Near-home “cross-culturals” prove to be life-changing too

Chris Edwards — Tue, 29 Oct 2013 23:03:42 +0000

For most �� undergrads, cross-cultural study entails deepening their knowledge of humanity in such settings as South Korea, Eastern Europe or the Galapagos. Yet others find equally life-changing experiences in their own backyards.

Since 2001, �� has offered the “local context ” program for students whose work and/or family responsibilities preclude lengthy travel, says , assistant professor in the and the program’s course leader.

Sarah Baker, starting her senior year at age 26, was one of 13 this May who explored diverse communities locally during evening sessions, and in Washington, D.C., for a weekend.

Perfect for single parent

“It was perfect for me because I’m a single parent,” says Baker, who had wondered since entering �� how she would complete the cross-cultural graduation requirement. She and her son, in third grade, live with her parents in Rockingham County. Having never traveled further than Florida, she hopes to go overseas someday, but not without him now.

However, Baker told fellow-students in a recent chapel service that having been raised locally, when the class studied Harrisonburg history, “I thought I couldn’t learn anything new. How wrong!”

She explained, “Without this class I would never have heard about Zenda or Newtown.” Newtown is the historic name for the area settled by former slaves. “We’d always considered it the ‘bad’ part of town. I had no idea why,” Baker recalls, although her aunt attended school with Newtown’s basketball icon, Ralph Sampson. Studying Newtown and Zenda (a historic black community in northern Rockingham County), meant enjoying a home-cooked meal and hearing residents’ stories. Learning about “urban renewal” decimating Newtown in the 1960s, Baker empathized, recalling woods and fields of her childhood being razed for development.

Discovering “bad” part of town. . . isn’t

Students visited a Newtown church and a local mosque – both “different, very different, but good,” says Baker. And although raised in the Brethren church, she encountered fresh history when visiting the .

Carrie Allen McCray’s book, Freedom’s Child: The Life of a Confederate General’s Daughter, served as a reference, Durham says – giving perspective from black descendants of Gen. J.R. Jones, buried in Harrisonburg.

More lessons came with viewing the locally produced documentary, The Latino Underground, and meeting , who advocates nationally for the Dream Act proposal to allow a citizenship path for undocumented youth such as herself, brought to the United States as a child.

“She is amazing,” says Baker, who grew up observing immigration changing the local community. Early in elementary school, Baker met her first, lone Hispanic classmate, while adults complained, “They’ll steal our jobs.”

Eager not to be narrow minded

She says that mindset had been a “single story” for her – referring to a video the class saw in which Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Adichie addressed The Danger of the Single Story. Starting with childhood memories of reading, and trying to emulate, British tales containing snow and ginger beer, Adichie said such a “single story” may crowd out other perspectives. “We form our own opinion from others’ stories. It makes us narrow- minded,” explained Belinda Hinkle, of Grottoes, who also spoke in chapel about the class, calling Durham’s teaching “awesome.”

Baker – who had only seen one large city (D.C.), and that only with her son to visit museums — shared a poem it inspired her to write:

The city created beggars and riches.###Starvin’ people in line for soup kitchens. . .

The students visited office, studying its work of public advocacy. They stayed at Church of the Pilgrim and visited the multicultural .

Exploring non-touristy D.C. on foot

Durham, sending them off in small groups to explore city neighborhoods, advised sampling ethnic foods, adding, “Don’t go as a tourist. Go to feel and see.” She reported, “They walked their legs off” – estimating 15 miles for many.

“It was real,” Baker recalls. When she suggested her group visit the historic , and two young men realized they would be the only Caucasians present, she says, “They freaked out.” She smiles: “I told them I was going in, so they had to follow me.”

She recalls an earlier “wow moment” when employed in the during a . Clearing tables as an African group finished dining, she realized she was the only white person there. “I was sticking out like a sore thumb,” she laughs. “It was humbling.”

Changed forever

In the class and on the trip, conversing and keeping journals, she feels “a lot of us learned from each other”– often from sharing uncomfortably different reactions. Some, herself included, were moved, but others not, by the film, Chocolate City, depicting black residents displaced by gentrification. Seeing homelessness troubled most classmates. Baker observed, “When you’ve got the super rich, you’ve got the super poor.”

She’s determined to attend graduate school. The local context class, Baker says, “changed me forever.”

Peace Undergrads To Do Grant-Supported Practicums in Colombia and Iran

Chris Edwards — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 17:11:52 +0000

at �� may now receive financial aid for overseas summer practicums.

A two-year, $20,000 grant from the United Service Foundation – an Anabaptist-rooted organization based in New Holland, Pa. – will enable eight students total to do international work, primarily in Colombia, in 2013 and 2014.

, PhD, who chairs the department of and coordinates the undergraduate major in peacebuilding and development, applied for the grant at the foundation’s invitation. It provides $2,000 each for four students each summer to cover credit hours, airfare, and up to three months’ living expenses, with remaining funds supporting administrative costs.

“This is a marvelous opportunity,” Rhodes said. �� has 45 students majoring in peacebuilding and development, who are all required to complete practicums, or supervised practical applications of learned skills and theory. This requirement puts pressure on �� to locate and support appropriate placements. Typically, the practicums are completed in Washington D.C.

Three recipients have been named and a fourth is yet to be announced. The grant recipients for the summer of 2013 are: Carlos Romero, Krista Rittenhouse – heading to Colombia – and Corben Boshart, who will be in Iran.

The students in Colombia will be under the direction of Terrence “Terry” Jantzi, PhD, a former professor of sociology at ��, who is now co-director for Colombia.

Jantzi notes that following 30 years of internal conflict, “Colombia is by far the most violent country in Latin America,” ranking No. 2 worldwide both for internally displaced persons and economic disparities (behind Sudan and Haiti, respectively).

“There is still considerable violence, conflict, poverty and displacement,” Jantzi says. As a sign of progress, the Colombian Supreme Court recently ruled that victims may petition the government for reparations. “There is more work being done with local community mobilization,” says Jantzi, including thirty regional communities preparing to demand that their regional government, in Cartagena, comply with the law.

Jantzi – who moved to Colombia following a two-year leave of absence from �� for work in Albania – expects practicum students to primarily conduct “research and documentation of both the circumstances of the violence” and “local authority compliance with the Supreme Court edicts.”

Most practicums in Colombia will require fluency in Spanish. Students will live with host families in regions where MCC works with partner organizations.

“We would like to take advantage of this grant to systematically increase the number of undergraduates coming to Colombia. The barrier in the past has always been the availability of funding,” Jantzi says. He hopes the funding from United Service Foundation will open opportunities to undergraduates that until now have only been available for older adults, typically college graduates or graduate students.

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