The Asian University of Science and Technology, which is
conveniently located on the Eastern Seaboard at 89 Moo12 Highway 331
Banglamung, Chonburi has now entered into its sixth year of successful
full-time and part-time programs.
Teaching
assistants pose at the entrance to the academic building.
Asian UST was very pleased to announce that the first of
this year’s two English Summer Camp programs commenced on March 14. The
two, four-week camps are held between the middle of March and the middle of
May each year. Over the last five years the English Summer Camps have gained
enormous popularity and the enrollment figures have risen tremendously.
Commencing with forty students on each of the first two
camps six years ago, in 2004 Asian UST expects to have the largest number of
students ever, totaling three hundred, with one hundred and fifty students
enrolling on each camp.
Initially the summer camps were the brainchild of the
president of the Asian University, Dr Viphandh Roengpithya. Dr Vip, as he is
popularly known, conceived of the summer camps as an ideal way for students
from all over Thailand, from the age of 14 upwards, to study English in an
environment that is safe, attractive, friendly, and conducive to learning.
It was felt, moreover, that as the students lived and worked together, their
experience would be made more valuable through a balanced focus on team
building and individual development.
The English Summer Camps provide an intensive academic
program in English ranging from beginner through to advanced conversational
based classes, which have a strong emphasis on increasing and improving
vocabulary and grammar.
In addition, students have the opportunity to brush up
their mathematics, information technology (IT) and prepare for such public
examinations as the IELTS and TOEFL. The standard week of a summer camp
includes twenty-two hours of English language study, three hours of IT and
two hours of mathematics, thus making it the most intensive English language
summer camp program in Thailand.
The academic program is taught by twelve well-qualified
and experienced native English-speaking teachers from countries as far
afield as England, Canada, America Australia and New Zealand.
In addition, regular lecturers in the university’s
Faculty of Liberal Arts supplement the work of the summer camp teachers by
providing classes that cover English, drama, art and the humanities. Then,
in the evenings and on weekends, there are further activities that include
cooking, arts and crafts, and Latin and Jazz dancing as well as day
excursions to various local attractions.
The camps also include weekend sports competitions like
the ‘Mini - Olympics’, team building, and basketball and badminton
competitions between the campers and the full time university students.
For the after-class and weekend activities the summer
camps employ twelve teacher assistants who in general are Thai nationals,
although over the years there have been university students from Austria and
England to enhance the international flavor. This year, in fact, the summer
camps have two female Austrian students to further the scope of the
programs.
Their main responsibilities are to assist the campers in
many different areas such as in the dormitory, during meals and on day
excursions. In addition they ensure that there is open communication between
the campers and their families, check that all the campers are well behaved,
and take care of any minor disciplinary problems that may arise.
The future looks very bright for the university as a whole with continued
growth in all areas in current and projected programs. For furt her
information: (038) 754-450 www.asianust.ac.th
The
children are raring to go as they alight from the bus.
PP
Gary Worthington, event organizer and Alex Mavro, incumbent Bangkok South
president.
Dr.
Penguin had plenty of tricks up his sleeve to entertain the kids.
The
Fountain of Life “crew” raises the mainsail aboard the Seraph.
Young
‘Shell’ takes the wheel under the watchful eye of Tim Jones.