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International service learning
Study abroad program combines academics with service learning.
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Study abroad opportunities are offered for Spanish-speaking Iowa State
students in a variety of locations.
Each has its merits, but the study abroad program in Bolivia is unique
in its own right.
"The program in Bolivia is very different from the other study abroad
programs offered through Iowa State," said Kathy Leonard, professor
of foreign languages and literatures and the program's academic coordinator.
Leonard says the program’s service learning component is the major
difference why the "In the Footsteps of the Inca" program, held
in the colonial, university town of Sucre, is different.
"Service learning helps students enter into a culture in an intentional
way by working with a local community partner to meet needs identified
by the community," she said. "It's not an internship, although
it has some similarities with such programs. I really believe that the
students enjoy that aspect of the program."
Students spend the first three weeks of the program in an academic setting
- studying Spanish intensively in Sucre's Academia Latinoamericana. Over
the following three weeks, the students continue their Spanish lessons
along with completing their service learning component.
During the previous two years of the program's existence, Leonard says
that Iowa State students have worked in a variety of service learning
opportunities including a textile museum, an orphanage and the city's
Center for the Blind.
"It really depends on their interests," Leonard said. "In
the past we have had students teach English and guitar at the orphanage,
while another helped in the building of a greenhouse there."
Leonard feels that the service learning component aids in the student's
Spanish acquisition.
"I think it's really a wonderful way to learn the language as well
as being a way to give back to the community," she said. "By
interacting with people in a second language, the students become more
comfortable with their language skills.
"The service learning component also gives the students a sense of
satisfaction that they bring back to Iowa with them."
While the service learning component helps students with the Spanish language
skills, Leonard says that three-week intensive language courses give students
a good foundation. Students also live with host families in Sucre.
Both are important because participation in "In the Footsteps of
the Inca" requires only a minimum of one semester of college-level
Spanish or its equivalent. A majority of past participants have not been
Spanish majors, instead majoring in such disciplines as anthropology,
English, journalism and biochemistry.
"We reduced the Spanish requirement because the Academia Latinoamericana
in Sucre is so good at teaching the lower levels of the language,"
Leonard said. "We had one student who attended last year who had
difficulty putting three sentences together when she first arrived in
Bolivia. At the close of the program her languages skills had dramatically
increased."
"In the Footsteps of the Inca" does not consist solely of the
study of Spanish and service learning. A week-long excursion to Potosi
and Uyuni in the Bolivian highlands occurs after the first three weeks
of Spanish instruction. Then at the conclusion of the program, the students
take a four-day trip to Cuzco and Machu Picchu in Peru.
The 2004 version of “In the Footsteps of the Inca” will be
held May 27 through July 22, 2004. The cost will range from $2,750 to
$3,000 but does not include tuition for eight academic credits.
The application deadline is Jan. 17.
Around LAS
January 12-25, 2004
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