5. Iterate the cultural norms, mission, and vision of your institution, finding ways to tie them in with those of the HBCU and other topics included in the GCP. Along with developing a clear sense of a native cultural identity, it is important to help students and students from partner institutions understand the history and ethos of a particular college. I was adamant that my students in 2012 know the remarkable history of Bennett College and try to understand its unique mission to empower AfricanAmerican women. King is a faith-based school but without many of the dogmatic features and rules that differentiate or stigmatize some other Christian colleges in the South. Understanding “God’s will” is imperative for most of our students, and I found that King’s mission to “transform culture in Christ” has clear implications for our study of global citizenship. One of the fundamental questions I asked in the preparation was this: “To what extent are American Christians called by God to be responsible global citizens?” Implicit in this query is whether an attitude of provincialism – so often a part of Appalachian life – is counterproductive to living a full human life within the will of God.
February to get to know their fellow travelers. The faculty laid the groundwork for the discussions we hoped would continue through the Salzburg trip, and the students seemed to get along splendidly—much more so than the groups who met in 2012. The students finished out the semester with positive expectations for the Salzburg week in May.
The Second Year
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“The trip allowed me to not only see a foreign culture, but it also allowed me to interact with other American students in an environment that encouraged us to discuss global issues.”
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“I was forced to talk about topics I normally do not discuss and perceptions of the US that most US citizens would never encounter. Most importantly, I was introduced to people from the US that I would have never crossed paths with. The discussions (…) inside and outside of the classroom led to me being better able to understand the relationships between different groups of people within the US.”
Salzburg Week During the week of residential learning at Schloss Leopoldskron, each day, a different expert addressed a new topic designed to enhance student awareness of and commitment to global citizenship and address America’s position in the era of globalization. These topics ranged from ethnocentrism, race, environmental sustainability, and the view the rest of the world has of America. The student group of fifty consisted of students from King, Bennett, Ferrum College, and Tarrant County College (TX). The students met in plenary sessions as well as in small groups to discuss each day’s topic; they also met to form responses to challenges posed by the facilitators. Here are a few comments written by King students in their post-trip evaluations:
For the students of King University and Bennett College, the Salzburg 2013 experience began in January with a joint preparation course taught by King and Bennett faculty, and it continued through the spring semester and a weekend in February when King students again visited Bennett. The experience culminated in the week at Schloss Leopoldskron from May 17-25.
Preparation Course
When the spring preparation course of 2013 began, I felt much more comfortable after having experienced what did and did not work in spring 2012. My Bennett colleagues and I knew what pitfalls could arise, and which readings and assignments could be the most effective. I Faculty Response decided for my own course at King to more intentionally Our colleagues from Bennett and we were also pleased emphasize the connection to see that our students were between one’s conception of able to have frank and honest self-identity and one’s notion of I spent a lot of time with my students conversation about the differences the Other. Specifically, I spent discussing the phenomenon of white prevalent on the campuses of our a lot of time with my students privilege, a concept quite foreign to ACA college and their HBCU that discussing the phenomenon of many whites from rural Appalachia. serves primarily African-American white privilege, a concept quite women. Such conversations are foreign to many whites from rural necessarily uncomfortable at Appalachia. I also tried to tie it into notions of “American times, and faculty leading future ACA-HBCU groups will Exceptionalism” that seem to induce cultural blindness need to temper their expectations of student growth. For and disinterest in “Otherness” among many Americans. every step forward in understanding, it seemed there was While some objections and exceptions were raised by the another step back, a reversion to old misunderstandings students, I believed that the notion of privilege was at and ethnocentric attitudes. For instance, one Africanleast reasonable to them at an academic level. The King American student from King wrote in her evaluation. students then traveled to Bennett for a weekend in mid-
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