Fifteen weeks ago, Ball State students left campus to embark on whatever adventures summer brought their way. To some it meant 106 days of relaxation and freedom from the stresses of school. To others, it was a chance to make money, see the world or both. From an average job back home to international internships, Ball State University students have been all over the place this summer.
China
Dominic Schiferl, a senior public communications studies major, was in China this summer working as an international journalist and working to build a relationship between Ball State and Hong Kong Baptist University.
Along with five Ball State students and two professors, Schiferl spent six weeks of his summer experiencing the culture in Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong. Schiferl blogged and worked on video and print pieces with the other members of the expedition. Some of these pieces were sent back and published at various news outlets in Indiana and Illinois.
"I learned that there are people who do things in every aspect of life differently than I do," Schiferl said. "It's pretty amazing."
In Beijing, the group met with Becky Skillman, lieutenant governor of Indiana, and was invited to join a delegation of Indiana business leaders who were attending a contract signing between an Indiana popcorn company and a Chinese movie theater chain.
Schiferl said he was able to make it to the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, an event that featured buildings filled with cultural information native to the nearly 200 countries represented at the convention.
"If I had to pick a favorite part, I would have to say going to the World Expo," Schiferl said. "We did a whole bunch of stories, and I also got to meet the lieutenant governor and follow her on her economic mission, which was really cool."
Japan
Senior psychology and Japanese major Gisele Berzenye spent her summer immersed in another culture. After taking only two years of Japanese, she spent her summer at Sapporo University on the Japanese island of Hokkaido.
Though her Japanese language skills were at what she called "survival level," when Berzenye landed in Japan, she said she felt comfortable.
"For me, it was like coming home," she said.
Berzenye took two classes while studying at the university, and because she lived an hour away, she was able to experience the daily commute that locals might make on the way to their jobs in the city.
After a trip that improved her reading, writing and speaking in the Japanese language, Berzenye said she hopes to make it back someday, perhaps to combine her majors and practice psychology.
South Africa
Another group of students traveled out of the country, but this group's focus was not on learning a different language. A group of 12 theater and dance students and two professors went to Pretoria's Tshwane University of Technology in South Africa. They went as a part of the same exchange program that brought six South African students to Ball State last winter.
The group spent two weeks in Pretoria studying theater and dance to see how the performing arts there compared and contrasted with those in America, sophomore acting major Craig Ester said.
For Ester, traveling to South Africa was his first experience outside of the United States. Getting used to people using different currency and driving on the other side of the road was strange, he said.
One thing the students did not have to adjust to was the language. Most people spoke English, but because South Africa has 11 national languages, they would often hear up to four languages being spoken in the same conversation.
For senior acting major David Guiden, the South Africa trip was his first time outside of the country, too. He said he was glad he went because he gained a new respect for different cultures.
"As a person, it has widened my world view tremendously," Guiden said. "All I'd ever known before I went out there was the U.S. After being there, I realized how similar we are and how we have the same struggles."
After spending two weeks in Pretoria, the group moved on to a week-long safari in Kruger National Park. For John Detty, a senior musical theater major, seeing the stars in the middle of the park was one of the most memorable experiences.
"When you're in camp, you go outside and there is no light pollution, no actual pollution," Detty said. "You look up and can clearly see all of the Milky Way in great detail. It was probably the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in my life."
Western U.S.
Junior international business major Monica Pappas spent her summer exploring and working for food services in Yellowstone National Park, which spans portions of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.
Pappas enjoyed a summer of outdoor adventure by hiking, swimming and viewing the forests, mountains and lakes within the park during her time off.
"You could see the band of the Milky Way in the sky every night, and you would see a shooting star every few minutes. There were plenty of stars to wish upon," Pappas said. "I'd do anything to go back right now."
Although Pappas didn't initially plan on looking for a job in the park after hearing about the opportunity, she said she changed her mind after encouragement from friends and family, and she's glad she did.
"One of my friends said, ‘Monica you have to go. You can't stay home in Noblesville all summer like everyone else.' So I went," Pappas said. "I'm more appreciative of the little things now, I guess. I didn't have any electronics so I really don't need to have them around me all the time anymore."
Midwest
The majority of students stepping back onto campus after three months of summer are returning to friends and lives they had previously created. Some freshmen are coming to campus for the second time after their summer orientation, where they were lead by a group of upperclassmen known as orientation leaders.
After spending three weeks in South Africa, Guiden also spent the first part of his summer as an orientation leader. For two months, the orientation leaders trained together, lived together and introduced freshmen to the campus together. Guiden said they have even supported each other in ways not connected to orientation.
Sophomore business major Cailee Morris joined this group for the first time this summer. She originally took the job because it was a way to stay on the campus she called home and a way to make money, she said.
"Now going through it, there are so many reasons I want to do it again that have nothing to do with money or not wanting to go home and everything to do with just being able to make connections with the freshmen," Morris said.
Even now, freshmen still call her to ask questions or say hi to her as they pass on the street. Knowing that she made a difference to help students adjust made for a worthwhile program, and she plans to return to next summer, Morris said.
To read more about Schiferl's trip to China and the culture he experienced, visit ballstategoestochina.com.
To read more of Pappas's trip to Yellowstone National Park, visit her blog at morethanfinee.blogspot.com.
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