Hialeah Campus

Professor Ileana Porges-West steps beyond the traditional reading, writing, and oral skill development in her classes. Some of the innovative ways Prof. Porges-West encourages learning include: Creating the Bee Club for EAP students to experience authentic English and learn about bees. Professors from other disciplines are invited to speak to the students that come to the meetings about the chemical and medicinal properties of honey. Students make honey soap in the lab and practice their marketing skills designing Bee Club Boutique flyers for bee and honey related products to be sold at sales events. Bee Club members also participate in field trips to study bees and plants. The Bee Club activities are a retention and transition strategy to introduce EAP students to STEM college courses and participate in field trips and service learning activities with regular college students.

Organizing “Bee Day” an interdisciplinary event with presentations from MDC Hialeah faculty across multiple disciplines and students. Level 6 EAP students introduced the presenters. We also had beekeepers, bee product entrepreneurs and faculty participating in presentations and a musical number. This was a faculty from diff that incorporated bee

Designing projects that require EAP students to participate in events with other college students. This spring, Professor Porges-West’s students participated in a panel on food insecurity as part of the 3rd Student Interdisciplinary Symposium. This fall, Professor Porges-West’s students showcased their research projects on the connection between diet and diseases affecting Hispanics as part of the Hispanic Heritage Month. This project teaches EAP students medical vocabulary, prepares them for college public speaking classes, and encourages them to present at the Interdisciplinary Symposium in March, and to enter STEM fields.