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For more than 150 Lafayette students the upcoming winter break will be unforgettable. They’ll be studying in Thailand/Myanmar, Kenya/Tanzania, Germany/Czech Republic, the Caribbean, Ireland, and France.
This is the 27th year in which Lafayette is offering distinctive concentrated, three-week courses during interim session, taught by professors who are well-suited by virtue of their experience and expertise. In many of the courses, students meet prominent business people, cultural figures, government officials, and academics, learning directly from these experts about the subject matter they are studying. In May, students will head for Paris and the Western United States to take similar faculty-led, concentrated courses following exams. (See course descriptions below.)
Many participants in both January and May will experience these courses without payment of program costs as a benefit of being a Marquis Scholar.
Lafayette offers a variety of faculty-led and other study abroad programs.
A close relationship between faculty leader and students is the hallmark of Lafayette’s faculty-led semesters abroad in Athens, Greece; Brussels, Belgium; Madrid, Spain; Bremen, Germany; Dijon, France; and Kumasi, Ghana.
Students take classes from Lafayette faculty as well as faculty of host institutions. They also take part in field trips planned and led by Lafayette faculty with the help of local organizers. The cost is the same as a semester on campus and includes airfare. Grades and financial aid are fully transferable for the extent of each semester abroad.
The Lafayette faculty members help students with problems they may encounter with local transportation, living with their host family, or other aspects of adjustment to a new culture and living environment. Students can travel on their own and integrate themselves into the new culture.
Lafayette students are currently studying in Athens, led by Deborah Byrd, associate professor of English, and in Kumasi, led by Rexford A. Ahene, professor of economics and business and co-chair of Africana studies.
This spring Rado Pribic, Oliver Edwin Williams Professor of Languages and chair of international affairs and Russian & East European studies, will lead a new semester-long program based at International University Bremen.
A shorter faculty-led course, “Ethical & Social Issues in Health Care in the U.K. and the U.S.,” was first offered last spring, taught by Stephen Lammers, Helen H.P. Manson Professor of the English Bible, and Alan Childs, professor of psychology. Each student served in an intensive, individual health-care internship in London during the six-week program.
In addition to the faculty-led programs, Lafayette has affiliations with many colleges and other organizations that allow students to study abroad in many countries. Grades and financial aid are fully transferable. Students are currently studying in affiiliated programs in Australia, Austria, England, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia, Scotland, and Spain. Last spring Lafayette students participated in semester-long programs in some of these countries and Costa Rica, France, Germany, and Japan.
Lafayette’s academically rigorous interim-session courses were featured in a New York Times story (“Gains Seen in Short Study-Abroad Trips,” Nov. 17, 2003) that also appeared on Page 1 of TheInternational Herald Tribune. The story, which includes a photo of Lafayette students and faculty at the Great Wall of China, quotes Provost June Schlueter on the popularity of Lafayette’s three-week courses and spotlights the experiences of David Norton ’04 and Elizabeth Ponder ’04.
College officials say that some students cannot take a semester away from their course work, particularly in science and engineering. Other students face financial problems. Still others do not want to walk away from family, friends or commitments like sports.
“They just like the whole campus experience, and are reluctant to leave,” said June Schlueter, provost at Lafayette College in Easton, Pa., who has taught a course on London theater, an intensive three-week session in January, about 15 times over 20 years. . . .
[S]tudents who have attended short courses say they work well. At Lafayette College, students scramble to sign up for the courses on the London theater or to visit Kenya and Tanzania.
David Norton, a senior at Lafayette who is majoring in international affairs, attended a month-long course in China in January 2002. He expected different things from that course than from the semester he spent in Florence last spring. Mr. Norton said by e-mail that the China trip was satisfying because he might not have visited the country otherwise and he saw a radically different culture. But he said his Florence trip was too short, even though it was a full semester, because he was trying to assimilate the culture.
Elizabeth Ponder, a Lafayette senior studying biochemistry and cultural biomedicine, also took the China course. She said the short study-abroad courses let her explore new areas of the world without falling behind in her majors. She plans to study in Russia and Latvia in January and to travel abroad in the summer.
Ms. Ponder said by e-mail that she did not feel shortchanged by her brief China trip because she was “able to absorb a huge amount of culture” and meet people. She and her classmates ate dinner with the families of students at a kindergarten they visited and toured Beijing with local students studying English.
“One complaint I have heard from my friends who have spent a semester abroad is that the majority of their new friends are American students studying abroad like them, rather than students native to the countries they visit,” Ms. Ponder said. “Our trip, while short, provided us with a unique opportunity to interact with students who were not from the U.S.”
The 2004 Kaplan/Newsweek How to Get Into College guide also features Lafayette’s study-abroad program. An article in the “Trends” section includes a photograph of Lafayette students at the ancient Inca city of Machu Picchu in Peru and leads off with the experiences of Michael DeLisi ’03.
“As a student at Lafayette College in Easton, Pa., Michael DeLisi didn’t participate in just one study-abroad program – he enrolled in four. DeLisi, who graduated from Lafayette in May 2003,studied Chinese calligraphy in Beijing during his freshman year, European architecture in Paris and Brugge the next year, the Italian Renaissance in Florence in 2002 and the fall of communism in Berlin and Prague in the months before graduation. ‘This is the best time of my life to travel, so I know I might as well take advantage of it,’ says DeLisi, who majored in electrical and computer engineering and now works as a programmer in Boston.”
Courses being offered in January 2005:
Thailand and Myanmar: The Challenges of Development
Taught by Neil A. Englehart, assistant professor of government and law, and David C. Stifel, assistant professor of economics and business
The Southeast Asian countries of Thailand and Myanmar (formerly Burma) have developed very differently, despite the fact that they share a similar climate, natural resource endowment, and religion. We seek to understand these differences through firsthand experience in both countries. We will spend approximately two weeks in Thailand and one week in Myanmar. Issues discussed will include imperialism, political development, economic planning and grassroots capacity building.
The Open Wall and the New Europe of the 21st Century: Berlin, Prague, and Munich
Taught by Rado Pribic, Oliver Edwin Williams Professor of Languages, and Robert I. Weiner, Thomas Roy and Lura Forrest Jones Professor of History
With the opening of the Berlin Wall, Germany and the rest of Europe are facing rapid political, social, and economic changes. This course reexamines the events leading to two world wars, the division of Europe, and the new European reality in the 21st century. Through visits to historical sites, meetings with people in East and West, readings, and class discussions, students obtain an understanding of the events and ideologies that made history and today’s new reality in Europe.
Modern Sub-Saharan Africa: Kenya and Tanzania
Taught by Rexford A. Ahene, professor of economics and business, and Kofi Asare Opoku, professor of religion
This course combines a first-hand look at the socio-cultural environment and natural resources that shape development and change in Kenya and Tanzania. Particular attention is devoted to the rich indigenous history and traditions that provide social and economic purpose for art, the foundations for democratic institutions, support for dignity, industriousness, and accommodation for development. This course examines the degree to which Kenya and Tanzania have achieved their development objectives by managing cultural acculturation, natural resources, and modernization.
West Indian Identities
Taught by John T. McCartney, professor of government and law, and Samuel Hay, visiting professor of government and law
This course introduces students to the key political and economic issues facing the nations of the Caribbean. Attention will be given to the relationship between West Indian cultures and West Indian literatures. Offered in the Bahamas.
The Land and Landscape of Ireland
Taught by Jerome F. Heavey, professor of economics and business, and Joseph J. Martin, associate professor emeritus of English
This course examines the many ways the land of Ireland has figured in Irish history and the Irish imagination, examining the economic, political, symbolic and religious roles of Irish land. Using written sources culled from Irish history, ethnography, politics, and literature, along with some guest lectures, and an extensive field program in the Boyne Valley, Galway, Donegal, Dublin, and other sites, the instructors will take students on an exploration of the shifting Irish landscape.
French Commerce and Culture
Taught by Rose Marie L. Bukics, Thomas Roy and Lura Forrest Jones Professor of Economics and Business, and Roxanne E. Lalande, professor of foreign languages and literatures
An introduction to the business environment of France and its role in the ever changing economic marketplace of the European Community. The course examines French culture and its impact on the manufacturing, production, and marketing process. Students are immersed simultaneously in the cultural and business aspects of the French marketplace while contrasting it to that of the American business environment. The course will study the business and cultural links embedded in the wine, tourism, and transportation industries of France.
Coral Reefs and Caves: The Geology of the Bahamas
Taught by Dru Germanoski, Dr. Ervin R. VanArtsdalen ’35 Professor of Geology and Environmental Geosciences, and Kathryn A. Schubel, assistant professor of geology and environmental geosciences
This course will present an opportunity to study physical, chemical, and biological processes that operate to produce carbonate platforms (e.g., tides, waves, and the growth of corals), geomorphic processes that operate to further shape carbonate platforms (e.g., ground-water flow, cave development, and soil development), and the environmental impacts of human activities on carbonate platforms. Field studies are based on San Salvador Island and Andros Islands.
Two courses will be offered in May, following final exams:
A Moveable Feast: American Writers in Paris
Taught by Bryan R. Washington, associate professor of English, and David R. Johnson, associate provost and professor of English
American writers have always gone to Paris, but the question is why. The answer lies both in the city itself and in the literature it has inspired. Twentieth-century writers like Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, James Baldwin, and Gore Vidal are among the literary expatriates we’ll consider as we explore their Paris. Their Paris, vividly imagined and also literally experienced, still exists–if you know where to look for it and what to read.
Geology from A (Arches) to Z (Zion): The Geology of National Parks in the Western United States
Taught by Lawrence L. Malinconico, associate professor of geology and environmental geosciences, and Kathryn A. Schubel, assistant professor of geology and environmental geosciences
The National Park System in the Western United States provides a unique opportunity for us to examine how geological processes shape the Earth. In the course, we will travel to different National Parks in Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, California, and Utah to develop an understanding of basic geological processes. In essence, we will study many of the topics covered in an intro-geology course, but do so with an experiential field experience instead of the traditional semester lecture-lab model. For example, in the canyon lands (Grand Canyon, Bryce and Zion) we will be able to examine processes of sedimentation, igneous intrusion and erosion. We can also look at the record of life on Earth by examining the fossil record preserved in the rocks. In California an understanding of process related to geological hazards (earthquakes, landslides and volcanism) can be developed by field studies of the San Andreas Fault, mass-wasting in Pt. Reyes National Seashore and volcanism at Lassen volcano.
Lafayette students and faculty at the Great Wall of China.