What I Did on my Winter Break

Jeff Hess '06 with Sinanga Juvenal in his new Otterbein sweatshirt.

Senior students at Otterbein participate in Senior Year Experience (SYE) courses designed to bring together the knowledge they have gained in their majors and in their entire Otterbein educational experience. While many students participate in SYE classes, students also have the opportunity to participate in international travel.

Chuck Vedder, director of international student programs, coordinated student travel over the winter quarter break to Africa, England, Scotland, Chile, Argentina, and Austria, to name a few. "Study abroad is such a wonderful life-changing experience. Students can read about different cultures in books, but there's nothing like being there and learning firsthand how people live and how they think. Students learn to be more resourceful and independent as they leave their comfort zone and then adapt to a new environment and discover a new comfort zone. Otterbein students who take advantage of this exciting opportunity enrich their education in a big way, said Vedder.

Devon Kuntzman '06 with Rwandan child

Joan Pryor McCann, Professor of Nursing and Becky Smith '81, Director of Alumni Relations, accompanied 18 nursing students plus several alumni and friends on a tour of England. The nursing students participated in all of the tour activities with the alumni. They also participated in visits with District nurses to patient's homes in Stratford, tours of hospitals in Warwick, London and Brighton and visits to Florence Nightingale's childhood church, grave and museum. "Getting acquainted with the British culture was one of the highlights of the trip - especially afternoon tea! Most felt that the trip was a life changing experience," said McCann. Pictures of the senior nursing students, alumni and friends from the "London Experience" are featured on the online community's photo album.

Glenna Jackson, professor of religion and philosophy, and Simon Lawrance, professor of life and earth sciences with an emphasis on wild mountain gorillas, led nine SYE students to Rwanda for three weeks. The students went on a trek seeking gorillas, worked with orphaned children, and participated in projects dealing with environmental issues, HIV/AIDS, education, women's rights, and more. Their journey culminated in a five-day safari in Kenya.

Dr. Carmen Galarce on ferry in Andes Mountains

Professor of Spanish in the Department of Foreign Languages, Dr. Carmen Galarce, guided fifteen students to her homeland of Chile and to neighboring Argentina. The students experienced the fascinating geography and history of the region. They participated in workshops designed especially for them by the Universidad de San Sebastian. They also made an incredibly scenic trip across the Andes by way of a two-hour ferry boat crossing of a narrow lake that spans the cordillera between Chile and Argentina. In their free time, the students visited two of the most famous volcanoes in southern Chile, Villarrica and Osorno, and enjoyed white-water rafting and "zip lining" from treetop to treetop in the forests near Valdivia.

Coverage of the students' travels were documented in local newspapers. Our thanks to MacKenzie White with ThisWeekNews for allowing us to reprint her article on the SYE Rwanda trip. Thanks also to Jeff Hess '06 for his Rwanda photographs.

Also visit the Photo Album page to see more photographs from the SYE trips.