Wilson.
Wilson Went on to say
the best way toi prepare South
Carolina's students for jobs in
tbday's technological society is
to hire the best administrators
who will in turn hire the best
teachers and provide them
with the besti training and
equipment tO get the job
done. He feels we have made
a start in that direction. Hav-
ing just finished a tour of
schools, W'flsoq was excited by
the motivation and excite-
ment demonstrated by the
students and teachers he
observed all over the state.
Wilson knows that edu-
cation and jobs go hand and
hand. As member of Congress
he works with the Central Car-
olina Alliance and the Depart-
ment of Commerce to create
laws to reduce capital gains
taxes so there will be more
money to make investments
so than more jpbs can be cre-
ated. He actively lobbies busi-
ness in his Congressional Dis-
trict to create! jobs and hire
lo cal people.
Wilson was awed by
UPS's recent move to add 850
/
temporary and part-time jobs
to its w0fkforce in the state
thus cre
jobs" for
entry leve
As
about the
equally d
the failur~
paper to
tting "real people
people who need
experience.
xcited as he was
good news, he was
isappointed about
of The State news-
report that good
news in timely fashion, not-
ing that flobody at the meet-
ing kne
opportuE
media co
press rele
]n i
son indic
and jobs
in South
r of the new job
ides because of poor
lerage despite timely
~ses.
:losing remarks, Wfl-
ated the education
utl0ok will improve
:arolina when every-
one focuses on the prize and
works to~ether to achieve it.
HAml
BDOKsELLER[
4525 F0rest Drive
Fr : lo am . g
r:1om-7
Sun:l.6pm
wwwlhappyb00kseller,c0m
lohn Dixon, a student
at Cardinal Newman
and a cub reporter for
The Columbia Star,
with U.S.
Congressman Joe
Wilson
This space for rent
Call Mike Maddoek at 77I-O219 today!
Midlands Technical College recently honored its Employees of the Year for
2006. The award ceremony was part of the college's annual Fall Inservice. The col-
lege employs more than 600 full-time employees.
The Staff Member of the Year is Hnda Dawkins, data coordinator in the col-
lege's Office of Finance and Accounting. MTC's Supervisor of the Year is Sjanna
Coriar the college's associate director of admissions. English instructor Cindy
Rogers was selected as the college's Faculty Member of the Year. The Administrator
of the Year for MTC is Michele Bowles, director of Student Financial Services.
One of South Carolina's largest two-year colleges, MTC enrolls approximately
15,000 students seeking to develop career-skills or transfer to a four-year institution.
The college's Continuing Education Division provides training opportunities to
more than 30,000 individuals annually, and is one of the largest providers of non-
credit professional upgrade training of any two-year college in the state.
Linda Dawkins, data
coordinator and Staff
Member of the Year
Sjanna Coriarty,
associate director of
admissions Supervisor
of the Year
Cindy Rogers, English
instructor
Faculty Member
of the Year
Michele Bowles,
director of Student
Financial Services.
Administrator of the Year