Faculty and students traveled to Vietnam, Ecuador, Hawaii and Wintergreen Resort.
By Melissa Fowler '09
While many Virginia Wesleyan College students lounge at home during the three-week period between the fall and spring semesters, others choose to take a winter session course.
While traditional winter session courses are offered, this year students were given the opportunity to travel to four different parts of the world. All of these classes, with the exception of the Vietnam trip, had up to a week of class time at Virginia Wesleyan. After class, students traveled to their destination for a week-long trip, then came back and finished their course in the classroom.
Sophomore Lan Tran gives out supplies at Leper Colony.
Dr. Steven Emmanuel, Batten Professor of Philosophy, took five Virginia Wesleyan students and one student from The College of William & Mary to Vietnam for his class, Service-Learning in a Global Context. The objective of the class was to learn about the humanitarian efforts that are happening in the country since the war time, and to think about the efforts to try and bring peace between countries.
"They [the students] had a two-fold experience: learning about it, but also doing it at the same time," Emmanuel said.
The students spent three weeks in Vietnam and had to do extensive writing in the form of reflections on what they were doing and experienced.
"They had to reflect and then reflect on the way their reflections were changing the way they were engaging people," Emmanuel said.
In Vietnam, students were able to connect with SUNY Brockport's Vietnam abroad program. The students followed SUNY students on service projects, and documented and participated in the service projects.
Through government agencies the students were able to go on home visits, visit group homes with people who were affected by Agent Orange, and to a Leper Colony. One observation by sophomore, Lan Tran was that "they kind of live life normally."
One event encountered during their stay in Vietnam was a home visit with a sick little boy. When the group entered his house they could hear that the little boy was hardly breathing; it turned out that he had pneumonia. The family would not take him to the hospital because they were not familiar with the hospital and it was not their home. The family was finally persuaded to take the little boy to the hospital where he was in critical care for the next few days.
"Had we not gone that day, there's no doubt in my mind that he would be dead today," Emmanuel said.
A human connection is one thing that Emmanuel was hoping to achieve for himself as well as his students. "One aim for me was to try to move beyond service work as charity or even as humanitarianism," he said. He noted that some students came home having made friendships with Vietnamese, which he thought was great.
Virginia Wesleyan students in Cuenca, Ecuador.
Another winter session class that traveled abroad was Icons, Myths, and Rituals of the Hispanic Civilization, taught by Associate Professor of Spanish Dr. Diana Risk. Three students from Virginia Wesleyan went on a one-week trip to Ecuador where the main purpose was to experience the indigenous culture.
"The culture in Ecuador is pretty much authentic," Risk said.
The students went to Ecuador with the idea of a proposal. Then, they wrote an in-depth final research paper on the topic.
"It was amazing to visit this country and see how different everyone acts, speaks, dresses, everything," said sophomore Brooke Russell. "They really believe and live by their culture. They don't forget where they came from."
One lesson students learned was how diverse a country can be. One unique aspect of Ecuador is that it is made up of several different cultures. In the north there is a region of African descent. There is also a colony of Germans. Not all cultures are integrated either. The Incan population does not like for their daughters to marry into other cultures. There is also a high European tourist population.
"It was a very well rounded experience in history, culture and medicine," Risk said.
Back in the United States, although still far away from the College, Batten Professor of Recreation and Leisure Studies Dr. Doug Kennedy traveled with 17 students to Maui, Hawaii for the class, Maui to Moguls: Adventure Travel's Impact on Culture and the Environment. The group spent one day at the Wintergreen Resort in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, and then spent one week on the island Maui.
The purpose of the trip was to investigate the impact of adventure travel on culture and environment in Maui and Virginia. It was the students' job to figure out how activities like skiing, snorkeling, windsurfing and hiking affect the environment, culture and economy.
Students were expected to write expectation papers and reflection papers, as well as complete a final exam.
Students work with a Hawaiian family on their taro farm.
The trip served as an opportunity for students to experience Hawaii as it used to be. The class got to spend the day working with a Hawaiian family on their taro farm. At the end of the day they hiked up a mountain and washed off under a 400 foot water fall. Learning the culture and history of the island was a major part of their experience.
Kennedy believes that students learned, "as travelers they have to be sensitive to their impact on other cultures, to appreciate other cultures, and to be good stewards of the land."
A little closer to home, Associate Professor of Recreation/Leisure Services John Braley took eight students in his class, Resort Management and Operations: A Case Study, to Virginia's Wintergreen Resort. At the resort, students got to explore the management techniques and styles of a four-season resort.
Students skied or snowboarded in the morning and also had the option of taking lessons if they wanted to. In the early afternoon Braley would lecture and later the class would conduct two manager interviews and observations. One day the class got to work in a department with youth programming.
"I enjoyed the whole experience in learning how the whole operation worked," said junior Dustin Skees.
Three students snowboard down a slope at Wintergreen.
Students were expected to complete homework assignments prior to going to Wintergreen and also to present internet resort research findings. When the trip was complete students had to turn in a final paper, discussing their findings.
Braley said he not only learned about resort management, but also about his students.
"I enjoyed it, the best thing for me was learning about the kids outside the classroom," he said. "I will do it again."
Teachers and students agree that there is no better way to learn than through first-hand experiences, which is what these trips offered.
"When we are out in the field it is a chance to apply knowledge learned in the classroom," said Kennedy. "When you can see it and touch it, it becomes more understandable."
Perhaps Skees puts it best, "Sometimes there's things that teachers can't teach that other people can." First-hand experience cannot be taught by any teacher or any text book – that is what makes these trips so great.
When all was said and done these winter session trips provided students and teachers a chance to get away and learn about each other, themselves, and other people and cultures.
"It is important to remember that we're all not the same and should take interest in other cultures, and learn something different than what we are used to in America," Russell said.
Winter session is an opportunity for students to take full credit courses in a three week period. This is accomplished by having class for three hours every Monday through Friday. Most of these classes fulfill general studies requirements and are typically three credit courses or physical education courses.
02.13.08