International College of Seville
www.ics-seville.org
THE ICS INTENSIVE SPANISH LANGUAGE AND CULTURE SUMMER PROGRAM
For those students who wish to study in Spain for a shorter term than the usual semester-abroad the ICS offers an intensive Spanish language and culture program every Summer. The ICS Intensive Program is one month in duration, mostly coinciding with the month of June. Like the regular semester program, the intensive academic Summer program provides students with an opportunity to experience and understand Spanish society and its institutions through direct exposure to Spain's history, art and contemporary society. The program provides an excellent introduction for students planning to work in fields requiring a thorough knowledge of Spanish language and culture.
The ICS Intensive Summer program offers Spanish language at three levels (Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced) in addition to Spanish Culture and Society (in Spanish and English). All courses meet two hours daily, Monday through Friday. Students taking Beginning and Intermediate Spanish complete their language requirements by taking four hours of Spanish Monday through Friday.
Each week, one Culture and Society class session is given on-site at a place of historic relevance. With these exhaustive visits students are able to see and experience, first-hand, the subject matter studied. On-site classes are given at the following locations: The Archeological Museum of Seville; The ancient Roman city of Itálica; The Royal Palace or Alcázar, the Cathedral, and the Jewish Quarters.
During the Summer program ICS students are taken on three distinct trips throughout Andalucía, complete with air-conditioned motorcoach and English-speaking guide. The organized group trips are to the city of Córdoba; The Monastery of La Rábida & Matalascañas beach; and Jerez de la Frontera & Valdelagrana beach. Like the cultural visits to points of interest within the city, the organized summer trips are included in student tuition fees.
A one-day Orientation session is conducted at the ICS at the beginning of the Summer program. The Orientation introduces the student to the country, the culture, and the academic program while also providing practical information about daily living in Seville. Students are administered a language proficiency exam in order to determine their level of Spanish. Only those students enrolled in Elementary Spanish are excused from the exam.SUMMER 2009. CCIS PROGRAM.
- Students arrive: May 29
- Orientation: May 30
- First day of classes: June 1
- Midterm exams: July 17
- Final exams: June 30
- Program ends: June 30
Courses
| 09:00 - 11:00 | Elementary Spanish (José Carlos Jaenes) |
Room A |
| Intermediate Spanish (Luis Recio) | Room B | |
| Advanced Comp. & Conv. I (Laura Fernández) | Room 3 | |
| 11:30 - 13:30 | Culture & Society of Spain (Susana Jákfalvi) | Room 3 |
| Cultura y sociedad en España (Juan Carlos Vargas) | Room A |
City Cultural Trips
| Archeological Museum | June 5 * |
| Roman City of Itálica | June 12 * |
| Alcázar | June 18 * |
| Cathedral | June 25 * |
* Culture & Society of Spain / Cultura y sociedad classes held on site.
Field Trips
| Córdoba | June 6 |
| La Rábida & Matalascañas | June 13 |
| Jerez & Valdelagrana | June 26 ** |
** No classes held at ICS.
ADMINISTRATION
| Juan Durá | B.A. M.A. Ph.D. President. |
| Ignacio Martínez | B.A. M.A. Ph.D. Academic Director |
| Lisa Dolan | B.A. Ph.D. Candidate. Director of External Services |
| Gina de los Santos | B.A. Housing |
| Marisa González | Student Affairs |
| Lindsay Vick | B.A. Student Affairs. |
| Javier Durá | Librarian. |
FACULTY
| Laura Fernández | M.A. University of Calgary |
| José Carlos Jaenes | Ph.D. University of Seville |
| Susana Jákfalvi | Ph.D. Syracuse University |
| Luis Recio | Ph.D. Antonio de Nebrija University |
| Juan Carlos Vargas | M.A. University of Seville |
SUMMER FIELDTRIPS
Each SUMMER, ICS students have the opportunity to participate in three distinct and fascinating excursions throughout Andalucía. These organized trips are to: Córdoba, Jerez de la Frontera / Valdelagrana beach, and the Monastery of La Rábida / Matalascañas beach. All visits are given in English.
Córdoba
Córdoba is a town of considerable charm, known widely for its beautifully flowered courtyards, its narrow cobblestoned streets, its secluded niches and tiny workshops where silversmiths create fine jewelery and, of course, for its impressive history which once exemplified harmony among cultures. For centuries, Christians, Jews, and Muslims lived in peaceful coexistence. But Córdoba is most known throughout the world for its magnificent decorative architecture, as seen in the great Mosque.
Situated at an hour and a half north of Seville today Córdoba is a minor provincial capital, but it was once the largest city of Roman Spain, and for three centuries formed the heart of the western Islamic empire, the great medieval caliphate of the Moors. The heyday of the Córdoba caliphate came in the 10th Century. While parts of Europe languished in the Dark Ages, Córdoba became a center of advanced learning in sciences, medicine, philosophy and poetry. Together with Baghdad and Constantinople, it was considered one of the three greatest cities in the world. In this city, where Seneca studied, there developed a stream of illustrious thinkers among them Averroes, the Arabian scholar, and Maimónides, the Jewish philosopher.
In Córdoba, ICS students are taken on tour of the famous Mezquita, or Mosque, begun in the year 785 and extended through the 10th Century. It is the third largest in the world and is considered unparalleled for the beauty of its architecture and the vastness of its dimensions as well as the sumptuousness of its decoration. It is also one of the greatest historical landmarks of Spain.
After the Mosque, students walk through the heart of the old city, the former Jewish quarters, with its labyrinth of winding streets, passing whitewashed houses and flowered patios to the Ancient Jewish Synagogue, one of the three ancient synagogues still in existence in Spain. This small Mudéjar-style synagogue, built in 1315, was one of 26 that once stood in the city. Fortunately, one can still appreciate segments of Hebraic inscriptions on the walls. The upper gallery where women were seated, and the niche where the Torah was kept are still intact.
To complete the guided visit to medieval Córdoba, ICS students are taken to see the Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos, or Christian palace-fortress. The Alcázar, constructed in 1328 on the site of a former caliphal fortress which was itself built on Roman foundations, was used for a number of years as the residence of the Catholic monarchs during their campaign to conquer Granada from the Moors. It later became the seat of the Inquisition. After touring the Alcázar and its splendid gardens, with its fountains, pools and wealth of flowers and shrubbery students are given the rest of the day free to explore this uniquely sublime city.Jerez and Valdelagrana Beach
The city of Jerez- founded by the Greeks under the name of Xera- was shipping highly prized wine to distant Rome in clay amphoras two millennia ago. The Muslims introduced distillation for medicinal purposes and under their 500-year domination the wine industry prospered. It was after the Reconquista in the 14th Century, however, that the industry we know today truly began. At this time, British merchants established firms, or bodegas, in Jerez and neighboring towns and created the "Solera" system to produce a distinctive style of wine.
Encircled by vines planted in the chalky albariza soil, Jerez de la Frontera is the home and heartland of sherry. It is, in fact, one of the three towns, along with Sanlúcar de Barrameda and Puerto Santa María, that make up the world famous "Sherry Triangle". Within this triangle, a combination of soil, climate and grape variety come together to create the only authentic sherry in the world.
ICS students are taken on tour of one of the most internationally acclaimed bodegas in the city, González Byass. Like many of the other wine firms in Jerez, González Byass was founded by British Catholic refugees, barred from careers at home. Here, while walking through cellars that combine the optimum conditions of temperature and ventilation in which wine can mature students are given a detailed explanation of the complete wine-making process. After a brief historical film is shown, a wine-sampling will be given.
Once the tour has come to an end students are taken by motorcoach to nearby Valdelagrana beach, a lovely little resort town approached through sherry vineyards. It has an excellent beach and many fine restaurants, cafés and ice cream parlors. Students are given free time for the rest of the day.The Monastery of La Rábida and Matalascañas Beach
The Monastery of La Rábida played a vital part in the discovery of America. It was on these peaceful grounds of the Franciscan order when Christopher Columbus first came to meet the renowned friar-astronomer, Fray Antonio de Marchena, in 1485. Fray Marchena supported Columbus's plan to sail to reach the Indies even after it was first rejected by the Catholic monarchs. In 1491, with the help of Juan Pérez, another friar of the monastery and former confessor to Queen Isabel, he managed to obtain for Columbus another audience with the monarchs in which this time he won royal patronage for the journey. Through the friars' persuasion, Columbus convinced the Pinzón brothers, sea merchants of great prestige in the nearby town of Palos de la Frontera, to take part in the expedition, and they in turn gained the support of local mariners to form the crew. Thus, on August 3 of 1492 Christopher Columbus set forth as captain of one of the three caravels on what would be the first of his four voyages to America.
ICS students are taken on tour of the historic and beautiful Monastery of La Rábida, constructed in 1412 soon after the fall of Moorish Huelva. The central Mudéjar-style courtyard, with its octogonal brick pillars and impressive wall paintings of the galleries, leads to the church where the former sacristy was decorated in 1930 with frescos depicting scenes from the life of Christopher Columbus. In the adjacent cloister can be found the 13th Century alabaster Virgin before which Christopher Columbus prayed and in which are located the remains of Captain Martín Alonso Pinzón. Next to the cloister can be found the room where Columbus and Fray Marchena held important discussions on the projected voyage, and the refectory where they ate. In the upper story of the patio, added in the 18th Century, students will view paintings, miniature models of the three caravels, and Castillian furniture from the era of Columbus.
After free time to walk about the monastery's gardens, planted in honor of the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America, the ICS motorcoach will take the group to Palos de la Frontera, where students have the unique opportunity to visit an exact, life-size replica of the three caravels. Walking about the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa María students never fail to marvel over the incredibly limited space in which the sailors lived during their journey to unknown and distant lands.
After a time on board the caravels, the ICS motorcoach takes road to nearby Matalascañas, Andalucía's largest beach resort west of the Guadalquivir river. Matalascañas is a beach town completely self-contained. To one side there are dunes and pine wood forests stretching as far as the town of Mazagón, and to the other the wilderness of Doñana, Europe's greatest wetlands. Students have free time until departure at this beautiful yet fun resort town, replete with shops, restaurants and a bustling, souvenir-packed boardwalk.
All fieldtrips include:
- Roundtrip transportation on first class motorcoaches.
- Entrance fees to the different monuments.
- Guided tours in English of these monuments.
Attendance on the trips is non-transferable to a second party. Meals are not included.
Summer Housing
For the Summer program all students live with families* located in the near vicinity of the ICS. For the month's duration, students receive three meals a day, seven days a week.
The ICS is responsible for making rent payment to the housemothers. However, those students who stay on past the end of the program are responsible for making payment of the extra day/s directly to the housemother. Students in this situation must inform both the housemother and the ICS at least one week in advance.
*Please consult section on Housing for a full description of living with a Spanish family.