Cross-cultural study -- which includes international travel for more than 70 percent of EMU students -- is exciting, fun, scary and challenging all at once. Many students experience for the first time what it means to be in a minority -- whether that be because of skin color, language spoken or faith expression. Current events once seen only on television, come alive, with faces and names, smells and experiences associated with them. Students visit in local homes, taste exotic foods, worship in new styles and settings, tour historical sites, hear speakers, build friendships with local people, and more.

Personal and group reflection times allow students to begin the work of sorting out what the experience means for them. For many, it is a time of re-thinking priorities and goals. Personal growth, academic study, physical challenge, intense inter-personal relationships, an ever-expanding world view... all of these are a part of cross-cultural study.

To understand and value one's own culture alongside of the culture of another is important in EMU's Global Village Curriculum. The world in which we live, rapidly changing and increasingly smaller, calls for people to learn the truths and commonalities that lie beyond the boundaries that cultures tend to place on knowing.