Europe Semester

Europe Semester

EUROPE SEMESTER PROGRAM FALL 2008

DEADLINE TO APPLY November 30, 2007

General Description for Europe Semester Fall 2008

2008 will be the thirty-ninth year of Westmont’s Europe Semester Program. The program began in 1969 with 10 students, and enthusiasm for the unique learning opportunities it affords has remained strong ever since. During its history, over 1400 students have completed the program. In order to accommodate the size of European buses and to maintain a reasonable teacher/student ratio, maximum enrollment for 2008 will be 43 students. The leaders of the 2008 program will be professors Kim Kihlstrom (Computer Science) Ken Kihlstrom (Physics) and Randy VanderMey (English) see below.

Overall, and at its best, Europe Semester presents students with both the demanding challenges and rich intellectual, spiritual, and social rewards of functioning with a small, Christian learning community while studying abroad. The program is intended to complement a student’s on-campus instruction in the Christian liberal arts. Beginning in 2007, the Europe Semester curriculum will continue to emphasize European history and the arts but will also include a greater emphasis on understanding contemporary Europe and Europe’s connections to broader global realities and communities. This will allow the program to serve students well as they complete a number of their Common Inquiries requirements in General Education. While studying and traveling in Europe, students confront a wide range of other peoples and cultures, past and present. Through visual and social experiences, their learning becomes graphic and vivid. Lectures and field experiences provide the framework and interpretive categories that enable students to conduct individual and group learning effectively. Participants also experience for themselves Europe’s climate and geography, and during unstructured times develop a wide array of other practical skills along the way from using many forms of public transportation to seeking out the best prices for local goods. The program typically includes time in the British Isles and in western, central, and southern Europe. See the tentative 2008 itinerary below for more details.

The Europe Semester Program conforms to the standards for study abroad of Westmont’s accrediting agency, the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. Demands placed upon students are high, intellectually, socially, and physically. But that means there is much opportunity for growth. There will be substantial summer assignments prior to the trip, both reading and writing, in addition to class sessions, readings, field exercises, exams, guided tours, guest lectures, concerts, plays, and other cultural events during the semester itself. It is best to think of all that is experienced on the trip as part of the program’s “curriculum.” Students must enroll in the three required four-unit courses and, with electives, may take as many as sixteen units.

Europe Semester 2008 Curriculum

Catalog Description: IS 121-124 European Culture and Society, Past and Present (4,4,4) studies various aspects of European history, thought, arts, society, culture, science, economy and politics while resident in Europe.

Special effort is made to understand Europe’s heritage and contemporary society in relation to larger world contexts.

Three major inter-disciplinary themes will be explored during Europe Semester 2008:

  • Narrative
  • Technology
  • War and Peace

Students may currently fulfill three of their Common Inquiries requirements on the 2008 Europe Semester. All students will register for the three required GE courses listed below. Those courses will fulfill the Common Inquiries requirements in Performing and Interpreting the Arts, Thinking Historically, and Understanding Society. In addition, there will also be a required non-GE elective course in Israel taught by professors at Jerusalem University College. All students must register for these four courses even if they have previously fulfilled one or more of these General Education or Elective requirements.

Required Courses

IS 122 Technology and European Society: This course considers social phenomena and the development of technology, particularly in Europe. We will look at how technology has affected social structures such as religion and the family. We will examine technlogy and innovation as a factor in economics, commerce, and government. We will discuss ethical issues in technology from a Christian perspective. We will examine cathedrals, castles, bridges, and canals as examples of technology. These achievements, along with code-breaking work done during World War II and newer technologies such as the Internet, will be studied in enouch technical detail to broaden appreciation for the innovation and complexity required, and to facilitate the understanding of related societal effects. Satisifies GE category Understanding Society. 4 units. Taught by Dr. Kim Kihlstrom.

IS 123 Narrative in the Arts in Europe: A semester-long engagement with theatre, literaure, visual arts, music and dance. We will see cathedrals, plays, art galleries, folk dances, concerts, readings, street musicians, public ceremonies, enactments of liturgies, modern dances, and much more. To bring order and sense out of this wealth of experience, the course focuses on one of the great common denominators of the arts: the mode of the narrative, or, in other words, the structured drive that shapes a story. By focusing on narrative, we can teach ourselves to pay keener attention to detail in the arts, and to understand five P’s that pertain to all the arts-Purposes, Principles, Preparations, Practices, and Performances. Satisfies the GE category Performing and Interpreting the Arts. 4 units. Taught by Dr. Randy VanderMey.

IS 124 World War II: World War II had its roots in the end of the First World War (the “war to end all wars”) and left its imprint on the rest of the century (Marshall PLan, formation of Israel, the Cold War and the atomic age). We will study WWII chronologically with an emphasis on the the European campaign but will include the lead-up to the war, the war in the Pacific, and the aftermath of the war. As we travel through the different European countries, we will also focus on the role of and the effect on each nation we visit. WWII was the first war where technology was critical to the conflict and the resolution of the was but also forever changed society. This will lead to natural tie-ins with IS 122 Technology and European Society. World War II also has a special intrigue in that we can look back at it with such crystal moral clarity yet every conflict that followed has been shrowded with moral ambiguity. Will the moral clarity remain as we look at the primary historical sources in studying the “last good war”? Satisfies the GE category Thinking Historically. 4 units. Taught by Dr. Ken Kihlstrom.

RS 155 Geography, History and Religions of the Holy Land: Student will study events and visit sites significant to Israel’s history and the local religous traditions of Judaism, Islam, and Eastern Christianity.  This is a required non-GE elective course. 4 units.Taught by Jerusalem University College faculty.

Current Faculty for Fall 2008

Dr. Kim Kihlstrom, Associate Professor of Computer Science

Dr. Kim Kihlstrom joins her husband, Dr. Ken Kihlstrom, on their inaugural Europe Semester voyage. As the first Computer Science professor to co-lead Europe Semester, Kim has crafted an unprecedented curriculum for studying the myriad ways in which technology has impacted and adapted to European society. Kim has a history of working closely with students on research projects, and she anticipates the intimate learning community the Europe program encourages. “I am so excited about the many connections that this program will facilitate: interpersonal connections between faculty and students as we travel and learn together, interdisciplinary connections between the courses and our three major themes, and practical connections between our discussions and the learning labratory of Europe.” Moreover, if Kim’s enthusiastic smile doesn’t entice you, her culinary talents (the famed chocolate-chip cookies) surely will.

Dr. Randy Vandermey, Professor of English

For Europe 2008, seasoned journey-man Dr. Randy VanderMey contributes his literary craft and the wisdom gained from past European ventures on England Semester 1999 and Europe 2003. A glance at Dr. VanderMey’s English Department course offerings reveals a proclivity for European authors of the medieval, romantic, and modern eras. “Ever since I read Dante, Milton, Blake, Wordsworth, Shelley, T.S. Eliot, Pound, William Carlos Williams and others in grad school and saw how they used poetry to wrestle with human desire, I’ve been hooked on the topic of desire and the way it relates to imaginative vision.” Dr. VanderMey’s personal interests will thus find much expression in his Narrative in the Arts course.

 Dr. Ken Kihlstrom, Professor of Physics

Dr. Ken Kihlstrom will accompany his wife, Dr. Kim Kihlstrom because she said so and also because he is a closet history buff. Ken’s expertise in the discipline of physics is another “first” for the Europe Semester program. Ken’s interdisciplinary insight and characteristic wit is sure to make his World War II course enjoyable and informing. Due to both the Kihlstrom’s fields of expertise, hitherto unvisited European sites such as Bletchley Park (code-breaking), the Channel Tunnel, and the Nobel Museum will be significant itinerary locales, as well as other sites in the Scandinavian countries of Finland and Sweden.

Tentative Itinerary

Aug 18: Depart Los Angeles
Aug 19-25: Edinburgh
Aug 25-26: York
Aug 26-28: Stratford
Aug 28-Sept 5: London
Sept 5-13: Paris
Sept 13-16: Normandy
Sept 16-19: Bruges
Sept 19-24: Leiden (near Amsterdam)
Sept 24-27: Stockholm
Sept 27-Oct 3: Helsinki
Oct 3-9: Berlin *partial homestay
Oct 9: Dresden
Oct 9-13: Prague
Oct 13-16: Krakow
Oct 16-20: Vienna
Oct 20-26: Schloss Mittersill (near Salzburg)

Oct 26-30: Venice
Oct 30-Nov 4: Florence
Nov 4-10: Rome
Nov 10-30: Jerusalem
Nov 30: Return to Los Angeles

Europe Semester Program Objectives

For each participant, the Europe Semester faculty desire:

  1. An enlarged understanding and appreciation of the history and contemporary character of European culture and society, including the role of the Christian faith in Europe’s past and present.
  2. An increased grasp of Europe’s place in the world both historically and in the twenty-first century.
  3. An enhanced ability to acquire knowledge through observation and experience.
  4. A new empathy for the perspectives and perceptions of other peoples and cultures.
  5. An experience of the need for and process of creating a caring Christian community.
  6. A personal maturation in Christian graces such as loving, forgiving, communicating honestly,and experiencing Christian freedom responsibly.

Expenses and Payments

Westmont College attempts to secure reasonable group travel rates and adds these costs to regular campus charges to arrive at a final fee for Europe Semester. This final fee, in other words, is the sum of campus tuition ($16,075), fees (health and technology $370), and full room and board ($5040), plus a Europe Semester supplemental charge ($5,500). For fall 2008, the total cost of Europe Semester is $26,985.

Eligibility

Faculty leaders take into consideration all of the following:

  • Class standing
  • GPA (minimum 2.3 gpa for eligibility)
  • How many Common Context courses you have completed (since these will provide an intellectual foundation to better understand and appreciate what is seen and learned experientially in Europe)
  • Application essays
  • Familiarity/proficiency with a foreign language
  • Computer/Technological skills (students may be required to bring a laptop)
  • Leadership experience
  • Faculty and personal recommendations