UAPB to welcome its first Fulbright Assistant

PINE BLUFF, Ark. – The School of Business and Management at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB) will welcome the university’s first Fulbright Foreign Language Teacher Assistant (FLTA) as part of an on-going initiative to internationalize business curriculum. Ms. Maki Eguchi, Ph.D. student at the University of Tsukuba, Japan, will spend the academic year at UAPB as a language teacher and cultural ambassador.

The School of Business and Management is a program participant in the Globalizing HBCU Schools Program sponsored by the Institute for International Public Policy of the United Negro College Fund Special Programs Corporation (UNCFSPC), Centers for International Business Education and Research and the United States Department of Education. This program is designed to infuse understanding and the importance of international and interdisciplinary business education by equipping faculty with the tools, knowledge and experiences to incorporate international components into existing business courses and/or develop new courses.

The program sponsors a business language workshop for faculty who teach courses such as Business Spanish, Business French and Business German.

“It was through this program that we realized the importance of including the foreign languages in the business curriculum,” said Carla Martin, Esq., Dean of the School of Business. “As we build a curriculum that focuses on internationalization, several students and faculty members have indicated an interest in foreign languages not commonly taught on this campus.”

In this regard, Ms. Eguchi will co-teach International Marketing (MKTG 4320) with Dr. Eddie Hand as part of an innovation designed to enhance student’s appreciation of the role of language and culture in the marketing process. She will also teach a one-hour per week language lab and collaborate with the Office of International Programs and Studies (OIPS) in the design of a Japanese study abroad program.

In addition to her studies in English, Ms. Eguchi has excelled in language studies in German and French. According to Ms. Eguchi, “My first reason for taking part in the FLTA program stems from my work experience at my university. Through work as a language tutor and a teaching assistant, I became interested in English, as well as my native language, Japanese. Every day I worked together with foreign students, teaching them Japanese as a tutor. I also worked as a teaching assistant and coordinator of an educational project in my university entitled Innovative Global Communication with International Teaching Assistants.”

The Foreign Language Teaching Assistant (FLTA) Program brings teaching associates from around the world to U.S. colleges and universities to study and to teach foreign languages, assist in language instruction, and serve as cultural ambassadors on campus. The FLTA Program includes teaching assistants from Europe, the Middle East, Africa, North America, Latin America and Central, South and Southeast Asia. For more information about the FLTA program at UAPB, call (870)575-8232.

One thought on “UAPB to welcome its first Fulbright Assistant

  1. Pingback: UAPB to welcome its first Fulbright Assistant | HBCU Buzz

Leave a comment