Immersion Trips Provide Exciting Learning Opportunities

Ben Faraone traveled through Turkey with his religion class

Reports from Wabash College students and faculty traveling on tours and on Immersion Learning trips continue to trickle in, and now that everyone is back on campus we’re sure to hear more interesting and exciting stories from the road.

The initial stories have provided concrete proof that these excursions – which immerse students and teachers in a culture – add enormous value to a student’s liberal arts education.

From Western Turkey we’ve heard several wonderful stories. While on a guided tour of an archeological site in Ephesus closed to the general public, the tour guide actually discovered some Roman coins a couple of thousand years old.

Not be outdone, Wabash senior Chris Buresh shocked his classmates and the tour guide when he unearthed the hand of a statue believed to be 2,000 years old. He promptly turned it over to officials at the site of the dig. Certainly no classroom experience in Crawfordsville could equal the excitement of making such a rare find.

Wabash senior Ron Kelsey was part of the religion class that studied ancient Christian sites in Turkey. Kelsey, who last week was profiled in The Chronicle of Higher Education, is one of a growing number of undergraduates who are reservists prepared to be called up if war breaks out in the Middle East.

Kelsey and some of his classmates were at a Turkish bar, where a group of Turkish men approached the young Americans to inquire if any were members of the U.S. Army. Kelsey proudly stood up, showed his military ID, and was quickly cheered and high-fived by the Turks. It turns out that all Turkish men are required to serve in the army, and so they admired and respected Kelsey for his fighting spirit.

The two groups then got into a lively debate on American foreign policy, conversations and opinions that will stay with the Little Giants long after their return to campus.

	Wabash students witnessed a protest by angry dockworkers in Strasbourg

Professor Melissa Butler reported that her class, which is studying the European Union in Strasbourg, also got immersed in the experience. The class found itself literally in the middle of an angry mob of protesting dockworkers – workers protesting the European Union’s discussions about hiring non-union workers for the docks! Students heard the chants of the protestors and watched as police lobbed tear gas into the mob in order to break it up, and were literally right between the two crowds.

It’s hard to imagine how students studying the politics and economics of the European Union could have a better learning opportunity than this: standing as witnesses to policies that have real impact on the lives of workers on the docks.

Finally, we’ve heard that the Wabash Glee Club’s tour of Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas has been a smashing success. The group performed for alumni functions, at schools, and at churches.

Jason Morales and his temporary dentist Dr. Conrad Casler

Unfortunately, one member of the Glee Club suffered a great deal of pain thanks to a nasty cavity. Jason Morales performed with the Glee Club at its concert for a Rotary Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma. After the performance, alumnus Brian Bailey ’64 introduced him to a local dentist, Dr. Conrad Casler who, while not a Wabash alumnus, did attend the Indiana University School of Dentistry. The dentist took Morales to his office, filled the aching cavity, and sent the young man back to the Glee Club without charge.

Indeed, these trips – whether Immersion Learning trips as a part of a class or the tour of the Glee Club – provide incredible opportunities to extend Wabash’s mission, which is to educate young men to think critically, act responsibly, lead effectively, and live humanely.