The Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy recently announced they received a $45,000 grant that supports students who speak English as a second language, which are referred to as E2 students.
The program is called Promoting Engagement Excellence and Retention for E2 students. PEER-E2 will provide several areas of support for these students including culture and language events, peer mentoring, weekly language labs and more.
The grant gives the college the resources to focus on recruiting more “linguistically diverse” students into the program as well. Currently, the university estimates around 10% of the student body speaks English as a second language. This grant shows that the Gatton College of Pharmacy not only wants to encourage more cultural diversity in their student body, but also cares about the success of their students who speak English as a second language once they are in the program.
This push for diversity is a positive step for the college and its students. All students have the potential to benefit from this grant. Students whose second language is English may have an easier time learning and transitioning both academically and socially during their time at Gatton because of this grant. This program may also encourage more international students to apply to the school because of the effort to promote inclusivity and student success.
Students whose first language is English will also benefit because they will learn aspects of other languages and cultures that they may not have otherwise had the opportunity to learn. Cultural and linguistic diversity is so important, not only for academic success, but for personal success in understanding the world.
Going through college, it can be so easy to slip into the mentality of just wanting to take the required classes in order to get a degree and do nothing more, but it is important to remember there is a bigger picture and a bigger world outside that needs to be understood. It is never a bad thing to learn about someone else’s culture or learn a part of another language. It only helps one to understand fellow humans and the bigger picture.
