Davidson County Community College

THOMASVILLE — Davidson County Community College welcomes seven international students and scholars from four different countries for the 2018-2019 academic year.

Four international students traveled to Davidson County from Tunisia. The students are a part of the Tunisia Community College Scholarship Program (TCCSP) sponsored through the U.S. Department of State’s Thomas Jefferson Scholarship Program.

“We are all here to rise up in this world and make it a better world,” TCCCSP student Dhia Salaoui said. “I didn’t expect to be surrounded by individuals from different cultures: I met Asian people, Hispanic people, African people, Americans, English. It’s been so great to meet all these people in a small town like this.”

The TCCSP builds the workforce and leadership skills of a diverse group of young technical institute students from across Tunisia. Through U.S.-based training, practical professional experience, community engagement and service learning, Tunisian youth gain the skills needed to contribute to economic and social development in Tunisia.

DCCC will also host a German student through the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange (CBYX) program. The German Bundestag and U.S. Congress funds this fellowship program that annually provides 75 American and 75 German young professionals the opportunity to spend one year in each other’s country, studying and interning.

Two Fulbright scholars will represent their homes of Egypt and Ireland. The two Foreign Language Teaching Assistants (FLTA) will be teaching language courses in Arabic and Irish.

“I wanted to share not only my language, but the ideals and culture of Ireland,” Irish Fulbright FLTA Rita Donnellan said. “There are so many people in this state with Irish ancestry and they don’t even know about their heritage. Bringing awareness of that in the DCCC community would be fantastic.”

This will be DCCC’s seventh year hosting Fulbright FLTAs.

“I’m excited to share what I love about my country and home while experiencing how other people live in different places,” Donnellan said.

The Irish and Arabic language continuing education courses can be found at DavidsonCCC.edu/ce under the personal enrichment icon. Courses are open to the public.