Study Abroad
The Eastern Mennonite University History Department is pleased to offer a six credit hour summer service-learning cross-cultural course in Vietnam, Thailand, and Hong Kong. This opportunity combines Asian cultural immersion, international development studies, Christian-Buddhist dialogue, considerations of post-war realities and transformation, and student-student relations through a newly launched curriculum – inter-cultural communicative competence (IC3). While travels last from 2 May to 1 June, students will also convene for six weekend half-day sessions during spring semester in preparation for the trip. Our full itinerary explains all activities, foci, and objectives of this unique study tour. Students must secure their own passports and tend to desired travel immunizations. All ticketing and visa work will be handled by the course instructor, Professor Dan Wessner of the History Department (540-432-4467; dan.wessner@emu.edu).
In Vietnam, students will dive into a rich Vietnamese-United States history of collaboration, then conflict and isolationism, and finally transformation. We will tour and learn within the walls of campuses, Cao Dai and Buddhist temples, and Catholic cathedrals. We will examine life from the perspective of rice farmers, fisherman, environmentalists, and teachers. Students will not only indulge in delicious Vietnamese cooking, but become expert in preparing at least a couple of dishes at a local Mekong delta restaurant. They will look into the difficulty history of our countries’ relations through museum and battlefield tours. But more importantly, all participants – American and Vietnamese – will help launch the new IC3 curriculum that is being designed and crafted by An Giang University, Can Tho University, and Eastern Mennonite University.
In Thailand, our gracious host is the Payap University Institute for the Study of Religion and Culture. We will examine carefully inter-faith, inter-sector work in addressing the cultural, health, and economic challenges of northern Thai culture in Chiang Mai. Thai art, dance, cuisine, multi-ethnicity, wildlife, and bazaars are part of the daily fare.
Finally, in Hong Kong, our group will take a four-day spiritual meditative retreat at Tao Fong Shan Christian Centre. This inter-faith pilgrimage site has long served as a critical place for quiet reflection and understanding. It sites above the bustle of Hong Kong’s political and economic dynamism. It will serve as our last stop for processing our month-long immersion into Vietnamese, Thai, and Chinese cultures. This meditation also affords students an opportunity to craft a plan for continuing their continuing studies and or post-graduate life with inter-cultural communication as a guiding value.
EMU Students: Michael Kennel, Benjamin Schlabach, Peter Derstine, Michael (MJ) Sharp, Clinton Miller, Kevin Docherty, Jessica Goshow, Sara Buller; IC3 Web Master Tom Sawin and his wife Ruby; Dan Wessner Family, and Ms. Bronwyn Histand, the director of curriculum development for Christopher Dock High School will be doing the IC3 Sutdy abroad in May 2005.