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20 WINES&VINES October 2018 Sanitary Stainless Welding Inc. is the exclusive North American distributor for the Marzola product line T wo Pacific Northwest uni- versities have developed creative offerings to pro- vide workers to staff win- eries and manage vineyards. Linfield College in McMinnville, Ore., continues to transform its wine studies program under the leader- ship of director Greg Jones, who joined the college last year from Ashland's Southern Oregon Univer- sity. In early September, Linfield an- nounced the launch of a five-year wine studies program in partnership with École Supérieure d'Agricultures (ESA) in Angers, France. The initia- tive establishes a track that students can follow from undergraduate to graduate studies, while gaining in- ternational work experience and connections along the way. "It gives the students an op- portunity that is more than a study abroad, it's really being able to have a full-blown degree-seeking experience abroad," said Greg Jones, director of the Grace and Ken Evenstad Center for Wine Education at Linfield. Jones said the partnership sprouted from his long-standing relationships with colleagues in Europe and dovetailed with plans ESA was developing for a European exchange program. It also builds on ESA's partner- ships with institutions in Chile, South Africa, Switzerland and England. "They'd been putting together this European exchange program and had finally started wanting to reach out to specific places that they thought would provide the type of student that would really benefit from this," Jones told Wines & Vines. "I just saw it as a natural way to offer a pathway for a student to do something that was unique that they wouldn't be able to do otherwise." The partnership will see stu- dents study three years at Lin- field, followed by two years at ESA. All classes are taught in English, but students are encour- aged to study the language of the country in which they will com- plete their internship. The program in Angers will give students a chance to study in either Spain or Hungary dur- ing the first semester and Portu- gal or Italy during the second semester. A semester in France follows, and the program con- cludes with a professional thesis project undertaken in one of the countries where students previ- ously studied or at one of ESA's partner institutions. Opportuni- ties also exist for internships during academic breaks during the final two years in Angers. Students who complete the program will receive a bachelor's degree in wine studies from Lin- field and an international vintage master's degree from ESA. Okanagan College in Pentic- ton, British Columbia, has also reached an agreement that's set to be finalized shortly. It could see students in its four-year bachelor of business administration pro- gram head to Angers in their fourth year, which would double as the first year of their ESA mas- ter's program, with either a vin- tage or food identity major. "One of the reasons we want to get our students into Europe is to get that historical perspective on the industry," said Jonathan Rouse, associate dean and direc- tor of Okanagan College's food, wine and tourism program. "It allows our students to work in a global environment." The partnerships with ESA could see the first Northwest stu- dents arrive in 2019. Three stu- dents from Linfield have expressed interest in the program, but Jones said just one will be eligible in 2019 once course equivalencies are established. — Peter Mitham International Partnerships for Wine Education WINE INDUSTRY NEWS