For students lucky enough to participate in the five College- sponsored immersion trips this Spring Break, warm weather was not always part of the itinerary, but that didn’t stop the students from enjoying their trips.
Several classes left campus for their immersion experiences. Prof. Greg Redding’s German Language and Culture class went to Germany; Profs. David Timmerman and Timothy Lake’s African American Rhetoric and Expressive Culture class went to New York, D.C., and Atlanta; Prof. Eric Wetzel’s Invertebrate Biology course went to Belize; Prof. J.D. Phillips’s Math Senior Seminar course went to
Prague, Czech Republic; Profs. Doug Calisch and Greg Huebner took a group of art majors to New York; Profs. Stephen Dyson and Peter Mikek took their classes on the economics and politics of the European Union to Brussels and Frankfurt, Germany; and Career Services sponsored a marketing immersion program in Indiana and an externship program in D.C. It was a spring break that sent Wallies all around the world. “In Brussels, one can turn a corner and immediately hear five different languages being spoken among street vendors, youth, couples, and beggars,” Ben Gonzalez ’07 wrote on the EU trip’s blog. Students on the trip were able to see a wide variety of perspectives on life in the EU.
“Talking to the average European citizen, their disapproval of the Union is extraordinary,” Clay Koehler ’08 wrote.
Students on the African American Rhetoric and Expressive Culture trip had a diverse range of experiences as well. From listening to the Black Panthers on the streets of Harlem to an outreach ministry dedicated to serving disadvantaged youth in D.C. to see the church Martin Luther King Jr. preached in and meeting one of his former co-workers in Atlanta, the group’s trip was a whirlwind of activity. The group often found amazing experiences in unexpected places, though, such as a trip to the home of MXI Assistant Director Amina McIntyre. McIntyre’s mother is a Methodist minister and had visited the class last month in Crawfordsville.
“The McIntyre home is full of warmth and appreciation for the human spirit in all of its intricacies and differences: a theme present throughout this journey,” Dustin Foster ’09 wrote on the class’s blog. “I can say, that on one warm winter evening in the living room of near strangers, I felt loved, understood, and welcome.” The trip to Germany was fast-faced as well. The group visited four different cities in the week trip.
“Never before have I spent an entire week with such little sleep and enjoyed every single minute of my time,” Matt Vest ’08 wrote.
“Whether wandering through the marketplaces, touring the Beethoven house, or traveling through the Deutsches Bundesrepublik Museum, we had plenty of opportunities to experience first-hand some of the lessons that no textbook can fully impart,” Michael Vick ’10 wrote. The New York art trip proved an invaluable experience for its participants as well.
“I am still amazed to have witnessed first-hand some of the greatest art work in the world that I’ve studied in class,” Daniel Sutton ’08 wrote. “Sometimes I just found myself smiling as I walked through the galleries.” Of course, the group took full advantage of “the city that never sleeps,” as did the Expressive Culture students in New York and elsewhere, the German students in Cologne, and the Political Science and Economics students in Brussels.