New York. Paris. Sydney. Wherever the destination may be, traveling is fast becoming a rite of passage for most university students.

Not only does exploring other parts of the world provide students with excitement and intrigue, it also offers different perspectives and cultures to learn from.

At Trinity Western University, students are given several traveling options each summer that also provide course credit.

This year, as the majority of the TWU student body heads home, a select group of about 90 will be gallivanting off to places as far away as Guatemala, Kenya, and China, or to a destination not so distant like Salt Spring Island.

According to TWU Communications professor Ruth Anaya, there are some cultural experiences that offer more challenges than others.

While Anaya herself spent a summer backpacking around Europe, as many students still do today, she said that her passion is to provide TWU students with an experience that goes beyond a safe and easy trip.
This summer, Anaya will take select groups of TWU students to both Guatemala and Kenya as part of the university’s Travel Studies program.

“It goes beyond the norm of what most students can do,” Anaya said. “Students cannot so easily explore the developing countries. We’re looking at trying to give students global perspectives.”

Both the Guatemala trip, from May 1-22, and Kenya trip, from June 28-July 22, are designed to give students in any major a lesson in culture, communication, and leadership.

And while other universities, such as University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University, offer similar travel study courses to Mexico, Spain, Italy, France, and the Czech Republic, they all require class time for at least part of each day.

With TWU’s travel studies, “classtimes are every waking hour,” Anaya said, adding, “I don’t want students reading text books while we’re abroad.”

Students, there are about 20 for each group, are expected to read beforehand and complete assignments after returning home in order to get the full experience while they’re away.

Anaya, who has lived in Ethiopia, Liberia, and Kenya, said students are taken on many adventures, from talking to local bus drivers to sitting in on meetings of the United Nations.

“The opportunities are so immense,” she said. “They connect students to their future.”

Kenya traveler Vanessa Vanderkhove told Anaya that her trip last year has had a lasting effect on her life.
“The Kenya Travel Study was the experience of a lifetime,” she wrote in a debriefing session. “I also learned about myself and had a lot of reflection even after the trip was over. The trip is still having an amazing impact on me even now.”

While the Travel Studies program has previously charged summer semester tuition rates, which are about $100 less per credit than the rest of the year, student travelers will pay regular tuition rates for their trips this year.

Anaya said the costs are still the same for students this year and that the tuition increase is merely a rearrangement of funds.

A Travel Studies Task Force that met last fall felt academic-related costs should be funded from tuition, she said.

The Guatemala trip currently costs students $1,400 plus tuition for nine credits and airfare, while the Kenya trip costs $2,400 plus tuition for nine credits and airfare.

Third year Christianity and Culture student Jenny Christensen, who will be a part of the group heading to Guatemala, felt the travel experience was worth the extra cost.

“I needed the cross cultural communication course,” said Christensen, who is minoring in TESL. “I thought it would be a lot more interesting in a cross cultural experience.”

Christensen said she loves to travel, but doesn’t want to take time away from school.

TWU students will also be studying in China and Salt Spring Island this summer.

Business majors will gain 12 credits while in China and Hong Kong from April 30 to May 21.

Administrative assistant to the Dean of Business Suzanne Staryk helped organize the trip and said the planning process for the spring escapade begins as early as August.

“It’s kind of a given we’ll take them [to China],” Staryk said of this year’s trip. “The instructors have already developed contacts in the Asian community.”

Students will stay with university students while in China and visit several businesses and corporations, as well as famous sites such as Tiananmen Square, The Great Wall, and The Forbidden City.

Also, for the third year, a group of TWU students will live for one month on Salt Spring Island as they study both marine biology and plants from April 25 to May 31.

Professor Karen Steensma, one of the trip’s instructors, said it’s important for students to really immerse themselves in nature in order to fully grasp both the creation and word of God.

The trip’s second instructor, Dr. David Clements, agreed that the Salt Spring Island adventure provides students with an experience far more valuable than the traditional classroom learning.

“It really shows Trinity’s emphasis on the whole person,” he said.