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| Summer study abroad is a short-term affair |
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Summer study abroad is a short-term affair
Students can travel with a WMU professor to study art in France, engineering in China and Korea, Russian language and culture, business in Norway, creative writing in Prague or take a Grand Tour of Europe, to name just a few of the options. Most summer semester programs are open to non-WMU students and to adults interested in travel and learning who are not currently attending college.  2007 Grand Tour of Europe group in Florence. Art and history are the major topics of this annual program. Some programs offer classes in a broad range of disciplines and a few offer scholarship opportunities. Programs run from 2 to 8 weeks, offer varying levels of academic credit and are eligible for financial aid funding. April 2007 WMU graduate Brittany Husted participated in the Grand Tour of Europe program for a month in May 2007 with 17 fellow students led by Dr. Larry ten Harmsel, dean emeritus of the Lee Honors College. She said the five-country tour was a good way to visit Europe for the first time to learn which cities she would like to visit for a longer period in the future. “The best part was we had such a good group,” said Husted, who now works for a newspaper in Three Rivers. “I didn’t know anyone when we left Michigan and now some of them are my best friends. I am now more understanding of people I meet here who don’t speak English and I am more willing to help them.” Art, architecture, and history are the main topics Dr. ten Harmsel expounds on in daily lectures while the group spends two or three days in each location, before traveling to the next destination via train. Stops included Amsterdam, Paris, Vienna, Rome, Florence, Venice and Vienna.  Husted, on right, enjoyed a paddle boat ride in Switzerland in the middle of her Grand Tour of Europe “Paris and Florence were my favorite cities,” said Husted, a native of Suttons Bay, Michigan. “The Eiffel Tower was amazing—it is a lot bigger than I thought it would be. From Florence I toured some of the Tuscany region. We went horseback riding in a vineyard and sampled some wine. It was nice to get away from the city for a change.” WMU junior Jacob Tardani of Muskegon, Mich., completed his work in Arabic language study at the University of Alexandria in Egypt with the help of a $4,500 scholarship from the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program in the 2007 Spring semester. It was his second stint in Egypt, which followed a short-term program he completed at Alexandria Center for Languages through WMU in 2006.  Tardani's class in front of The Great Pyramid “Studying abroad in Egypt during the summer of 2006 was the perfect choice for me at the time,” Tardani said. “Since it was a short-term, one-month program I was able to get away and see the life and culture of Egypt as it really is, not as learned from some textbook. The weekend excursions to the pyramids, King Ramses’ Tomb, and to all ends of the country really made it a once-in-a-lifetime experience and left me eager to discover more about the culture, history, and language of Egypt.”  Tardani kissing the Sphinx Tardani was fortunate enough to do just that, when he returned to the Alexandria Center in 2007 for a semester-long program. “After acquiring a taste for the country, language, and people, I felt even more confident that I could fully benefit from a semester-long program,” he said. “I already knew what to expect and the situation didn’t seem to foreign to me.”  Tardani (at left) at an Egyptian wedding with new friends Ramy and Waleed The deadline to apply for most summer semester programs is February 15. For application information, visit Study Abroad on the second floor of Ellsworth Hall (next to the Bernhard Center, east side) from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Information sessions and walk-in advising offered daily. The Study Abroad office may be reached by phone at 269-387-5890, by e-mail at study-abroad@wmich.edu, or visit Study Abroad on the web at: www.wmich.edu/studyabroad A program list follows that includes links to the program profile. Please consult with your academic advisors to learn how these courses may be applied to your degree. Some summer programs qualify for general education credit. 2008 Summer I & II HIGE Study Abroad Programs (chronological) Click on the program listing to see its' online program profile.
London, United Kingdom; Paris, France April 27 – May 11 Business seminar Dr. Bret Wagner and Dr. Steve Newell
Field research station in Belize April 28 – May 16 Biology, ecology, geography
Multiple Cities, Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany April 28 – May 26 European arts and cultures
Quebec, Canada July 7 – August 8 (approx.) Dr. Vincent Desroches
Modern and Contemporary Art in Paris Paris, France May 4 – May 22 Art history
Multiple Locations in Germany May 4 – May 24 (approx.) Global engineering, German culture Dr. Betsy Aller and Dr. Andrew Kline
Engineering in China/South Korea Beijing and Shanghai, China; Seoul, Korea May 8 – May 25 Chemical, mechanical, electrical, computer, biological, industrial, or manufacturing engineering Dr. Dewei Qi and Dr. Kapseong Ro
Beijing and Shanghai, China May 10 – May 22 (May 10 – May 26 with Hong Kong excursion) Business
Mexico Immersion in Health Care Patzcuaro, Mexico Spanish language, health care systems in Mexico, Mexican culture, and immigration to U.S.
Studio Art Center International (SACI) Summer I Florence, Italy May 15 – June 21 Studio art, art history, Italian language
Tokyo, Japan May 16 – July 27 (*Summer 2007 Dates*; Summer 2008 Dates TBD) Japanese language and culture
Tokyo and Nikko, Japan June 2 – June 14 (Approximate Dates) Religious practice, history, and culture Dr. Stephen Covell London, United Kingdom June 5 – August 15 Fashion merchandising, business, media production, visual communication, interior design, engineering
Santander, Spain June 9 – July 31 Spanish language and culture
St. Petersburg, Russia June 16 – July 2 Russian language and culture
Norwegian School of Management (BI) Oslo, Norway June 23 – July 13 Business, intercultural management
Queretaro, Mexico June 23 – August 7 Spanish graduate courses (school teachers encouraged to apply) Dr. Irma Lopez and Dr. Antonio Isea (instructor)
Studio Art Center International (SACI) Summer II Florence, Italy June 26 – July 26 Studio art, art history, Italian
Prague, Czech Republic June 28 – July 25 Creative writing, American and Czech literature, Jewish Studies, photography
Alexandria Center for Languages Alexandria, Egypt June 29 – July 31 (Summer 2006 dates, Summer 2008 dates TBD) Arabic language and culture
Nanotechnology Research in Brazil Sao Carlos and Sao Paulo Region, Brazil July 1 – September 1 (*Summer 2007 Dates*; Summer 2008 Dates TBD) Materials, chemical, mechanical, environmental, electrical engineering
University of Cambridge Summer School Cambridge, United Kingdom July 7 – August 1 Various fields of study, including history, political science, English literature, architecture, sociology, natural science, the arts, British life and culture
San Jose, Costa Rica July 7 – August 8 Intensive Spanish language, various electives
Maastricht, Netherlands July 7 – August 15 Business, economics, intercultural communication
Beijing, China August 15 – August 31 (approx., Summer 2008 dates TBD) Chinese language and culture |
