Shifting Cultural Gears and Facilitating Opportunities

Here's the thing. It's an important thing to know about me if you follow this blog. I like to think I'm culturally aware and able to really appreciate our global world. I talk about inclusion. I'm actually the Chair of the Faculty Senate Cultural Affairs Committee. However...

The reality is...I'm a privileged white woman who hasn't travelled much. I've been around the U.S. I grew up in New Mexico actually -- my dad was an teacher at a Navajo reservation school outside of Gallup, NM. I spent time in New York in the Catskills and in Virginia and now I live in Vermont. I've been to London when I was a teenager. I've been on two Disney Cruises. I've been to San Francisco and Phoenix and the Grand Canyon and Seattle...and well...that's it.

I'd like to think I'm not the norm, but I suspect really that I am and that more of my students are like me than I would like to believe -- people who think they have a handle on the global culture out there...but really don't.

And this brings me to my point.

I have a student. Yeah, I know...I have lots of those! In this case within the internship class, I have a student who is a citizen of our fabulous neighbor to the north, Canada. She is a PR and Professional Writing major who has stumbled upon the opportunity of a lifetime to shake her cultural foundation to the CORE. Her internship is a self-designed travel writers dream and she needed someone who would support the wild ride. Cue crazy professor like me (grin). I heard what she wanted to do and said...OK. WE CAN DO THAT!

Of course, I'm not doing anything.

She is the one who is going to Jordan. She is the one who is going to immerse herself into a culture so unlike her native Canada and her adopted Vermont. She is the one who is going to blog about her experiences and when she gets back, write about them for the Champlain College community and herself.

Jenica will be traveling to Jordan with Dr. Gary Scudder. She is interning with him in order to help him provide more information about our Global Modules project because Gary -- great guy that he is -- is a HISTORIAN...not someone who gets PR and gets how to break it down for the rest of us. So while she is in Jordan she will be observing classes in person that are participating in the online Global Modules with our students here on the ground at Champlain, she'll be interviewing the Jordanian students about their experiences as they engage with Americans in learning projects, and she'll be learning about the Jordanian culture first-hand.

And what will I be doing?

I'll be following her blog. Living vicariously and reading and wondering and even enviously viewing her experiences. Safe and secure in my office and home in Vermont and knowing that in some small part I have been able to facilitate Jenica's growth and development as she embarks on this journey of a lifetime.

Perhaps one day, it will be my turn.