ICARE - International Center for Agribusiness Research and Education

ATC Faculty Development Workshop with Georgian colleagues

November 2011

Another group of faculty from the Akaki Tsereteli State University and Shota Rustaveli State University, Republic of Georgia had their experience exchange visit /faculty development workshop with the ATC on November 10-11, 2011. This was the fifth such workshop participated by the Georgian colleagues this year vs. the three in the previous years attended by faculty groups from respectively the Georgian State Agricultural University Tbilisi, Shota Rustaveli State University Batumi and Akaki Tsereteli State University Kutaisi.

As always, the workshop was very useful for the Georgian colleagues; they said they were happy to use this chance to learn some of the teaching methods and curriculum development principles as well as career development and research activities at the ATC. They also mentioned that the ATC is not only a place for their students to study and for themselves to come for faculty development but also a place where they renovate and develop thousands of years old friendship between the two brotherly nations.

After the Georgian colleagues received their certificates of completion, there was an opportunity to exchange ideas between the Georgian and Armenian colleagues, with the Georgian students as well as exchange students from Portugal and Latvia participating. Oksana Khizanishvili’s teacher at Akaki Tsereteli University was proud to hear about her performance here at the ATC. Then he asked what Armenian colleagues thought about her excellent guitar playing skills. But this was a surprise to everybody. “I don’t have time for playing guitar; study takes all my time here,” Oksana said.

Faculty and Student Training/Exchange Workshops

July 2011

A faculty development workshop was organized in Yerevan on July 20-21, 2011. We, the seven professors from Shota Rustaveli State University in Batumi, Georgia were visiting the ATC for the faculty development and experience exchange. Prior to coming to Yerevan, we had the opinions of our colleagues from our university about the importance of this traditional event that is organized by ICARE and GCAD (Georgian Center for Agribusiness Development). It is usually organized three times a year for faculty groups from three Georgian Universities: Georgian State Agricultural University Tbilisi, Shota Rustaveli State University Batumi, and Akaki Tsereteli State University Kutaisi.

This workshop was the forth one this year and the second for our university. The workshop proved to be effective for us in different aspects: teaching techniques, curriculum and syllabus development, administration, research activities, and many others, including topics of our specific fields of interest. We attended as many classes as possible during the two days to observe the teaching process and student-faculty relationships.

We are currently facing major changes under the reform process in the field of education in Georgia. This workshop was very helpful for us in terms of initiating modern and fresh approaches that might be handy in our further work at SRSU. In addition, through these workshops we are continuously expanding our relationships and cooperation with our Armenian colleagues; thus not only the Georgian-Armenian student and alumni network is growing but also that of the faculty. This means recovery of old traditional friendship and, importantly, creation of a new level of cooperation and combining our resources to meet the common challenges in education, research, and career development for our students. We all understand that cooperation between ICARE and GCAD, between the ATC and SRSU is an important part and one of the cornerstones in mutually beneficial future national level projects and in overall regional cooperation.

We therefore thank and acknowledge the initiative and organizational efforts by our colleagues at ICARE, ATC, and GCAD for their commitment to the ideals of modern, western-style education. We also thank USDA FAS and its Caucasus Agricultural Development Initiative (CADI) for the financial support.

Kind Regards,

Participants of the Faculty Development Workshop from

Shota Rustaveli State University, Batumi, Georgia

July 2010

Gocha Shainidze, Director of Georgian Center for Agribusiness Development and an ATC graduate, accompanied the third group of Georgian faculty for an exchange/training visit to the ATC and ICARE. This group was from the Georgian State University of Subtropical Agriculture. GSUSA has become the third Georgian university cooperating with the ATC. From the eight Georgian students having entered the ATC summer preparatory course, two are from Kutaisi. This was preceded by English training course for potential ATC students at GSUSA visited and praised by the U.S. Ambassador to Georgia.

As with the previous two faculty groups from the GSAU and the Shota Rusteveli University, the group from Kutaisi were pleased to be introduced to the teaching policies, student and faculty evaluation, teaching methods, career development and other issues addressed during the tree-day training. The program coincided with the visit of the ATC Founding Director Dan Dunn to Armenia, and he handed over the certificates of completion to the Georgian faculty. “When we were establishing the Agribusiness Teaching Center in 2000, the U.S. Embassy knew that Georgia was a good neighbor to Armenia and this was a good program to have student and faculty interchange,” Dr. Dunn said, “Thus from the very beginning we were able to involve Georgians in the program. Since then this interchange has developed to the ATC family which is a strong Armenian - Georgian family. Over the years they have been extremely good friends who are now building extremely good relationship between the countries.”

April 2010

A group of faculty from the Georgian State Agricultural University (GSAU) led by Gocha Shainidze, Director of Georgian Center for Agribusiness Development (GCAD), were in the ATC for an experience exchange and training course during a series of workshops on April 12-14. Training in curriculum and syllabi development, student and faculty evaluation, admission requirements, and other aspects of teaching policies was provided by the ICARE/ATC Director Vardan Urutyan. Teaching methods and class assessment techniques were presented by the ICARE Deputy Director Susanna Mezhlumyan. Director of ICARE’s Career Placement and Counseling Center Lusine Mnatsakanyan provided information on the activities of CPCC and touched upon some career development topics.

The Georgian colleagues attended different classes during the three days and followed how the ATC instructors apply in practice the adopted methods and principles in the classroom. According to the Georgian colleagues, the course was very productive and informative. “These three days were an important experience for us,” said Nino Samchkuashvili, “We are pleased with GCAD’s faculty development initiative in addition to its regular student training activities.”

Fred Johnston, the Director of Caucasus Agricultural Development Initiative (CADI) thanked Dr. Urutyan and Mr. Shainidze for the important initiative and successful completion of the course and handed over certificates of completion to the participating seven GSAU faculty members. Gocha Shainidze, an ATC graduate, has activated notably the work of GCAD since September 2009 when he took the position of the Director. In particular, within the “Strengthening Higher Agribusiness Education in the Republic of Georgia” project, GCAD is now implementing a six-month intensive English courses for over 100 students in three universities in The Georgian State Agricultural University in Tbilisi, the Georgian State University of Subtropical Agriculture in Kutaisi and the Shota Rustaveli State University in Batumi. “Most of these students are potential ATC applicants of this year,” Gocha said.

August 2010

A group of students from the Georgian State Agrarian University Tbilisi, Shota Rustaveli State University Batumi, and the Georgian State University of Subtropical Agriculture Kutaisi had a cognitive 3-day visit to the ATC on August 3. They were mainly junior students of the above universities who are planning to enter the ATC in the coming year. The group was led by Gocha Shainidze, Director of the Georgian Center for Agribusiness Development (GCAD) who has much activated the Center’s activities.