News
10/23/2013
Thanks to the efforts of the participants in the Go Teacher program through the Center for English as a Second Language, September 21, 2013 was an historic day for Ecuador. Thirty-eight dancers joined the activities of the Latino Festival de Lexington to share their culture and bring a small piece of Ecuador to Lexington. This was the first year that Ecuador was represented in the festival, and the first time their national flag was carried in the opening parade.
The Go Teachers practiced for many weeks to perfect their dance performance. Wearing traditional clothes representing all of the distinct regions of Ecuador, including the highlands, the coast, and the Amazon, they proudly performed several routines indicative of their country’s heritage. Angel Vaca and Cecilia Urgiles were the principal dancers and led the troupe during
8/20/2013
by Sarah Geegan
University of Kentucky students come from all over the map — from as nearby as Fayette county, to as far away as Vietnam. Though their hometowns vary, they all share one thing in common; they're part of a Big Blue community that comes together during one of the most exciting times on UK's campus: K Week.
For international students at UK, K Week starts a week earlier, with K Week International Orientation, a series of events designed especially to support students coming to UK from abroad. More than 400 international undergraduate, graduate and CESL (Center for English as a Second Language) students will arrive during K Week International Orientation; UK currently hosts approximately 1,900 international students from 114 different countries
6/12/2013
By Sarah Geegan
Twenty-six Brazilian students will become Kentucky wildcats in the fall, as part of UK's partnership with the Brazil Scientific Mobility Program (BSMP) and the Institute of International Education (IIE).
The BSMP initiative is administered by IIE and is part of the Brazilian government's larger effort to grant 100,000 scholarships for the best students from Brazil to study abroad at the world’s top universities. The 26-student cohort will begin studies at UK in the Center for English as a Second Language in the College of Arts and Sciences. The center will provide the support for the students in achieving
4/22/2013
By President Eli Capilouto
Last year, I had the opportunity to travel to China with a delegation from the University of Kentucky to advance several partnerships growing between UK's colleges and departments and universities and industries in a country growing in economic importance.
One such partnership is between UK's Center for Applied Energy Research and the world's largest power company. During a meeting with industry representatives, we shared our exciting work in the development of clean coal technology and discussed partnerships, the exchange of students, and faculty collaboration as part of the US-China Clean Energy Research Center.
As we met, they described several multi-billion dollar research and development investments in their country’s energy sector. In comparison, the proposed
4/17/2013
By Guy Spriggs
11/16/2012
by Gail Hairston
Imagine you are far, far from home, and those around you are terribly excited about a family holiday that focuses on foods you may never have tasted. That’s the way many international students at the University of Kentucky feel about Thanksgiving, a holiday as American as the apple pie finale.
UK Alumni Association doesn’t like anyone to be left out of this special holiday. For seven years, it has celebrated Thanksgiving in a global fashion with students and their guests from every corner of the world.
All multicultural and international students are invited to join the UK Alumni Association at the Student Center Grand Ballroom for the free 7th annual
11/13/2012
by Sarah Geegan
Mansoor Sultan is a UK student from Iraq, pursuing a master's degree in electrical engineering. Like many of the other 1,788 international students at UK from more than 117 countries, a daunting challenge for Sultan when he arrived in Lexington was his English proficiency — a challenge which the Center for English as a Second Language (CESL) strives to help students overcome.
Lina Crocker, faculty member in the CESL, contends that face-to-face interaction with American students is one of the best tools for both English-speaking practice and orientation into American culture. She facilitates partnerships with various departments across campus, which give international students like Sultan the opportunity to meet American
10/11/2012
By Sarah Geegan A large university setting like the University of Kentucky can often present difficulties in facilitating one-on-one interaction between international students and local students; however this exchange is very important. It allows international students to enhance their cultural experiences and English proficiency, and it provides domestic students with global perspectives. The University of Kentucky Center for English as a Second Language Department (CESL) works to facilitate these interactions, most recently through a joint-viewing of the first presidential debate. CESL, in collaboration with the UK Department of Political Science and the UK Honors Program, arranged for the ESL students and
10/25/2011
By Erin Holaday Ziegler
The University of Kentucky is one of America's first universities to receive students from the southwest Asian state of Oman in a five-year scholarship agreement with the nation's Ministry of Higher Education. UK welcomed 50 undergraduate students to campus last week.
Most Omani students will be registering for American engineering, computer science and business courses in January 2012, after an intensive English language program (IELP) at their respective university, but UK has the ability to enroll students now, due to its English as a Second Language Program's (ESL)'s mid-fall admit date.
"Our Center for English as a Second Language has increasingly become an integral part of the academic program at UK, as we seek to provide academic advising even before the students
6/10/2011
For more information, please see Summer 2011 and Fall 2011 Semi-Intentive section.
