College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State University

Passage to India

Six-week program gives Iowa State students a quick glance at India.
It was nothing that Mike DiMarco expected it to be.

But the six weeks that DiMarco and ten other Iowa State students spent in India as part of a summer study abroad program was also everything that he expected it to be.

"I found out a lot about myself this summer," said DiMarco, a sophomore religious studies and anthropology major. "I think the only way that you can discover new things about yourself is to be put into a situation that you’re normally not in."

That was definitely the case with the ISU Summer Program in India. Students spent a majority of their study abroad experience in the southern Indian city of Mysore at the Dhvanyaloka Center for Indian Studies.

The program combined lectures and field trips with the students gaining hands-on experience in Indian art, architecture, rural development and sociocultural issues.

Directed by Balmurli Natrajan, assistant professor of anthropology, and Ricardo Salvador, director of Iowa State's Honors Program, the summer program was sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences with assistance from the Colleges of Agriculture and Design. Natrajan says that Shelley Taylor, who is affiliated with the College of Agriculture's Study Abroad Program, was a key coordinator throughout and helped organizational activities and budgeting.

Vidya Kalaramadam, currently an instructor in Women's Studies at Iowa State, also joined the students as a coordinator for the last four weeks of the program.

"From the moment that we landed in Bombay the students were exposed to new and different things," Natrajan said. "Everything from tall, modern buildings to visibly entrenched poverty. They were immediately exposed to the extremely contradictory life and social structure that is India.

"The multiculturalism that is prevalent throughout India became quite apparent to them quickly."

One student, Nina Crudup, went on the trip without any expectations.

"I have a lot of friends from India and I tried not to have their views shape any perceived expectations before I went," she said. "In fact India is a lot different from what I had learned from them or the media.

"It was a constant learning experience," the junior anthropology major continued. "I wanted to see India for what it is, how its society functions and what these things mean to its people."

During their stay, the students took two different three-credit courses, "History and Culture of India" and "Contemporary Issues in Sustainable Development in India." The courses were offered four days a week for four weeks of the program.

The courses were taught by professors from in and around Mysore, which Natrajan describes as the "old traditional cultural capital" of south India.

During the weekends, Natrajan, a native of India, along with Dr. Rao from the Dhvanyaloka Center, took the students on site visits. Extended site visits were planned for the two remaining weeks of the program.

"The site visits were a good mix that emphasized some of the issues from both courses," Natrajan said. "For instance for the first course (History and Culture of India) we went to several important architectural sites. For the Contemporary Issues course we went to a village where a grassroots attempt at democracy is taking place."

The students also went to an organic farm, saw a location where Indians are partaking in a revolutionary rainwater harvesting experiment, and went to a tribal village where a hospital is located.

"I wanted to show the students that it's not all high tech," Natrajan said. "Advanced technology is important but I wanted to show them (Iowa State students) how people can advance their technology simply by building off the knowledge they already have."

"It was beneficial going with a professor that has extensive knowledge of the country and its society," said Monica Whitham, a senior sociology major. "Murli gave us special insights into what we were witnessing."

Natrajan said he simultaneously wanted to challenge the students to learn about different aspects of their own society even while learning more about India and Indians.

"No study abroad program will truly work if it doesn’t make the students reflect on what they are seeing and learning" he said. "The students on this trip opened up and challenged each other."

"This experience changed my outlook on how I view other cultures and the society itself," said Matt Tedrow, a junior anthropology and history major. "It has changed my views and how I look at situations."

As part of their academic responsibilities, the students were asked to write three short papers, maintain a daily journal, and give a final presentation that demonstrated how the six weeks they stayed in India were spent as a student rather than simply a tourist.

After the official study abroad program was completed, some students traveled on their own to different parts of India.

Others say there is no doubt that they will return.

"I'm definitely going back," DiMarco said. "I still have a lot more things I can learn."