Teachers like to put students in front of what they are learning. Usually for a class like history that just means a simulated video of a historical event. The Study Abroad Program brings students even closer.
“Let me tell you, having class about WWII is quite a bit more interesting when you’re having it on the beaches of Normandy,” said John Owen, a senior finance and accounting major.
The beaches of Normandy are one of the many non-traditional settings students might visit if they choose to participate in the Compass Program or the British Studies Program for the summer.
The British Studies Program has been going for 38 years and around 200 students from across the nation attend it. Seven students from ULM will participate this year.
The Compass Program, which will be in its second year, is limited to 40 students from across the nation. Three students from ULM attended last year.
Joni Noble, the ULM Consortium Director for both programs, coordinates all ULM students into the program. She also teaches Art/Photography on both programs every summer. This summer she will conduct her photography classes in Amsterdam, Berlin, Paris, Normandy and London.
Noble also teaches art full-time during the school year and during the Maymester. By the time she returns from the Study Abroad Programs, she only has about a week off.
“Yes, I always have very busy summers, but it is such an interesting and enriching experience that I would not think of giving it up,” Noble said.
In addition to her class, the Compass Program offers history, psychology, political science and literature. Everyone in the Compass Program also takes “The Needle Course,” which is an overview of the history, literature and art of each city they visit. All of the classes count for three credit hours.
The British Studies Program offers classes that include history, business, psychology and English, among many others. Students receive six hours credit in one of these selections.
Because students spend four to five hours a day in class, students only take one class. Class is not held on the weekends.
None of the classes take place with students sitting at a desk. All the classes occur in nontraditional settings and almost never in the same place twice.
That is why Owen traveled to Normandy beach in France one day for his history class where he learned about both World Wars. He also took a trip to the French battlefield of Verdun with his class.
Verdun was the site of one history’s bloodiest battles, a nine month skirmish that resulted in 700,000 casualties during World War I in 1916.
“All of a sudden my friend Henry came walking up the path proclaiming ‘look what I found!’ It did not take my history professor, a special-forces veteran, long to realize that Henry had found an unexploded WWI German hand grenade. The pin still was still in place and everything. We ended up safely discarding it. It was quite a rush for a minute.”
Noble said, “Study Abroad is an incredible addition to anyone’s résumé. It shows potential employers and graduate schools that the student is a risk taker, well-rounded and a person of breadth.”
Victoria Smith, a senior art major, took that risk in 2010 for the British Studies Program. She fondly remembers the experience.
“Being so young, 19, and away from home…that far away, I was scared. I did question if I could do this whole thing. I didn’t have a fellow student from ULM that I knew really well,” Smith said. “Joni was such a great companion. I went with only knowing Joni Noble, my adviser. She made me feel at home in a place that welcomed all of us. I can never thank her enough.”
Smith said they bonded and grew to view each other as friends rather than as student and adviser. Smith still confides in Noble the same way she did that summer and grew to view her professors as people and “not as untouchable people that were different from myself.” She now feels an attachment to everyone in the art department and views them as family.
“Although some may think back to huge and grandiose memories, the one’s I think back to are those that made me feel comfortable and at home, both with my outward surroundings as well as within myself,” Smith said.
Bonding with people was also what Cara Rascoe, a sophomore pre-nursing major, remembers most.
On their trip to Paris, she and a group of friends decided to have a picnic at night in front of the Eiffel Tower. They wanted to see the tower sparkle during the night. They put down multiple blankets to lie on and then pulled out the snacks and lots of wine.
Before they cracked open a bottle of wine, Rascoe felt something cold and wet hit her shoulder. She tilted her head back to look up, only to be greeted with multiple rain drops. She and the others picked up their stuff and ran for cover. They found a tree just as the rain turned from a sprinkle to a downpour.
After making it under the tree, they realized it was too small for all of them. So they ran from tree to tree until they found one big enough to fit them all, trying to stay as dry as possible in the meantime.
“We finally found one, but we have to squish to all fit. There was barely any room, like we were shoulder to shoulder. Some were laying their legs across each other. We had to make room for the food and wine by putting it in our laps,” Rascoe said.
They didn’t let the lack of space a little rain bother them.
“We stayed there for several hours just laughing, drinking, enjoying the lights, and sharing stories about our lives,” Rascoe said. “I believe this was the point we created the bond that will last forever. Even though that sounds so cliché, it’s true.”
Smith encourages others to study abroad in Europe.
“We all need that push to look past the boundaries of complacency, and this trip does it. GO! Take a chance.And then decide if the life you are living is the one you were meant to have,” Smith said.
