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Students of the World

Undergraduates experience other cultures through new immersion program

Before heading to a remote village in Russia where he spent a month working in an orphanage, Jordan Bazinsky stashed a supply of bubble gum in the pocket of his backpack. A few days into his stay, the public policy studies major returned to his room at the group home to find one of the little boys sitting on the floor, cheeks bulging and bubble gum wrappers strewn in a semi-circle around him. The tyke had stuffed every piece of gum into his mouth and was desperately trying to chew it.

Bazinsky flashed back to a similar incident in his own childhood and realized that some rites of passage transcend cultural barriers. "Regardless of the language or cultural differences," Bazinsky said, "the image is the same."

Bazinsky, a senior at Duke this year who served as president of Duke Student Government, might have missed that lesson of international travel had he been a tourist distracted by sightseeing or consumed by course work as a study-abroad student. But as one of 10 participants in the first foray of Students of the World, he was afforded a more intimate glimpse of a life very different from his own.

Shortly after the end of the spring 2000 semester, the 10 juniors and seniors, all of them leaders in student life at Duke, traveled by van from Moscow for seven hours to Kitezh, a village of about 70 people. There they pitched in with the other adults - the men in the field, the women in the kitchen -- to do daily chores. When the day's work was done, they gave English lessons to the children at the orphanage for a couple of hours every evening.

"It was liberating," said Courtney Spence, one of the co-founders of Students of the World. During those two weeks of in-bed-by-dark-and-up-with-the-sun regimen, they experienced life through the blisters and sweat and belly laughs of the caretakers and orphans in the isolated, self-supporting village on the other side of the world.

"Working alongside someone in the field, you're sharing and getting a sense of each other without having in-depth conversations," Bazinsky said. "To live that life for even a bit was eye-opening."

That was Spence's idea when she and Patrick Lanier, a pre-med who graduated from Duke as a junior last year, founded Students of the World last year. Spence, now a junior majoring in history, went to London by herself to work in an advertising agency the summer after her freshman year. The people she met and the experiences she had ignited in her an excitement with the idea of the Global Citizen. When she returned to Duke, she began taking courses along that line.

The current emphasis on globalization impelled her to find a way for other Duke students to benefit from a similar multicultural experience. She shared that vision with her French-born friend Lanier, who had done social service volunteer work in Bolivia, Mexico and Honduras. The two drew up a business plan and began approaching faculty for help in raising money and recruiting students.

Many members of the faculty and administration were skeptical at first, said Janet Dickerson, who was then vice president of student affairs and now holds a similar post at Princeton University.

"Frankly, we're not enthusiastic about sending students to other countries for short visits," Dickerson said. "There's the question of the expense being worth the return from the intervention they are proposing." Duke already had an established study-abroad program and Service Opportunities in Leadership program. The Students of the World program promised a relatively brief but intense global immersion that would allow students to step into the life of another. Furthermore, participants would document their experiences in the village community in Russia that took in orphans and upon their return would give presentations to share what they'd learned and how the journey changed them.

Dickerson recalled how much she had learned during a 25-day trip to Germany she took as a Fulbright scholar, being a representative of the United States and traveling with Americans who had differing perspectives. And she was impressed that Spence and Lanier had put together a business plan and a polished presentation.

"They'd done their homework, and they were persistent," she said. "They were convinced they could do this." Giving students opportunities to pursue dreams that others can't imagine was part of Dickerson's mission. To help the two turn their idea into reality, she gave Students of the World some starter funding - and more importantly, Spence said - her backing.

"She gave us encouragement and her endorsement, which was respected on campus," Spence said. "That opened doors for us to meet influential people on campus."

Armed with Dickerson's support, Spence and Lanier solicited other donations, staged fund-raising dances and sold T-shirt to supplement the expenses of 10 students for the trip to Russia.

Spence and Lanier knew that if their program was to continue, they needed a successful first year. They set up a booth at an activities fair, spoke to many classes, tacked up flyers and sent out messages to everyone in their e-mail address files to get a large pool of applicants from which to choose. They personally recruited students who were considered campus leaders. From the 40 students who applied, Spence and Lanier selected eight of the most dynamic and high-achieving.

"We wanted a powerful vehicle for getting things started on campus," Spence said of the team. "I'm amazed we got along so well, given the strong personalities."

The strong personalities rose to the occasion, enthusiastically diving in to life in the orphanage community. Once the day's work was done, the students just as enthusiastically played. They organized American football games with the adults and children in the village and held a campfire sing-a-long, teaching the villagers such American standards as "Take Me Out to the Ballgame."

The students opened themselves to the recreation and customs of the village, as well. Twice a week, for instance, the villagers went to gender-segregated community bathhouses for an evening of saunas, mud masks and cold showers straight from a bucket. Women gossiped, laughed and sipped herbal tea in the nude, Spence said.

Through the experience, Spence learned that language need not be the main way to communicate with others.

"The people I connected with best were people who didn't speak English at all," she said. "You need to let your guard down and be open to another person."

Students of the World is gearing up for this year's trip to Cuba for two weeks in May, and the group has grown to 15 students. Spence is hoping this trip will be as successful as the first. When she graduates in 2002 she would like to expand the program to campuses around the country. Organizing the group has taught her invaluable lessons and given her confidence that will spill over into whatever career path she takes.

"It showed me I could do anything if I set my mind on something I really wanted," she said.

Written by Nancy Oates.