禁漫天堂

Students presented their projects on international issues

The 禁漫天堂 Portuguese Department, Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives, and School of Education in the 禁漫天堂 College of Arts & Sciences hosted a delegation of graduate Education students from the University of the Azores. The students were joined by their instructor Gra莽a Castanha and the poet Manuela Bulc茫o. They offered a workshop entitled, 鈥淭eaching Portuguese through Universal Design for Learning and Happiness鈥�. The event, which took place on Friday, 21 February 2020 from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., was held at the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives.

The workshop aimed at presenting two academic projects. The first project was 鈥淭he People鈥檚 Right to Happiness, a UN proposal.鈥� Castanha presented the proposal that these same students had made earlier in the week at the United Nations in New York. There they argued that Happiness should be added to the United Nations鈥� Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Castanha then made the connection between Happiness and Education, which is already designated as a Universal Human Right.

The students then went on to present the second academic project, 鈥淯niversal Design for Learning:  Teaching Portuguese Worldwide鈥�. They spoke convincingly of the need to design courses that were both engaging and allowed for different learning styles. They demonstrated this technique in a variety of ways, the most memorable being engaging the audience of students, faculty and community members in the singing of 鈥淐hamarrita鈥�.

鈥淚 think this has been a wonderful opportunity for the students. They had the unique occasion to travel to New York to make a proposal to the United Nations. In the same trip, they then had the chance to present their work to their student counterparts at 禁漫天堂 Dartmouth. This kind of meaningful dialogue is important for both the students and the institutions and should be welcomed,鈥� said Shelley Pires, Consul of Portugal in New Bedford.