By JESSICA SIMPSON
J Alumni News staff
Four study abroad opportunities offered by the College of Journalism and Mass Communication support the college’s growing effort to extend education beyond the United States.
Summer 2010 trips to Japan, Greece, Southeast Asia and Mexico will give students the chance to explore unique cultures and hone their journalism skills.
Assistant advertising professor Frauke Hachtmann said, “In our college, international experiences are a new benchmark.”
Hachtmann is a faculty leader for the summer 2010 trip to Japan. She and Dana Fritz, associate professor of art and art history, will focus on Japanese visual culture in context.
Luis Peon-Casanova, assistant professor of advertising, will supervise 20 to 22 students in Greece as they learn the aspects of visual communication through digital photography.
Peon-Casanova has traveled to 25 different countries but never Greece. He said he is enthusiastic about the opportunity for students to experience the world through the lens of a camera.
“With a camera you can bring the experience back with you,” Peon-Casanova said. “When you go overseas, you learn so much just by being there. It’s a life altering experience and just phenomenal.”
Southeast Asia is on the schedule for the first time
Sriyani Tidball, advertising faculty, and her husband, Tom Tidball, a world-traveled photographer, will lead a trip to Southeast Asia with 10 to 15 students. They will travel to Cambodia, Singapore and Thailand to study photography and magazine writing.
Tidball, a native of Sri Lanka, aims to tailor-make the trip for students’ interests. She said she doesn’t want it to be a “cookie-cutter trip.”
The trip to Cozumel, Mexico, will led by advertising professor Phyllis Larsen, who began visiting Cozumel more than 25 years ago for scuba diving.
Larsen said one of the reasons she has been taking students on a study abroad trip to Cozumel was to focus on visiting a developing country that is much different than the U.S.
Study abroad is increasingly popular at UNL
The number of students enrolling in study abroad programs at UNL has increased over the past several years. Continually offering fresh programs around the world is enticing to students who want to add international experience to their resumes. Compared to ten years ago in the 1998–1999 academic year, there has been a 72 percent increase in students participating in UNL study abroad programs.
The total number of UNL students who studied abroad during the 2008–2009 school year was 711, down 6.5 percent from the 2007–2008 total of 761. Repercussions of a down economy may be to blame, yet overall, study abroad programs have grown tremendously in the past five years.
The 2007–2008 school year showed a 28 percent increase from the 2006–2007 year, and a 41 percent increase from five years prior in the 2002–2003 academic year.
Totals for the 2009–2010 academic year have yet to be totaled, but the new trips offered by the J school are grabbing students’ attention.
Some classes are partly at home, partly abroad
Japan
The CoJMC trip to Japan consists of a four-day pre-session at UNL and two and a-half weeks in Japan. The class runs from May 17 to June 6, 2010. Students will spend nine nights in Kyoto and six nights in Japan studying visual literacy at many historical and modern sites.
Planning for the trip was funded by an Initiative for Teaching and Learning Excellence Grant. Through the Grant, Fritz and Hachtmann were able to travel to Japan over a year ago to plan the curriculum and design the course.
Fritz said: “We are thankful to UNL that they fund study abroad. This is a demonstration of a true commitment to study abroad programs.”
Since Hachtmann and Fritz are co-teaching the course, students will learn from both an advertising and art perspective.
Hachtmann said, “The interdisciplinary component is a unique experience for students.”
Students will study in Japan without knowing the language, so regular writing, drawing, photography and video assignments will be combined to learn all aspects of visual literacy.
“The purpose is not to make art or create art, but to understand the culture,” Hachtmann said. “We will talk about a communication model to interpret visual images without understanding the language.”
Students will stay in at the Shunko-in Zen temple during their stay in Kyoto. There they will experience contrasts of traditional and modern Japan as they sleep on the floor, participate in tea ceremonies, surf the Internet via wi-fi and learn about the culture from the Vice Abbott.
Fritz, an Arizona State University Alum, found she had a connection with the Vice Abbot of the temple who also graduated from ASU. He agreed to let the students stay in the temple and give them an introduction into Japanese life.
Fritz said he would be their “window to Kyoto” as he leads them in morning meditation and gives them a crash course in “emergency Japanese.”
While in Kyoto, the class will also visit the sites of Ryoan-ji’s famous dry garden, Tenryu-ji’s bamboo forest, and Todai-ji, the world’s largest wooden building.
After nine-nights in Kyoto, the class will travel to Tokyo aboard the bullet train. In Tokyo, Hachtmann and Fritz chose a modern hostel called Sakura for the remaining six nights. Hostels provide cheaper accommodations than many other locations.
“It’s expensive to go to Japan,” Hachtmann said, “and we’re doing everything we can to make it affordable.”
In Tokyo, students will visit the Museum of Advertising and Marketing, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo National museum and many neighborhoods to study fine art coupled with commercial visual culture.
Hachtmann said that the short-term trips make it difficult to see everything, so she and Fritz were very careful to select sites to maximize time. She said she wants students to achieve openness and a sense of curiosity to continue traveling.
“Students will get awareness and an appreciation for Japanese culture and have a more informed world view,” Hachtmann concluded.
Peon-Casanova said he similarly wants students to have a life-changing experience.
He said, “You learn to appreciate foreigners and appreciate what you have.”
Greece
The Greece trip will begin May 15 and go through June 4, 2010. The course teaches digital photography and design, technical aspects of digital cameras and the creative use of shutter speed, aperture and lenses.
“Learning to take a picture is easy,” Peon-Casanova explained, “but to learn to take good pictures is not.”
After learning the basics of operating the camera, Peon-Casanova said the rest of the course is “serendipitous.” They’ll take photos of people, architecture, landscapes, objects and still life.
Students will arrive in Athens where they will spend a few days visiting historical sites. They will also travel to Crete, the largest of the Greek Islands, and explore sites of the Bronze Age and Minoan civilizations.
While in Crete, the class will also see the Dictean Cave where Zeus, the god of all Greek gods, was born according to Greek mythology and the World War II British Cemetery. These sites, rich in history and Greek culture, will provide numerous opportunities to photograph people, seascapes and architecture.
Peon-Casanova said the historical perspective is great, but it also gives students a chance to experience culture and explore Greek life.
“When you go overseas,” he said, “you learn so much just by being there. It’s a life-altering experience and just phenomenal.”
After three days in Crete, the class will return to Athens to begin assembling their portfolios using Photoshop and InDesign. Students are required to bring laptops for editing their work. Some days they may shoot 300 to 400 photos, so Peon-Casanova said it’s important for students to focus on the objectives of editing daily.
Peon-Casanova built some free days into the itinerary to give students time to relax and explore on their own. This also gives him a chance to visit with students individually, and students can help each other.
Peon-Casanova said, “Peer review and exchange is important, because it helps students gain confidence.”
After a stay in Athens, the class will travel again, this time to the Peloponnese Peninsula, which forms the southern part of the Greek mainland. Here they will photograph other ancient sites, including the monastery of Daphni and mosaics from the Byzantine Era. They will stay at the seaside resort of Nauplion and have more time to finish assignments, shop and enjoy free time.
Peon-Casanova received help from UNL art history professor Mike Hoff while planning the course details. Hoff has traveled to Greece before with students and offered advice on historical sites and monuments to visit.
The class will round out the rest of the trip visiting many other sites and cities, including Olympia, Delphi and Pylos.
“In my opinion, you can’t have a complete life if you don’t leave the U.S.,” Peon-Casanova said.
Tidball said studying abroad “opens students up to being more global than local, and with the recession, you have to start looking globally for jobs.”
“When you go look for a job, you will always stand out if you have a global world view, especially from a college of journalism, which is an international trade,” Tidball added.
Larsen also stressed the importance of having international experience for journalism students.
Larsen said, “International study is important, because we are a global society. Especially for journalists, because their audience includes different cultures.”
Students traveling to Southeast Asia will depart May 19 to Singapore and leave June 3 from Phuket, Thailand. The cost is estimated at $3,750 plus tuition and fees. Roundtrip airfare and accommodations at three and four star hotels is included, plus travel insurance and some meals. The trip accounts for three credit hours.
Besides studying writing and photography, students will experience urban city life, village life, beaches and inland excursions through three countries.
Tidball said, “We will expose our students to all of it. Students will learn much more than just photography and writing.”
Tidball’s personal ties to Southeast Asia give her the unique ability to “individualize” the trip, she said. If a student wants to focus more on film or advertising, she will try to arrange for the students to gain experience in those areas.
Before they depart, students will start a blog, and throughout the trip, they will complete two assignments. The assignments may include stories, YouTube videos or portfolio pieces. The goal is for students to learn to share information through different mediums.
Exploring the usage of information mediums is also a focus of the Cozumel trip. Larsen organized the curriculum to hone in on the use of mass media outside of the U.S., and specifically in a developing country.
Cozumel
Larsen will accompany ten students to the small community of Cozumel, located off the tip of the Yucatan peninsula. The class runs from May 17 through June 4 and costs about $2,550 plus tuition. While on the island, the class will meet with broadcast and print journalists, marketing specialists and local students and families.
Larsen said students will be immersed in an environment where they will learn new things, not only academically, but about themselves.
“I hope students learn the academic goals, of course, and I hope they learn to respect the differences they encounter,” Larsen said. “Also, I hope they gain an appreciation for the conservation of resources.”
Cozumel is an environment where resources are scarce. Students will need to adapt to a completely different way of life. Material items are much less abundant, and the tap water is unsafe to drink in the town.
Larsen said, “You learn that differences are simply differences.” They are not negative, she said.
“There is value in other ways of doing things and value in others’ perspectives that are different than our own,” Larsen said.
Larsen also explained that many people are affected by “ethnocentricism.” This is the idea that our culture is the best, she said.
“I want people to learn that other cultures may be happier or are doing things in different ways,” Larsen said.
Another unique component of this trip, compared to the other study abroad trips, Larsen said, is the service learning project students will participate in.
Students will work directly with Cozumel natives. For this reason, students are restricted to only bringing only one bag of personal items. Their second piece of checked luggage must contain items for the service learning project. This includes donations, like clothing, or supplies for the project.
Larsen said students will also form relationships with people on the island. They will even have dinner in someone’s home. Larsen’s history of visiting the island has helped her establish relationships with people her class will meet. She said this enables students to do many things regular tourists can’t do while visiting Cozumel.
Dr. Charlyne Berens, interim dean of the J School, said study abroad adds to a student’s education like nothing else. Although connections via social media seem to give students a taste of the world, actually experiencing being there cannot be matched, she said.
“Americans need to think well beyond our own borders and appreciate and interact with people all over the globe,” Berens said. “Study abroad is one exceptionally useful tool to make that happen.”
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