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Michael Roberts, an Experiment in International Living group leader to Mongolia in 2008 and 2009, recently created a digital story about his experiences in Mongolia. This video is part of the Experiment in International Living digital storytelling project, a project where Experiment alumni are invited to create and share stories about their experiences. Email alumni@worldlearning.org to learn more.
Jenna Spencer in Morocco
This past summer Jenna Spencer traveled to Morocco with the Experiment in International Living. Though Jenna has always enjoyed traveling, this was her first adventure outside of North America. Jenna wishes to thank the many generous donors who make the Experiment possible for students like her, who would not otherwise be able to afford the experience.
Experimenters gaze into the Sahara
My mind wandered back to my homestay in a small, rural village called Aberdi. During my two week stay there was no electricity or running water. I went to the bathroom outside and lived amongst the family’s animals. I slept on the ground with my whole family in just one room. It was a simpler, more relaxed way of living which I grew to love. I would wake up to the sound of roosters without the worry of showers or what to wear. Instead, this time would be spent sipping tea and laughing with my host mother, or picking pears with my host brother. I learned to wander the long dirt roads that spanned across my village, feeling utterly safe and confident. Whether it was weaving with the local mothers, teaching English to the village children, or dancing Ahidous with the village fathers, I was constantly absorbing and learning.
Jenna and her Experiment group with Moroccan friends
As I left my homestay, after the two most rewarding weeks of my life, I sobbed. I could not imagine leaving the people I had grown to love but I was so grateful for the invaluable chance to meet and learn from them in the first place. And of course the learning did not stop there. Whether it was riding camels in the Sahara desert, exploring ancient Mosques, or learning to bargain, everyday my mind seemed to open and grow in a way I had never known before. Needless to say, on that last day navigating my way through the vibrant Rabat streets with all my senses being engaged, I was not the same person who had entered Morocco nearly four weeks previously; I had grown into so much more. I am so grateful to The Experiment [EIL] for giving me this opportunity that will forever be imprinted in my mind.
Jenna lives with her family in Cambridge, MA. She is currently a student at Concord Academy, where she is an A Better Chance student.
Ann and her Italian host sisters in 2009
Ann Friedman, World Learning former Trustee, recently traveled to the shores of the Adriatic Sea for a family reunion, an Experiment host family reunion. When Ann was just a teenager, she participated on an Experiment in International Living trip to Italy where she took intensive Italian language courses and lived with an Italian host family on a small farm. “As an Experimenter I was emboldened to live far from home and learn to live in a very different culture and community,” says Ann. “I had to learn how to be flexible and adjust – important attributes for anyone to carry throughout life.”
Ann's Italian host sisters during her Experiment days
The recent reunion with her Italian host sisters was just another small way in which Ann has helped to spread the spirit and values of the Experiment and World Learning. After college, Ann was inspired to be an Experiment group leader to France, which eventually led her into the fields of education and international relations. “I wanted to make sure that the kids in my group learned about their host country and appreciated its history and beauty as much as I did,” she says. “I would say that the experience ultimately led to my developing a world cultures extracurricular program and then eventually becoming a classroom teacher.”
Ann’s passion for travel and experiential education has certainly rubbed off – not only on her students, but on her daughter Natalie as well. Natalie participated on the SIT Study Abroad Senegal: Lens on West Africa program in the summer of 2007. Though Ann has always believed in the importance of global citizenship and cross-cultural understanding, her daughter’s experiences have highlighted the growing need for young students to have authentic intercultural interactions.
Ann and her Experiment host family in Italy
“I think that because we’re all connected now to whomever we want to be connected, we face the very real danger of believing that those somewhat superficial connections are the equivalent of real connections – connections which you forge in homestays and by living or studying abroad,” says Ann. As a trustee Ann has donated substantially to the World Learning capital campaign, and has even started an Experiment scholarship program at the Iowa high school where she was a student. “It’s important to support World Learning.” She adds, “Only through the hands-on, lived programs provided by World Learning do young people gain intimate knowledge of other cultures and their own capabilities, interests and strengths.”
This belief, in the importance of real-world intercultural experiences, motivates Ann to continue to support World Learning. She has not only made the World Learning experience a reality for her own daughter, but has also provided many high school students with an opportunity they would otherwise not have.
By Megan McBride, SIT Graduate Student/World Learning Americorps VISTA
When asked to reflect on her experience on The Sights and Sounds of Italy – Language, Culture, and Travel program with the Experiment in Internatational Living, Yasmine Holloway describes her feelings as “a sensation reminiscent of one who has just woken from a very good dream.”
Yasmine had never left the United States before taking part on the Experiment program but she has always loved languages and desired a chance to explore new cultures. She was drawn to the program’s focus on language training and authentic interactions with local customs and culture. With great excitement, Yasmine participated on the Experiment Italy program as an Outbound Ambassador in the summer of 2008. “I shall be forever grateful to the Experiment, which has motivated me to continue my pursuit of cultural knowledge and to surmount all trivial anxieties and hindrances to make my dreams reality.”
Participants on the Experiment Italy program begin their five week experience by exploring Rome. The architecture in this city awed Yasmine. “I appreciated how I seemed to be surrounded so much by history (that) it was almost tangible. I felt privileged to tread where the ancient people of Rome once walked thousands of years ago.”
Language training classes in Tuscany follow Rome on the Experiment Italy itinerary. Yasmine notes that these classes gave her a solid foundation of the Italian language that she was later able to build upon with her host family in Cosenza. After language training, participants live with a host family and Yasmine was impressed by the effortless manner with which her host family incorporated her into their daily routine. “Meeting my host sister’s friends allowed me to engage in a social environment in which I learned practical Italian and the customs of the locals.”
The Experiment Italy program ends with a quick tour; for Yasmine, highlights of this tour included hiking on Mount Vesuvius and a gondola ride in Venice. Finishing the program was a bitter-sweet experience and Yasmine was troubled by the thought that she would not hear the Italian language or see her host family again. She promised herself that she would return to Italy one day and that has become part of her new dream.
Yasmine stays connected to her dreams of international understanding by participating in her high school’s letter exchange program with students in countries across the globe. Her pen pal is from Germany and Yasmine hopes to use these interactions to continue the cultural learning she started on the Experiment. She is thankful for her experience on Experiment in International Living’s Italy program. “(It) has inspired me to be continually courageous in new and sometimes intimidating situations.”
Yasmine’s future is full of possibility but she is sure about one thing: “I plan to travel more in my lifetime, to meet new people and see new and exciting places.”
In the summer of 2008, Laura McConaghy, now Outreach Manager for the Experiment in International Living, served as an adult group leader on the Experiment program in Chile. She recently shared her experience and that of her students through a beautiful audio slideshow, complete with local Chilean folk music. Enjoy Laura’s slideshow below and visit World Learning’s YouTube Channel to explore more videos of World Learning programs.
Or follow this link to view a higher quality version.
During my visit to our program sites this summer, I was lucky enough to visit our Experiment France programs during the final days of their programs. The day before most of the France Experimenters left, culminated in a grand reception with photo exhibits from several of the photography groups and an enactment of Don Juan from the theater group. Needless to say, the caliber of the exhibit and of the presentation was outstanding. The theater group was tasked with playing Don Juan, in its original French. This is equivalent to having non-English speakers play Shakespeare in old English. The group practiced and practiced. With direction from their group leader, Carol Ann, and from the drama instructor, Jean Claude, they put on a marvelous show.
The photography groups were to explore how Asian culture had penetrated into French culture. Their task was to capture this multi-culturalism on film. They explored immigration issues in French culture and captured what they felt were images expressing this multi-cultural setting. Many of the students explained their photos in French the night of the exhibit.
One thing was evident from all the groups, the themes helped them explore French culture in a way they would not have been able to in a regular tour group. Their leaders and local counterparts pushed them to find the best within themselves. And, their fellow group members supported them through the language and cultural struggles.
Join me in celebrating the successes of our Experimenters in France 2008. View the YouTube videos of their exhibits.
Checking in during the scavenger hunt
There are a number of different ways to get to know Paris. Luckily for me, I had the opportunity to experience it as a wide-eyed, seventeen year old. After visiting our SIT Study Abroad programs in Jordan, we traveled to Paris to visit The Experiment in International Living.
I’d been to Paris several times before, but this was the first time I truly stepped into the Parisian culture. My first full day in Paris, I spent nearly four hours walking through the side streets, exploring chocolate and cheese shops, asking locals historical and anthropological questions and discovering the nooks and crannies of Paris life; I was following our Urban Studies Experiment group as they embarked on their scavenger hunt.
The scavenger hunt is a truly experiential educational experience. Students are given sets of clues and receive points for figuring them out. They need to use their language skills, their knowledge of Parisian culture and their sleuthing skills to wind their way through the hunt. The group must learn to work together; they can not break up at any point during the hunt. There are two team leaders for each sub-section. Each student must learn to lead and to be led. The students are encouraged, and gain points, for asking local Parisians how to decipher their clues.
Continue reading ‘Scavenging through Paris with the Experiment’
After the end of World War II, Donald B. Watt was committed to re-establishing a positive relationship between the former enemies United States and Germany. One step he took towards this goal was contacting a German who had been on an Experiment program in the U.S. before the war to discuss the possibility of organizing a project led by American and German students. This is how in 1948, a group of American Experimenters came to Germany, and together with their German counterparts, re-built a women’s dormitory at the University of Munich which had been destroyed in the war.
On May 27, 2008, ten American and German participants from this 1948 group reunited in Munich to celebrate the 60th anniversary of their first encounter. This celebration was part of a larger observance at the student services for the universities in Munich where around 200 representatives from trade and industry, the federal, state and local governments, the cultural field, and society came together to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the death of Mr. James Loeb, the Jewish philanthropist who, in the early 1930’s, designed and built the dormitory in honour of his wife, Marie Antonie. The Marie-Antonie-Haus is very much in use today. Click here for more information.
Professor Arthur S. Wensinger (Wesleyan University, CT, USA), one of the Experimenters from 1948, has turned his memories of the project into a DVD, which was shown to the audience as part of the celebration. Engeline Kramer, president of EIL Germany, had the pleasure of addressing the guests and took the opportunity to inform the audience about EIL’s mission. Everyone agreed that nowadays, this mission is just as valid as it was back then: We have to look beyond nationalities, skin colour and religion and see the human being for what it is – just that, a human being that deserves respect. Pictured from left are Dr. Hansgeorg Seebauer, one of the German participants, Engeline Kramer, and Professor Wensinger.
China with students in Ghana
China Cowan is a high school student from Washington DC. In the summer of 2007, when she was 14, China traveled to Ghana with the Experiment in International Living. China, her mother Montrella (an SIT Study Abroad alum to Morocco 2007) and her younger brother will be spending the year in Senegal where China will attend the International School of Dakar.
My experience as an Experimenter in Ghana is the most powerful experience of my lifetime. Prior to going to Ghana, I felt in order to make a contribution to the world I had to wait until later, meaning after I graduate from college or once I become an adult. Like many teenagers, I felt that my life was dominated by authority figures, such as my parents, teachers, and all elders for that matter. Plus, I felt restricted by all these dictators’ rules and regulations. In Ghana I realized that I already posses the knowledge and skills to make a difference in the lives of others. And as an Experimenter, I am so thankful to have made a positive and lasting impact on people from another part of the world. This experience changed my worldview and my choice of my role in the world. Everyone I know would benefit from an intercultural experience. Therefore I recommend to my fellow teens, start placing a cross-cultural experience such as the Experiment in International Living (EIL) on your wish-lists. It will truly be one of the best gifts anyone can ever offer you.
Students volunteer at a school in Chile.
By Bea Fantini
Not long ago, the former chair and vice chair of the 9/11 Commission wrote a compelling article about the need to send more students abroad. That article spoke directly to what World Learning is all about. Back in 1932 our Founder already realized the importance of exposing American youth to other people, places and cultures, thus the establishment of this fantastic place. Since then, thousands of High School and College students have participated in either Summer Abroad or semester Study Abroad programs.
SIT is only one of the many institutions that send students to study abroad. Of course there are many commonalities in all programs: the duration, the themes, content, the places and so forth. These programs put participants in direct contact with other people, other languages, and other cultures and in the end participants come away with a newfound intercultural competence.In brief, these experiences transform their lives. What is unique, however is the way participants are prepared and guided through this provocative journey.
We send more students to a lot of less visited destinations, teach more less commonly taught languages –in the field-than anyone else, it is the preparation we give our students in language and cross cultural orientation that make us stand out.The language and cross cultural preparation of our participants have always been at the core of all programs. Even though programs might focus on development, public health, environment, social justice, peace and conflict studies, etc., taken care of the student’s processes of acculturation and language acquisition is the underlying principle of our educational philosophy.These areas transcend everything our students do in the field.
Continue reading ‘Preparing to Study Abroad: What we do and how we do it’
World Learning is a 75-year-old global non-profit organization operating international education and development programs in more than 70 countries worldwide.
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