Bulletin Summer 2011

Page 13

C AROLINE MILLER ’11

GOLDSTEIN

PHOTO COURTESY OF

PHOTO COURTESY OF J EREMY

Left: Members of the 2011 Global Studies class: (back row) seniors Rachel Sellstone, Magdalena Franz-Soeln, Anaise Kanimba, Hillary Wein, Mary O’Connor, Brittany Corso, Victoria Leonard, Katherine Wilkinson, Phoebe Manning, Polina Godz, Caroline Miller, and faculty chaperones Devon Ducharme and Dr. Kim Bullock. (Front row) Director of Global Studies Jeremy Goldstein and senior Tarleton Watkins. Right: Hillary Wein ’11 and Caroline Miller ’11 in Senegal.

Unsettled in Senegal

For students in the Global Studies class, a trip to Africa meant confronting cultural dynamics–and disparities–they’d never seen before

F

or Tarleto n Watkins ’11 it was in Touba, the most holy city in Senegal, when the unease started to set in. Three thousand seven hundred miles from the Hilltop, he and his Global Studies classmates were standing near a sheltered plaza where the Senegalese—94 percent of whom are Muslim—pilgrimaged in the heat of the day to read the Koran and pray. “Touba was a place that made me intensely uncomfortable,” Watkins said. “I was looking at something that contrasted so sharply with my own beliefs, but also looking at something that people could derive comfort from. It was a weird conflict in my mind. It was very beautiful—but at the same time, I felt very uncomfortable.” For Rachel Sellstone ’11 it was 6 a.m. in the capital city of Dakar. The group had just gotten off the plane and there it was: The African Renaissance Monument. “It’s massive,” Sellstone recalled. But did it also represent misguided leadership? “Here was a

country with all these problems within the society—and then the government spends money on this statue.” There were many moments of joy, discovery—and discomfort—for the 12 students who along with three faculty members traveled to Western Africa this spring as part of St. George’s expanding Global Scholars Program, initiated with the 2006 Strategic Plan. Coming to terms with a society with many pockets of poverty, but where a genuine warmth and human spirit showed through in so many ways, was both eye opening and unsettling for some. Most in the group—seniors Britta ny Cor so, Magdalena Franz-Soeln, Polina Godz, Anaise K animba, V ic toria Leonard, Phoebe Ma nning, Ca roline Miller, Mar y O’Conno r, Sellstone, Watkins, Hillar y Wein and Katherine Wilkinson—said they experienced myriad emotions during the trip. But all agreed they came back with a heightened sense of awareness of the vast divide between the

developed—and developing—nations. At the heart of the Global Studies excursions (the last trip was to Poland and the 2012 trip will be to Iceland), is a quest for first-hand information for a research paper. This year, research topics included the rights of women, globalization and its importance for the soccer world, political corruption, agriculture policy, freedom of the press, medical care and education in Senegal. Hearing the opinions of the native people, along with getting help from a master tour guide, was essential. Along on the trip were their teacher, Director of Global Studies Jeremy Goldstein, and faculty chaperones and science teachers Dr. Kim Bullock and Devo n Ducharme. In the north of Senegal toward the desert of Lompoul, Miller was struck by a visit to a village of Mauratanian tents where the middays and post-dinner hours were spent drinking gunpowder tea—a supersweet concoction of Chinese green tea,

S T. G E O R G E ’ S 2 0 1 1 S U M M E R B U L L E T I N

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