Global Experiential Learning (GEL)

World Saxophone Congress Experience

This program is suitable for wind instrumentalists.

Tim Roberts | troberts3@su.edu

The World Saxophone Congress is the largest saxophone convention in the world. It meets every three years in a different world capital. 2018’s host city is Zagreb, Croatia, and the host institution is the Academy of Music at the University of Zagreb. The program will last five days and is filled each day with numerous concerts, recitals, lectures, presentations, and roundtable discussions on all issues related to the saxophone. This event will be a unique opportunity for wind instrumentalists to experience an intense musical and academic environment while also receiving a valuable world cultural experience.

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Cultural Explorations of Cuba

This program is suitable for all students.

Bryan Pearce-Gonzales | bpearceg@su.edu & Andrea Smith | asmith11@su.edu

This trip will be academic in nature, with primary emphasis on visiting culturally/historically/politically significant sites which include (but are not limited to) visiting several towns including Havana and Santiago, visit to Buena Vista Social Club, visit to Hemingway’s residence, cooking school, visit to Castro’s gravesite.

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The Eurozone: History, Economics, and Current Events

This program is suitable for all students interested in exploring Europe.

Casey Eriksen | ceriksen@su.edu & Petra Schweitzer | pschweit@su.edu>

Enjoy visits to Brussels, Paris, Provence, and Barcelona for an overview of some of Europe’s most important and iconic economic and cultural centers. The course will explore the cultural, economic, historical, and current state of the Eurozone from an interdisciplinary perspective; this is the first time that this GEL trip is led by faculty from the Department of Languages and Cultural Studies. In a world that is continually changing and complex, circumstances demand that students hold an awareness of international structures, relations, and communications. The European Union is an economic, political, social, and cultural community that brings together twenty-eight western and central European nations within a shared judicial, political, and economic system. Its economy is among the strongest in the world, given its Gross Domestic Product, geographical size, population, and economic activity. The EU leads the global economy in international trade and its political and cultural connections drive forces of globalization.

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Summer Arts Leadership Institute

This program is suitable for those interested in exploring arts management in an international setting.

David Edelman | dedelman@su.edu

The Summer Arts Leadership Institute will bring together American and European students for a 10-day intensive program in international and intercultural issues facing future arts leaders.  The Institute will be hosted at the American University of Greece in Athens and will feature discussions with European cultural leaders, four half-day study tours of Athens, a guided day-long tour of Epidaurus and Mycenae, attendance at four evening performances in Athens, and even a leadership day at the beach.

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Music Therapy and Cultural Competence in Guatemala

This program is suitable for Music Therapy students.

Hakeem Leonard | hleonard@su.edu & Keith Jones-Pomeroy | kjonespo@su.edu

Our group will travel to Xela, Guatemala to work with the Highland Support Project. This is a GEL trip, as well as a service-learning Spiritual Life trip- a partnership between the Conservatory and Spiritual Life. Through this, we will learn how to teach and lead music classes for Mayan schools in the mountains. By using music therapy techniques, this will allow us to engage in make meaning and purpose in the world, as well as practicing their profession in a multicultural context.

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Experiential Learning In Haiti

This program is suitable for graduate Physical Therapy students.

Michelle Wiley | mwiley@su.edu

This non-traditional clinical rotation takes place in Jacmel, Haiti. Our group will treat patients in an in-patient setting and also in a school based setting. Visits to rural homes and schools will also take place. Community Coalition for Haiti is the host organization and the group will be exposed to serial casting, equipment fabrication, and Inter professional interactions with nurses, physicians, pharmacists, and teachers.

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Nicaragua Medical Mission Trip

This program is suitable for graduate Occupational Therapy, Pharmacy, Physical Therapy, and Physician Assistant Studies students.

Tony Miller | amiller@su.edu

This is the 12th annual medical mission trip to Leon, Nicaragua. The inter-professional team consisting of community physicians, physician assistants, physical therapists, occupational therapists, and pharmacy faculty, as well as students, embarks on a trip to provide medical care to those in need. The emphasis of the trip is General Medicine, Women’s Health, and Oral Health.  Applicants to this program must be graduate students in the health professions (PA, PT, OT, Pharmacy).

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Learn to be a Whitewater Raft Guide

This program is suitable for students interested in water rafting.

Katie Hecker | khecker@su.edu

The Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC) is the most respected paddling school in North America. It is located in Western North Carolina on US Highway 19. 12 miles from Bryson City and on the south side of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the outpost is nestled in the Nantahala Gorge. Students will have a blast learning how to read whitewater, use river signals, maneuver and rig rafts, tie knots, work with guest and other basic river operations. The NOC is the the best whitewater outfitter in the world boasting more whitewater rafting trips than any other company, ever. Students will gain the skills needed to work as a professional rafting guide for commercial outfitters, summer camps, clubs and outdoor schools in our industry-leading NOC Raft Guide School. Students will need to bring clothes and shoes everything else will be provided by the NOC or SOAR.

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True Global Engagement: Advancing Citizenship via the 2018 Winter Olympic Games

Shenandoah University, in conjunction with the Korean Olympic Committee, will be volunteering in the operations and execution of the 2018 Olympic/Paralympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea. This opportunity will include students, faculty, administration volunteers. This volunteer experience will include lodging, food, transportation, and a volunteer uniform from the Korean Olympic Committee. Students, faculty, and staff will get to see the Winter Olympics in a unique way that most people will never get to experience and gain valuable knowledge of a major international sporting event. Lessons such as event planning, event management, cultural understanding, marketing, and more will be taught to the students through class discussions and this intimate first hand experience.

This GEL Course is now closed.

International Business in Spain

This program is suitable for those in the business school that are interested in exploring business practices in an international setting.

Miles Davis | mdavis@su.edu

The course includes lectures, meetings with distinguished professors, meetings with senior corporate executives, field trips to business organizations and cultural sites, classroom discussions, and assignments. The course has been designed to help you develop skills and perspectives to enable you to get the most out of the international experience. General and specific discussions led by authorities in their fields will enable you to better understand different business and economic views, values, and customs, and these will be integrated into the experience. The course is timely and appropriate as we observe the dynamics of globalization and international diversity.

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Exploring Global Health and Policy Development

This program is suitable for graduating seniors and graduate health professions students.

Lisa Darsch | ldarsch@su.edu & Michelle Gamber | mgamber@su.edu

Students travel to Geneva, Switzerland, to attend the World Health Organization’s (WHO) World Health Assembly (WHA) to learn more about global health policy and explore the diverse cultural regions of Switzerland. Students write issues briefs in preparation for the trip, and then, when in Switzerland, see how policy is discussed and developed in the global landscape.

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Health, Education and Culture in Uganda

This program is suitable for undergraduate students (general education, health professions and public health students) and graduate public health students.

Michelle Gamber | mgamber@su.edu

We will design and deliver health education to teachers, who can then utilize this training in their classrooms and interact with primary and secondary school students by facilitating health trainings and a selected service project. This course will examine and understand the historical and social underpinning of the granny caretaker role within the context of orphaned and vulnerable children. We will also conduct qualitative interviews using ethnographic methods with the granny caretakers. All students will be exposed to Uganda cultural traditions, norms and ways of life through pre-departure and in-country assignments, readings, discussions and presentations.

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