The spread of the coronavirus back in March caused the plans and lives of students to be flipped upside down. Included in this flip was the postponement and then cancellation of the cross-culturals students were getting ready to travel for.
Last semester, students were preparing to embark on their cross-culturals, one of which was to China. As the spread of the coronavirus amplified, it was canceled and replaced with Greece. Shortly after, that trip was canceled as a whole as well as the other experiences.
Since the trips were canceled for this year, the students who were registered last year had their spots pre-reserved for this coming year. For some students, the new trip dates didn’t work out for them, so they were refunded their money and took a remote cross-cultural class instead.
Bluffton students are required to participate in a cross-cultural and learn about issues that are happening or can occur globally. This is required for graduation and can either be met by going on an actual experience or by taking six semester hours of foreign language.
Cross-culturals have been offered at Bluffton for more than 50 years, but they have been a requirement for graduation over 25.
If a student decides to go on an experience, they have the option of picking a May or a semester trip.
For a May trip, students would travel to their destination and stay for 2-3 weeks to get a basic understanding of the culture in the area. For a semester-long experience, students stay in their destination for a whole semester and learn at a school there while fully immersing themselves in the culture.
Cross-cultural experience in Kentucky, 2019. Photo provided by Elaine Suderman, taken by the students who participated in the experience.
For this upcoming term of experiences, there are six options for May trips that include either domestic or international travel. The trips are Arizona, San Antonio, Texas, Kentucky, Israel-Palestine, Guatemala and Germany and central Europe.
No students are studying off-campus this year, so there are no semester-long experiences. Bluffton is hoping to bring these trips back for the fall of 2021.
After signing up and being placed in a cross-cultural, students are put into a class with the rest of the students and the leaders who will be accompanying them on their trip. This class meets on Thursday evenings in the spring semester where the trip itinerary, group dynamics and the culture of where they are going will be discussed.
Paul Neufeld Weaver is the director of global education and works alongside Vice President of Cross Culturals, Elaine Suderman, to put together these cross-cultural experiences for students.
Neufeld Weaver has been the director of global education for six years. He works with professors at Bluffton to create the experiences and figure out exactly where students will go and what exactly they will learn from it.
He said students interpret the experiences differently and utilize their knowledge and presence on the trip in different ways as they go through life.
For some students, it might help them with their vocation since they would have experience with different people and cultures which could benefit them in their future place of work.
While Neufeld Weaver works with more on the programming, Suderman is the more logistic representative who works closely with the students as they decide what experience they wish to go on.
Suderman said it is encouraged for students to go on these cross-culturals as they will have an experience to find out more about themselves as a person along with learning more about a culture other than their own. These trips bring students out of their comfort zones and make them more culturally competent.
“Having found out more about yourself, the United States and globally, what is my role now as a global citizen?” said Suderman. “What does that mean for me as a global citizen? One of the big pieces of that is actually being in another culture. It’s part of the whole general education program.”
With the virus still being present, she said they are keeping an eye out for updates as the trips start to come closer. For international travel, they hope to make a decision about if the experiences are able to happen by the end of February or sooner if necessary.
For seniors who were going to go last year as juniors, the uncertainty is scary since graduation is coming ever closer as they are trying to fill this requirement.
Suderman said another round of remote classes might be the way to go if these trips get canceled again.
“We have said to them that we are going to do all we can to make sure you can graduate when they had intended to graduate,” said Suderman.
The future isn’t foretold, and anything can happen, but Suderman said she is hopeful everything will work out and the students can have their experiences.
Neufeld Weaver urges students, even freshmen, to start thinking about how they want to fulfill their cross-cultural competency. He said past students who’ve gone on a trip said it was the most important experience they had at Bluffton.
If any student is interested in any of the experiences or have any questions, they can contact either Paul Neufeld Weaver at weaverpn@bluffton.edu or Elaine Suderman at sudermane@bluffton.edu.
Lead photo provided Elaine Suderman.
