Wonderful News From Thailand

Global Campuses Foundation is happy to announce the recent marriage of Kachakorn Thaveesri (Ka), GCF Southeast Asia Regional Coordinator, and Yutthaphon Damrongchuensakun (Non), Director of Global Campus Chiang Mai, on February 24, 2012. Sheryl and James Tewksbury, GCF Directors, attended and were honored to be included in the very traditional northern Thai wedding ceremony, which took place at the Thaveesri family home. February 24th is believed to be the most auspicious day of this year, and therefore brings couples good luck in their married life. Ka and Non have been the key administrators of the Global Campuses network in Thailand for 10 years. In 2008, they visited the Vermont campuses for a two month teaching and learning exchange. The Global Campuses family extends its heartfelt congratulations to Ka and Non for a happy and long life together. Please enjoy the photos of their wedding and explanations about the traditional northern Thai ceremony rituals.

These three photos show the tradition of the groom's family waiting outside of the ceremony grounds until 9:39 a.m. to begin the processional. The number 9 is believed to be very lucky. As we enter the sala where the ceremony will take place, rose petals are thrown on our feet. The original tradition is to wash the feet.

The tradition is that the groom's parents present gifts to the bride's parents to show their gratitude for them giving their daughter to their son. The gifts are called a dowry and were gold rings and necklace, a large bundle of Thai money, and some very special certificates. Ka and Non wore northern Thai style clothing.

The couple give each other wedding rings and then the parents and friends come up and bless the couple by winding white string around their wrists and saying special wishes. Ka and Non then went to their parents and Jim and Sherry and thanked them with gifts. These are fresh jasmine buds and roses in a traditional arrangement.

After the ceremony at Ka's family home, the guests posed with the couple and then went to lunch at a lovely restaurant on the Ping river. Then Ka and Non went to the government office to officially register their marriage.

Designing the Future Universal Design Curriculum: Global Campus Complex

Imagine a state of the art universal design Global Campus Complex in Chiang Mai Thailand. That’s what 11 advanced students from the Faculty of Architecture at Chiang Mai University, CMU, had been doing in their recent academic semster. Taking their imaginations further, each student actually designed their envisionment of such a complex. On December 21, 2011, they presented for final review their design concepts at a culminating event honoring their collaboration with Global Campus Chiang Mai participants regarding disability awareness and universal design. Certificates and prizes were awarded.

CMU Vice president, Dr. Amnat, and Architecture Faculty, Dr. Vittul formally commented about the educational process as a great success with CMU students participating in disability simulation workshops, interviewing persons who experience disability to become aware of the culture of disability, and learning about serving their “customer” by addressing their needs and desires through universal design concepts.

GCF sponsored a design contest as a part of this educational process challenging the students to create their model of a fully accessible campus complex for the future home of Global Campuses to serve as the hub for further expansion and development in the S.E. Asia region. The quality of the students’ work was impressive with design concepts attending to criteria such as environmentally green, accessible, blending comtemporary and traditional Lanna (northern) architectural features, and efficiency. Everyone involved expressed that they are eager to take this cutting edge educational experience to the next level of exploration in future academic semesters.

Global Campus Nan - Campus Development and Disability Day Events

Kachakorn and Geng, Global Campus Chiang Mai participants, accompanied Sheryl and Jim Tewksbury recently on a 5 day visit to Global Campus Nan and its satellite campuses in the remote mountains bordering Laos. They had a great time participating in campus development discussions as they related to current government policies and mandatory funding support of persons with disabilities interwoven with fun activities involving passing large paper balls around a circle until the music stopped and then having to perform whatever was written on a piece of paper within the ball. Laughter became the predominant experience as everyone tried to avoid having to perform, yet also being eager to do so. Powder, lipstick and water played a major role when one was caught with the ball as the music stopped. Everyone really enjoyed seeing the farangs (foreigners) join in when their faces were powdered. A great community of campus participants!!!

A second all day event, orchestrated by Global Campus Nan and the Municipality Office included presentations of awards and speeches focused on recognizing the importance of their commitment to the Nan citizens who experience disability. This was a very auspicious event that reflects the importance of education and changes in social attitudes. The Global Campus Nan participants were very pleased and proud to be honored. A truly transformative day for many.

GC Chiang Mai Receives Visitors

Our friends Jim and Sheryl Tewksbury, a thousand blessings upon them, founded an organization called Global Campuses Foundation, with campuses in Vermont and Thailand.
We visited the Chiangmai campus with them.

Jim and Sherry

The Global Campus participants are people with various disabilities, who teach one another skills and attitudes that will help them become more confident, self-reliant and effective in the world. The participants determine their own curriculum, based on what they want to learn, and what they have to share. They teach one another skills including English, sewing, music, art, Thai language, craft making, small business management, auto repair, how to be a radio DJ, etc.
More importantly, they strive to raise self awareness and self confidence, focusing on disability rights, accessibility issues and advocacy, and women’s rights.
The curriculum is offered at the GCF campus facility as well as in city venues and outlying rural areas.

Ka and Non, who manage the Chiangmai campus, made us feel very welcome.

Ka and Non

Ka and Geng, the campus photographer made tea for us to enjoy while we watched a PowerPoint presentation Non had put together about their program.

Non displays the Queen’s Trophy, a much esteemed award presented to Global Campus Chiangmai.

Khun Yai is working on starting up a campus in her small rural village.

Khun Yai

Yai’s scooter has been cleverly redesigned to accommodate her wheelchair.

- Kate and Grady, USA

We have our feet planted firmly in mid-air.

On my final afternoon in Chiang Mai (and Thailand’s National Disability Day), I was lucky enough to spend a few sunny hours with Jim & Sheryl Tewksbury, residents of Randolph, Vermont and founders of Global Campuses Foundation. GCF - which runs programs in (you guessed it!) Vermont and Thailand - has made incredible progress in empowering and advocating for persons with differing abilities. They operate based on the philosophy that those they serve should not only participate, but also play an active role as leaders and creators within the organization. In this way, small campus communities form and flourish where they are needed most. The campuses provide a space for both personal and professional growth, where individuals wear many different hats as teachers, learners, and stewards of the program. In Thailand, a country where social discrimination and physical inaccessibility still block many paths for those living with disabilities, GCF’s work has been particularly powerful. A great divide still separates those with and without disabilities, as one recent article in Chiang Mai’s City Life magazine explains:The article goes on to comment:

Though this may lead to people disliking and avoiding disabled persons, it more often creates a charitable, often described as “merciful” attitude towards people with disabilities. [however] an inclusive society can only be achieved when people with disabilities are allowed to define their needs and the ways in which they should be addressed - becoming agents of their own lives rather than ‘objects’ to be taken care of.

Jim & Sheryl have dedicated many years to spreading this message as far and wide as they can. Both former professors, they’ve spent most of their lives afoot, always hopping from one school or home to the next - and currently divide their time between Randolph and Chiang Mai, over 8,000 miles apart. With a laugh that could have been interpreted as self-effacing or simply amused by its own absurdity, Jim told me: “we like to say that we have our feet planted firmly in mid-air.” I laughed along, realizing I had begun to understand exactly what that feels like. Whether or not i’ll follow in Jim & Sheryl’s cross-continental footsteps remains to be seen. For now, i’m happy to have drifted into their airspace, even just for an afternoon. Thanks for everything guys!

- Alex, USA

GCF Site Visit to Thailand Campuses and Beyond, March-May 2011

It is always amazing to me how each site visit with the foundation’s colleagues in Thailand is surrounded by impressive, inspiring and creatively meaningful accomplishments. Examples and highlights of those accomplishments continue to demonstrate the valuable outcomes of lifelong learning and the transformative power of education.

Global Campus Chiangmai, GCC, continues to be the hub of the foundation’s efforts in S.E. Asia. With two other well-established campuses, GC San Sai and GC Nan, and two newly developed Global Campuses, GC Mae Tang and GC Sangkampang, there is much growth to report. Also, Global Campus Nan now supports four smaller satellite campuses in the rural northern mountains near the Laos border.

GCF and GC Chiangmai have strengthened their Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Chiang Mai University, CMU, with a variety of activities. (1) GCF is sponsoring a contest with the Faculty of Architecture third year students to submit building and site plans for a Global Campus Complex that is being planned. This complex will be 100% Universal Design, fully accessible and environmentally green and will become the educational center for GCF’s efforts in S.E. Asia. (2) GC Chiangmai continues to work with the student club at CMU that participates with university students who experience disabilities through natural support efforts and disability awareness seminars.

Additionally, I had the pleasure of being invited by the Vice President of CMU to be a keynote speaker and a panelist for a conference of University administrators from the Chiang mai area. My presentation, “Disability Culture: Changes in Social Attitudes and the Value of Lifelong Learning for All”, introduced the conference focus of exploring disability issues and disabilities studies in higher education.

The efforts of GCF are being recognized in the region, and I was invited to travel to Chengdu, China to share about Global Campuses with colleagues at Chengdu University. It was a wonderful introductory site visit, and as an outcome we are responding to their request to pilot a Global Campus in the Chengdu area.

So, as we at GCF look to the future work for the foundation, we are inspired by the potential for further growth to advance the foundation’s mission in South East Asia and around the world. These are exciting times!

Jim Tewksbury, GCF Director of Programs

Thailand Campuses Update

Thai Site Visit


Greetings from Chiang Mai, Thailand! It is a great honor to be visiting Global Campus Southeast Asia and some of the participants from Global Campus Chiang Mai, Global Campus San Sai and Global Campus Nan.

English Class was my first introduction to the campus. The campus meets in a house in Chiang Mai and participants sit in a circle with notebooks and looking at a white board. Around the campus I can see framed Certificates, campus flags and photographs of the campus' achievements.. The group meets weekly to practice English and is led by one of the Global Campus participants, who is fluent in English. We began class by reading some of the letters sent to Thailand by Global Campus Randolph. The class was working on their responses to these letters and asked for my help in proofreading and editing. Global Campus Randolph can look forward to letters coming soon –the letters will include pictures of GC Chiang Mai participants.

After working on the letters, I asked the group to share a bit about their interests – in English, of course! We practiced saying the phrase, "I am interested in…" and then went over some vocabulary words as they came up in discussion. The group has a diverse set of interests including farming, reading, bicycling, making jewelry, and cooking. After class, the group orders lunch together – take out from a food stall down the road. We sat around an outside table eating foods such as Pad Thai – fried noodles with egg and chili, Kao Klog Ka Pre – rice with shrimp paste, Hao Tom Ba – fish soup, or Pat See You – fried noodles with soy sauce. The noodle dishes are served with packets of chili and sugar to add more flavor to the dishes. Everything is delicious!

Many of the Global Campus Chiang Mai and San Sai participants do not come to the campus every week. In some cases, it is difficult for people to get out of their house or find transportation to the campus. To make sure all participants feel included, the group has set up a home-visit program. We spent a full day visiting participants in their homes and encouraging them to get out of the house and into the community. Ka, GCF's Regional Director in Southeast Asia, spoke with the participants about how to advocate for themselves. Many were worried that they would be a burden to their families if they went into the community, as they would have to ask others for help. Ka brought with her an informational video about how to improve accessibility in the home and the community.

On Sundays, the city of Chiang Mai is famous for its Night Market. Non, the Director of Global Campus Chiang Mai, took me to the market to walk around and explore Thai culture. The market has a section devoted specifically for people with disabilities to sell handicrafts and many of the campus participants have set up booths. Many of the GC Chiang Mai participants spend a lot of time at a place called, The House of Potentiality, which is a cooperative craft facility for people with disabilities to use. They have learned to make jewelry, metal work, leatherwork and recently soap. A few of the participants the crafts at the night market to make some extra money. I watched Khun Oo, one of the GC Chiang Mai participants make jewelry at the market. Using copper wire and beads she curls the wire around pliers to make little loops and then adds beads. Her handiwork is beautiful and very unique.

The campus has many events planned while I'm here in Thailand. It is fun to meet the campus participants and learn about Thai culture and disability culture. Every day I learn something new! Best wishes to the GCF community and I look forward to telling more stories when I return.

Amy Miller
Academic Coordinator
Global Campuses Foundation

GC Randolph and GC Chiang Mai Initiate Pen Pal Experience!

In the Fall of 2010, Global Campus Randolph faculty Rena Haevers presented a class on Pen Pals. As part of her class she asked everyone to write a letter to Global Campus Chiang Mai. GC Randolph participants just received their first response from half-way around the world featuring letters and photographs from participants at GC Chiang Mai. They were thrilled to receive the letters and learn more about the campus participants in Thailand. Everyone wrote back immediately, sharing more about themselves and the huge winter snowstorm we just received! What a wonderful new relationship sparked by Rena's class, congratulations!

Thailand Missive #2

Hello to Global Campuses in Vermont,

I heard you’ve had quite the snowy few weeks! I hope you are able to enjoy the winter weather. It’s winter in Thailand as well and it’s about 80 degrees. At night it falls to about 65 degrees. All the locals here are very cold – they wear coats and scarves at night and complain about the weather. They are very interested to see photos of snow and think that they would not like winter in Vermont. One of the participants asked questions about wheelchairs in the snow – how do they move?

Last Sunday, Global Campuses Foundation had a meeting at a local hot spring. GCF has been working with the hot spring park for about a year in order to make it more accessible to people with disabilities. Before GCF began work with the park, people in wheelchairs could not use the facilities and it was difficult to walk around the park if you were not in good shape. Now, after many meetings and some construction, the park is accessible to wheelchairs. They are working on building guardrails on the hot springs so that more people will be able to get in and out of the hot springs.

The hot springs have become a big tourist attraction for people living in Chiang Mai. The park has long rivers of hot spring water that people dip their feet into. There are also sections where people can take baths or swim. A popular thing to do at the park is boil eggs in the hot springs. One section of the water is 100 degrees Celsius – perfect for boiling eggs. Outside the park, we bought straw baskets filled with speckled bird eggs and chicken eggs. Inside the park, we boiled the eggs in the baskets by putting them in the boiling hot spring water. We ate the eggs with soy sauce – mmmm!

Yesterday, I visited with Global Campus San Sai. The campus has about thirty campus participants and they met at the town building in San Sai. Volunteers from the village come to the campus to help with setting up the classroom and serving lunch. Lunch has been served at every campus meeting I’ve attended – I’m not sure if we could do that in Vermont! The campus does not meet weekly like we do in VT. But they want to get together more often and have lots of ideas for things they could do. While I was there, they were talking about a trip to the hot springs mentioned above. I told the group about the campuses in VT and all that you’ve accomplished in your Fall Terms.

I wish you my best and will see you soon.

Signing off from Thailand!

Amy Miller, GCF Academic Coordinator

Thailand Missive #1

Hello to Global Campuses in Vermont!

I am very excited to be in Thailand – I have been here for about a week now. I was greeted at the airport by Ka, GCF’s Regional Director in Southeast Asia, Non, Director of GC Chiang Mai, and Phakob, Director Global Campus San Sai. To welcome me, they put a necklace of jasmine flowers around my neck and greeted me with the traditional Sa Wa Dee Ka , or in Non’s case, Sa Wa Dee Krap, because he is male. I know many of you are familiar with that phrase. Jasmine flowers are often used as offerings in Buddhist temples and to pay respect. They smell amazing!

I have been busy getting to know the campuses here. Like in Vermont, the campus meets as a group for classes and meetings. They also go on many field trips and visit Thai historical sites in order to advocate for people with disabilities. Walking around Thailand, one might notice that many buildings do not have ramps for wheel chairs or accessible ways to enter the building. Part of Global Campuses Foundation’s mission in Thailand is to promote accessibility and equal opportunity for people with disabilities.

Global Campus participants in Thailand have learned to become great advocates for themselves. I have met three women in wheel chairs at the campus who all drive motorcycles. They have attached a sidecar to the motorcycle and wired the handlebars so that the bike can be driven from the sidecar. The sidecar has a ramp so the wheel chair can get into the car. The bike can take a passenger as well – the passenger sits on the motorcycle but does not drive. Khun Oo, one of these women, has opened a very successful jewelry business at one of Chiang Mai’s many markets. She makes necklaces and bracelets out of copper and entwines beads with the metal, looping the wire around the beads to make beautiful designs.

I am enjoying visiting many of Chiang Mai’s markets. The markets sell all types of goods, ranging from fresh fruits and vegetables, meats, spices, desserts, clothes, shoes, accessories, household supplies – you name it! It is neat to see all these things sold outside, not in supermarkets like we have in the USA.

I hope you are enjoying the beginning of your Winter Interim studies. In keeping with your theme, I’ve included some pictures of myself in some mysterious places… You all know I’m in Thailand, but can you guess where I am or what I’m doing in these photos?

I wish you all the best and look forward to catching up with you soon!

Amy Miller, GCF Academic Coordinator

Vermont Academic Coordinator Visits Thai Campuses!

Greetings from Chiang Mai, Thailand! It is a great honor to be visiting Global Campus Southeast Asia and some of the participants from Global Campus Chiang Mai, Global Campus San Sai and Global Campus Nan.

English Class was my first introduction to the campus. The campus meets in a house in Chiang Mai and participants sit in a circle with notebooks and looking at a white board. Around the campus I can see framed Certificates, campus flags and photographs of the campus’ achievements.. The group meets weekly to practice English and is led by one of the Global Campus participants, who is fluent in English. We began class by reading some of the letters sent to Thailand by Global Campus Randolph. The class was working on their responses to these letters and asked for my help in proofreading and editing. Global Campus Randolph can look forward to letters coming soon –the letters will include pictures of GC Chiang Mai participants.

After working on the letters, I asked the group to share a bit about their interests – in English, of course! We practiced saying the phrase, “I am interested in…” and then went over some vocabulary words as they came up in discussion. The group has a diverse set of interests including farming, reading, bicycling, making jewelry, and cooking. After class, the group orders lunch together – take out from a food stall down the road. We sat around an outside table eating foods such as Pad Thai – fried noodles with egg and chili, Kao Klog Ka Pre – rice with shrimp paste, Hao Tom Ba – fish soup, or Pat See You – fried noodles with soy sauce. The noodle dishes are served with packets of chili and sugar to add more flavor to the dishes. Everything is delicious!

Many of the Global Campus Chiang Mai and San Sai participants do not come to the campus every week. In some cases, it is difficult for people to get out of their house or find transportation to the campus. To make sure all participants feel included, the group has set up a home-visit program. We spent a full day visiting participants in their homes and encouraging them to get out of the house and into the community. Ka, GCF’s Regional Director in Southeast Asia, spoke with the participants about how to advocate for themselves. Many were worried that they would be a burden to their families if they went into the community, as they would have to ask others for help. Ka brought with her an informational video about how to improve accessibility in the home and the community.

On Sundays, the city of Chiang Mai is famous for its Night Market. Non, the Director of Global Campus Chiang Mai, took me to the market to walk around and explore Thai culture. The market has a section devoted specifically for people with disabilities to sell handicrafts and many of the campus participants have set up booths. Many of the GC Chiang Mai participants spend a lot of time at a place called, The House of Potentiality, which is a cooperative craft facility for people with disabilities to use. They have learned to make jewelry, metal work, leatherwork and recently soap. A few of the participants the crafts at the night market to make some extra money. I watched Khun Oo, one of the GC Chiang Mai participants make jewelry at the market. Using copper wire and beads she curls the wire around pliers to make little loops and then adds beads. Her handiwork is beautiful and very unique.

The campus has many events planned while I’m here in Thailand. It is fun to meet the campus participants and learn about Thai culture and disability culture. Every day I learn something new! Best wishes to the GCF community and I look forward to telling more stories when I return.

Amy Miller, Academic Coordinator, Global Campuses Foundation

GC Chiang Mai Campus Update

Global Campus Chiang Mai recently completed its 2010 Academic Fall term with great success. They enjoyed their English class taught by a fellow participant. Since there is a mixture of levels of experience with English, in the next term they will have a basic class and a conversational class. Another class that was appreciated by all was the Movie class in which they viewed a variety of types of movies and then analyzed the movie. A few of the movie selections depicted the experience of disability such as Elephant Man and Emmanuel’s Gift. Upon reflection, the student participants said the benefits of the movie class are that it helps them to practice thinking and learning how to analyze, to practice noticing things, and to learn about other cultures. GCC participants look forward to their next academic term starting November 15th, and in the future they plan to have a class on how to be a good facilitator, an art class to practice creativity, and sign language classes. Similar to their colleagues in Vermont, they are also spending time with the 2010 curriculum theme, “Our Stories” which is contributing to a great cross cultural sharing.

GCF Thailand Site Visit 2010

The annual GCF site visit to Chiang Mai, Thailand took place from January to March 2010. As always the time is filled with many exciting educational activities sponsored by the Global Campus participants there. For example, the Director of Global Campus Chiang Mai, Yutthaphon Damrongchuensakun, lead a dynamic project for which he had written and received a grant of 190,000 baht ($6,000) from Thai organizations. The project focused on assessment of accessibility at major recreational and cultural venues in Chiang Mai province. The campus participants designed an educational approach in which different groups of 8-10 campus participants with varying abilities (across the spectrum of disabilities including aging) traveled to 9 sites and noted accessibility challenges. For many, this was their first opportunity to visit Thailand’s famous places such as the highest mountain, royal gardens, hot springs and temples, so the excitement was very high. After touring each site, they then immediately met in a prescheduled seminar to present to directors and staff members at each venue. The participants presented a historical perspective about societal attitudes and behaviors toward persons who experience disability to educate and raise awareness of their audience and then proceeded to address the specific accessibility issues at each venue. This proactive approach was very well received and appreciated by the directors and staff and lead to their affirmation to make changes in a timely manner. All agreed that not only will persons who experience disability benefit from updated accessibility, but every visitor, Thai and foreign, will also. A daylong culminating conference in March was held where all involved shared their findings and planned for future educational projects as a follow up. Yutthaphon has since reported that the sponsoring organizations reviewed his grant report and findings and identified the Global Campus Chiang Mai project as the best practices model. It is hoped they can apply the GCC Accessibility Model in other regions of Thailand and make a major difference.

Another outstanding project that Global Campus participants influenced was a Disability Short Film Festival and Awards Event. Students from various universities in the Northern region of Thailand competed in short film making about the issues related to experiencing disability. Kachakorn Thaveesri, GCF Regional Coordinator for Southeast Asia, served as a film judge and co-organizer of this impressive event. Chiang Mai University graduate and undergraduate students involved in a club, Friends Beyond Physical, were the major sponsors of this event. Global Campus participants served as panelists and assisted with the various tasks related to such a big event. The short films were aired for a week at a large public venue in Chiang Mai so that a large population would have the opportunity to view the films and raise their awareness. The culminating event was the award ceremony for the outstanding filmmakers.

During this site visit, GCF administrators and Global Campus Chiang Mai administrators fulfilled an important goal in securing a university-wide memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Chiang Mai University. Since 2006, GCF had formalized its long standing collegial relationship with this university in a MOU with the Faculty of Education; however this new agreement makes it possible for Global Campus participants to extend its ground breaking, influential work to more students and faculty in CMU’s 20 Faculties (Colleges). We look forward to sharing the impressive details of their educational activities in future newsletter articles and blog entries. Stay tuned!

Global Campus Chiang Mai Key Administrators Promoted

Global Campuses Foundation is pleased to announce that the two key administrators of Global Campus Chiang Mai, Kachakorn Thaveesri (Ka) and Yutthaphon Damrongchuensakun (Non), have advanced to new positions. 
Sheryl Tewksbury, Director of GCF stated that she and other GCF colleagues are impressed with the professional advancement of Ka and Non since they first started their roles at Global Campus Chiang Mai.  In a brief time period, they have not only administered many accomplishments of the campus, developed personally and professionally, but also have advanced the mission of GCF in Thailand markedly.  We congratulate them on their success.

Ka who served as the Campus Director of GCC since it started in 2002, will now take on the position of GCF Regional Director: S.E. Asia.  Her new responsibilities will be directed toward expansion of Global Campuses within Thailand as well as to other regions such as Viet Nam, Cambodia, and Burma.  Over the past 2 years, Ka has had the opportunity to train as a facilitator with a Japanese sponsored organization called the Asia-Pacific Development Center on Disability, APCD www.apcdproject.org.  In May, she was invited to become an APCD international facilitator.  As a facilitator, Ka leads Disability Equality Workshops at international conferences held in Bangkok.  In the future, Ka will travel to S. E. Asian countries on behalf of GCF and APCD. 

Non, has served since 2002 as the Campus Administrator of GCC.  In January 2009, he was the first Global Campus participant to receive a Bachelor’s degree.  Non majored in Public Administration at Sukhothai Thammathiraj University.  Non now moves into the position of Campus Director of GCC and will also work with the directors of Global Campus San Sai and Global Campus Nan sharing his expertise.

GCF Thailand site visit missive 1-20-09

The following missive continues Campus to Campus Connections activities between the campuses in Vermont USA and the Campuses in Chiang Mai Thailand. We hope that the reader enjoys these short updates and information to enhance their further understanding of the educational work on behalf of GCF. As we conduct this current site visit the successes and challenges experienced by all involved continue to demonstrate the value and importance of this work. Thank you for your interest and participation. JRT


Sawadee from “The Land of Smiles”,

Why the Land of Smiles?

Thailand is sometimes referred to as the land of smiles. We think it is because the Thai citizens are smiling all the time. Life is to be enjoyed it seems. We also think that because the climate is so nice and there is so much beauty as you look around it just makes you smile a lot. Today is January 20th and right now as we write we can look out the windows at beautiful green trees with many different blossoms. There are also large plants with flowers of many colors and they all produce a wonderful sweet smell in the air. As you hear this description I know how different it is from what you see and feel in the beautiful Vermont winter. The temperature range for today will be a low of 60 degrees Fahrenheit and a high of 85 degrees Fahrenheit. So we are sending you all warm thoughts from this warm place.


Global Campus Chiang Mai

This past week we had the privilege of opening an all day seminar conducted by Global Campus Chiang Mai. The group of participants represented the five recognized areas of disability issues visual, hearing, learning, physical and mental challenges. The curriculum topic was to gather their voices about how to improve the technology of communications such as phone service, computer access, and other forms of communication that are used by persons who have challenges that are sometimes a disability. After our opening presentation the participants asked us many questions about the Global Campuses in the USA and what services are available to support persons who experience disability. We enjoyed sharing about your campus activities, and all the participants requested that we hold another seminar for further conversations. So Campus to Campus Connections is growing here in Thailand.


Exciting experience for us!

Last night at about 8 pm there were five helicopters that flew right over our apartment. We are living on the 8th floor at the end of a soi( side street). They landed at the airport about two miles from where we live. Across the street from us is a new fancy hotel that just opened. We noticed that there were many police and military solders all over the place. Soon we understood why they were there. The Princess was arriving and we think staying at this new hotel. We watched from our balcony and soon she did arrive with her entourage. An entourage is the many friends and officials that travel with the Princess wherever she goes. There were about 25 police cars and another 25 fancy cars. We watched and soon her car was the first to pull up to the hotel. By now there was a crowd of onlookers and as she got out of the car we could see her. It was quite exciting for us to see a member of the royal family right across the street from were we are living. The Princess is here in Chiang Mai to hand out diplomas at Chiang Mai University on Thursday. So Last night we saw the Princess of Thailand and tonight we will watch the inauguration of Barack Obama. We are very proud to be American citizens and there is much excitement all over the world. Thank you for listening to our update to you all. Please feel free to ask us questions and know that we often think of you and your great campuses.


Sawadee from,
Jim & Sherry

GCF Thailand site visit missive 1-13-09

The following missive continues Campus to Campus Connections activities between the campuses in Vermont USA and the Campuses in Chiang Mai Thailand.  We hope that the reader enjoys these short updates and information to enhance their further understanding of the educational work on behalf of GCF.  As we conduct this current site visit the successes and challenges experienced by all involved continue to demonstrate the value and importance of this work. Thank you for your interest and participation. JRT


Sawadee Vermont Global Campus participants,

Greetings from halfway around the world. We are in Thailand-hurray! We hope all of you enjoyed the holiday season. Happy New Year 2009!


Congratulations on your travels:

We are happy to be sending you this travel update as we know all of you are beginning your Winter Interim Travel adventures. It is great to think that all of us are learning more about the world we live in. How exciting to know that all of the Vermont Global Campuses are traveling in many different countries at the same time. Please enjoy your adventures and have fun learning about the people and places where you travel.

Living in Chiang Mai:

As many of you know we love to travel here in Thailand. We are living at the base of the mountains of Doi Suthep. The weather is quite warm and everything is green here right now. As we look out our windows we see much activity on the roads with many motorbikes and cars whisking about. We use a small motorbike to get around but also enjoy walking the small side streets ( called sois). As we walk around we see families working in their yards and preparing their meals, many in outdoor kitchens. Children are off to school riding their bikes or riding in small taxi/trucks.

As we walk around many people greet us with a smile and they say Sawadee. Some ask us where we are from and when we say America they smile and are excited about our new President. Many want to practice English, so we stop and chat a bit. Even though this is a very modern city the old ways still continue so you get to see what it was like 50 years ago and you also get to see the modern changes like shopping malls, coffee shops, and American fast food restaurants. We like Thai food so we eat at the traditional places and enjoy the tastes very much.

News From Global Campus Chiang Mai:

Ka and Non send their greetings and best wishes to all of you. They are very well. Soon, Non will be attending his graduation ceremony in the big city of Bangkok. He completed his Bachelor’s degree and will receive his diploma directly from the Prince, who someday will become King. This is a great honor for Thai students. Non began his formal studies many years ago when his grandmother gave him some money to enroll in Open University. Over the years while at Global Campuses, he has studied hard and spent his money on his books and tuition. He is the first Global Campus participant to receive a Bachelor’s degree. We know you are all very happy for him and proud. We are very excited for him too. We will share more about the Global Campuses here in Thailand in future writings to you.

For now we will say goodbye. Please know that we are thinking of you and enjoy sharing with many people here about your campuses and what you are doing. Please also know if you have any questions about Thailand, about the campuses here or about our adventures and work, let us know and we will be happy to respond. We are looking forward to talking with you in the near future using the computer and Skype (we get to see you and you can see us).

Peace and love from Thailand,
Khun Sherry and Khun Jim