Pacific offers short-term travel courses

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Every year Pacific offers various short-term travel programs. Students are able to participate if they sign up for a two-credit preparatory class that is either offered in fall or spring.

Professor Moriah McGrath, who is leading the trip to India for a gender society and service class in winter, said she thinks it is extremely important for students to be immersed in another culture.

“Doing a travel course gives you the chance to see if what you are seeing in the real world jives with what you are studying in the classroom,” McGrath said. “Whether things match up or not, there is a rewarding process of discovery to undertake.”

During winter and spring of 2016, there are a handful of courses students are able to take with accompanying trips but the list is subject to change depending on student interests.

Travel courses that will be available in the winter of 2016 are: Drawing on Location: Hawaii; Travel to India; Sundance Travel Course in Utah; Trinidad & Tobago; Natural History of the Galapagos; Travel to Senegal and Converge Project with York St. John University in the United Kingdom.

Travel courses available in the spring of 2016 are: Travel to Berlin; Tropical Environmental Biology in Belize; Civically Engaged Travel to Hawaii and Travel to Spain.The trip to Berlin, led by German Professor Lorely French, is not yet set in stone, but the outcome is looking positive.

The end result will depend on finances and the number of students who show interest in gaining upper division German credits or who are looking to take a humanities class.

Professor Brent Johnson, who teaches in the English department, will also be offering a trip to Spain with Professor Mark Ferguson. This trip will be a combination of creative writing students and Spanish language students.

“Anytime you are in another culture you have time to reflect on your own culture,” Johnson said. “You hold that mirror up to how we live our lives on a daily basis and you see how that is quite a bit different, so I think not only are you learning about [another culture’s] way of life, but your way of life as well.”

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