The Fresno City College campus will become even more diverse for the next couple of weeks.

Fourteen exchange students from Denmark came to Fresno on Friday, April 9 to attend FCC until May 5.

This is the fourth year of FCC’s partnership program with Mercantec School of Business and Technology in Viborg, Denmark. Automotive, construction, electronics, food services and business students come every spring to take classes related to their majors, improve English skills, sightsee and learn about American culture.

“Mercantec picks top first or second year students in their fields and asks them if they would like to be a part of the exchange program,” said Denmark program coordinator and English instructor Rebecca Benas. “After the students agree, they have to choose more advanced and faster paced curriculum. They usually take higher level English class and more challenging major courses. In order to keep the spot in the program, students have to keep up good grades and behavior.”

While in Fresno, students live with host families, go to classes weekdays and travel around California on weekends. According to the program, students will visit Universal Studios and Yosemite, go to the batting cages, go white water rafting and shop at the outlet malls. They will also team up in the volleyball and soccer tournaments against Students Activities and Tutorial Center.

“Our experience here has been really fun so far,” said Mercantec student Bjorn Danielsan. “The people in our classes are very nice and I love the weather in California. Also, in Denmark we start learning the theoretical material in classes first but here they start with practice right away so it has been a nice change of pace.”

Students do not receive any academic credit for taking classes at FCC but the information they learn and the skills they develop here help them to do better at school when they go back home.  Besides writing formal essays for English class, one of the biggest goals of the program was to connect Dane students to the FCC students so they would help them learn the language more casually through the program called Language Partner.

“This is the first year we are doing Language Partner,” said Rebecca Benas. “It’s just a fun and easy way to learn English. We play board vocabulary games like Apples to Apples so students learn the new words easily and outside the classroom. It’s not a stressful class, there are no assignments. It’s just an opportunity to socialize and share cultures through games and discussions.”

Anybody from FCC can be a part of the program and everybody can benefit from it. In addition to letting students improve vocabulary, meet new friends, teach American culture, learn about Denmark and enjoy free snacks, the Language Partner provides students with nice bonuses.

“Every participant receives a 25 percent off coupon to the bookstore by the end of the program,” said Benas. “Students can also get volunteer hours papers signed upon approval and some of the instructors offer extra credit for participation. We also invite language partners to come on some of the road trips with us if they would like.”

The Language Partner takes place every Thursday until May 3 in room SO-110 at 1-2:30 p.m. and welcomes anybody who is interested.

Meanwhile, State Center Community College District is working on expanding the partnership program with Mercantec.

“We are in the planning stages of sending groups to Denmark too,” said Rebecca Benas. “An SCCCD representative will go there this late summer or early fall to plan the program that we will be holding in Denmark.”