As an undergraduate, Dr. Greg Guelcher spent a year studying abroad at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Almost 25 years later, he still says it was the best year of his life by far. “I gained so much confidence as a result of my stay in Hong Kong,” said Guelcher, an associate professor of history and political science at Morningside College. “There were so many firsts in my life that it was like an adrenaline rush for me.” Morningside sees value in this kind of opportunity. In fact, the college is looking at requiring all of its students to participate in some sort of international experience. “In his book, ‘The World is Flat,’ Thomas Friedman makes a good point that it is an increasingly interconnected, globalized world,” said Guelcher, who is also Morningside’s coordinator of international study. “For us to adequately prepare students to succeed in the future, we need to somehow give them more exposure to the world, whether by getting them outside our borders or by bringing more international programs to campus.” Guelcher said Morningside is trying to make international experiences more affordable for students. For one thing, the college hopes to start fundraising for an endowment that would help defray the cost of student trips overseas. In addition, May Term, which was created about five years ago, has proven to be a great lower-cost way to get a large number of students abroad, even if only for two or three weeks. The school year before May Term was created, only five Morningside students traveled abroad. Last spring 116 students went overseas. While there are May Term
students who stay on campus or take trips within the United States, more than a third of our May Term students studied abroad last spring in locations including Australia, China, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Italy and London. “It’s exciting,” said Dr. William Deeds, dean of the college, who joined students on a May Term trip to Ireland in 2007. “It’s not only the first time some of these students have been abroad. It’s the first time some have ever been on an airplane. You watch them gain in confidence and ability to interact with all kinds of people. It’s just a wonderful experience.” Adam Gonshorowski had never been overseas until he went on the recent May Term trip to China. He said Morningside connections helped him go beyond the packaged tour to see, for example, a factory outside of Shanghai that makes fishnets and rope. “It was really interesting to see where our products come from,” he said. “The people in China like to work. No matter what it is they’re doing, they like to work and have some sort of stimulus to make money and advance themselves.” Gonshorowski said the
experience made him realize how hard he is going to have to work to be successful. “There’s a lot more competition for everything,” he said. “Since this is such a small world, it’s like I have to compete with everybody in the United States for my grad school position – and then also the rest of the world. It really makes me feel like I have to step up and perform – really be at the top of my game.” All in all, Gonshorowski thinks it’s wonderful how small the world has become – how easy it is, for example, to jump on a plane and be in China the next day. “I think it will make it easier for countries to get along,” he said.
Alumni join May Term trips overseas By Jenny Welp
Every year Morningside College invites alumni and friends to join students and faculty on one of the May Term trips overseas. This year they were invited to join the trip to China, and more than 20 alumni and friends accepted the offer. “We had an enjoyable, interactive time with alumni who were on the trip with us. I still get e-mails from some of them fairly
Turn the page to see highlights from this year’s six May Term trips overseas.
regularly,” said John Gilbert 1960, who was on the trip with his wife, Carlene. “And having the chance to interact with the kids was really fun. They were adventuresome.” On the trip as friends of the college were Dr. Donald and Mary K. Schenk, who are in their 60s. Mary K. said they had so much fun with students that they got talked into joining Facebook, a Web site many young people use to communicate with their friends. Don said it was exciting to see Morningside students interacting with Chinese students during Morningside’s choir performance tour. He said that if anyone tells those Chinese students that all Americans are bad people, they’ll know that it isn’t true. “It was the best example of diplomacy you could have,” he said. “It was one-on-one diplomacy, and I think it was great.” Dr. Greg Guelcher, associate professor of history and political science at Morningside, said he enjoyed watching students interact with alumni and friends on the trip. “The alumni who go on these trips tend to be well traveled and they can offer their travel experience and, frankly, life experience to our students,” he said. “It was neat, especially because they could bring in the history often. For instance, in relation to China, it could be, ‘I remember when U.S.-Chinese relations were very cold and very antagonistic,’ whereas nowadays, we were roundly welcomed wherever we went in China.” Alumni are invited to join students and faculty for this spring’s May Term trip to Israel. See the back cover for additional information.
As an undergraduate, Dr. Greg Guelcher spent a year studying abroad at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Almost 25 years later, he still says it was the best year of his life by far. “I gained so much confidence as a result of my stay in Hong Kong,” said Guelcher, an associate professor of history and political science at Morningside College. “There were so many firsts in my life that it was like an adrenaline rush for me.” Morningside sees value in this kind of opportunity. In fact, the college is looking at requiring all of its students to participate in some sort of international experience. “In his book, ‘The World is Flat,’ Thomas Friedman makes a good point that it is an increasingly interconnected, globalized world,” said Guelcher, who is also Morningside’s coordinator of international study. “For us to adequately prepare students to succeed in the future, we need to somehow give them more exposure to the world, whether by getting them outside our borders or by bringing more international programs to campus.” Guelcher said Morningside is trying to make international experiences more affordable for students. For one thing, the college hopes to start fundraising for an endowment that would help defray the cost of student trips overseas. In addition, May Term, which was created about five years ago, has proven to be a great lower-cost way to get a large number of students abroad, even if only for two or three weeks. The school year before May Term was created, only five Morningside students traveled abroad. Last spring 116 students went overseas. While there are May Term
students who stay on campus or take trips within the United States, more than a third of our May Term students studied abroad last spring in locations including Australia, China, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Italy and London. “It’s exciting,” said Dr. William Deeds, dean of the college, who joined students on a May Term trip to Ireland in 2007. “It’s not only the first time some of these students have been abroad. It’s the first time some have ever been on an airplane. You watch them gain in confidence and ability to interact with all kinds of people. It’s just a wonderful experience.” Adam Gonshorowski had never been overseas until he went on the recent May Term trip to China. He said Morningside connections helped him go beyond the packaged tour to see, for example, a factory outside of Shanghai that makes fishnets and rope. “It was really interesting to see where our products come from,” he said. “The people in China like to work. No matter what it is they’re doing, they like to work and have some sort of stimulus to make money and advance themselves.” Gonshorowski said the
experience made him realize how hard he is going to have to work to be successful. “There’s a lot more competition for everything,” he said. “Since this is such a small world, it’s like I have to compete with everybody in the United States for my grad school position – and then also the rest of the world. It really makes me feel like I have to step up and perform – really be at the top of my game.” All in all, Gonshorowski thinks it’s wonderful how small the world has become – how easy it is, for example, to jump on a plane and be in China the next day. “I think it will make it easier for countries to get along,” he said.
Alumni join May Term trips overseas By Jenny Welp
Every year Morningside College invites alumni and friends to join students and faculty on one of the May Term trips overseas. This year they were invited to join the trip to China, and more than 20 alumni and friends accepted the offer. “We had an enjoyable, interactive time with alumni who were on the trip with us. I still get e-mails from some of them fairly
Turn the page to see highlights from this year’s six May Term trips overseas.
regularly,” said John Gilbert 1960, who was on the trip with his wife, Carlene. “And having the chance to interact with the kids was really fun. They were adventuresome.” On the trip as friends of the college were Dr. Donald and Mary K. Schenk, who are in their 60s. Mary K. said they had so much fun with students that they got talked into joining Facebook, a Web site many young people use to communicate with their friends. Don said it was exciting to see Morningside students interacting with Chinese students during Morningside’s choir performance tour. He said that if anyone tells those Chinese students that all Americans are bad people, they’ll know that it isn’t true. “It was the best example of diplomacy you could have,” he said. “It was one-on-one diplomacy, and I think it was great.” Dr. Greg Guelcher, associate professor of history and political science at Morningside, said he enjoyed watching students interact with alumni and friends on the trip. “The alumni who go on these trips tend to be well traveled and they can offer their travel experience and, frankly, life experience to our students,” he said. “It was neat, especially because they could bring in the history often. For instance, in relation to China, it could be, ‘I remember when U.S.-Chinese relations were very cold and very antagonistic,’ whereas nowadays, we were roundly welcomed wherever we went in China.” Alumni are invited to join students and faculty for this spring’s May Term trip to Israel. See the back cover for additional information.
Reprinted with permission © 2008 The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa