By Daniel Dabach, Senior, Creative Producing Major, Television & Entrepreneurship Double Minor
As I write this blog post 39,000 feet in the air en route to my next adventure with fellow Panthers, I realize that I have most definitely embraced the part about “living as a global citizen” from Chapman’s mission statement. I remember the first time I toured the University I was told about how Chapman’s general education program was largely inspired by Albert Schweitzer – the man whose big bronze bust can be found outside Argyros Forum. Little did I know at the time that just a few short years later that big guy would inspire me to take the trip of my life. Schweitzer was an avid world explorer and it’s largely because of him that we have a 6-credit “Global Studies” requirement in our General Education program. (PRO TIP: if you study abroad for a semester, your experience will fulfill the requirement and you won’t have to take Global Study classes on campus. Or, if you do an interterm travel course it will usually fulfill 3 of the 6 required credits.)
Studying abroad was an exciting prospect for me, but I didn’t exactly know where I wanted to go or what I wanted to experience. I visited the Center for Global Education to review my options, and I even walked around the Global Citizens fountain for some inspiration. Even after all of that I was still a little lost. There were so many destinations that excited me and I simply couldn’t chose one; so I figured why not go to all of them?
YES! There’s actually a program where you can visit upwards of twelve countries in four months. What’s even better? Chapman University was one of the founding partners on the first voyage. The program is appropriately named “Semester at Sea”, and it easily became one of my favorite experiences as a Chapman student. Essentially you sail on a cruise ship that has been transformed into a floating college campus. As you travel from country to country, you take classes where the materials you’re learning are directly correlated to the countries you’re going to.
As a student in the Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, I knew that I had to be strategic in planning when I would go abroad and what courses I would take. I saved a majority of my general education courses to take on the ship and found a class that counted as an upper-division course for one of my minors. With the help of university faculty and staff I was able to iron out the logistics and make my dream of going abroad a reality.
While I was abroad I got lost in the middle of the Sahara desert whilst stargazing the entire Milky Way, I stayed at a Buddhist monastery and took a temporary vow of silence, I befriended my tuktuk driver in India and stayed at his house, and I helped build a water well for a small village in Africa. Although my travels varied from country to country, I always took a day to get lost. To immerse myself in the culture. To interact with locals. To discover a piece of myself in every place that I visited. I learned that in order to truly become a global citizen I had to stay curious yet respectful. I had to have a passion for adventure and a heart full of understanding.
Towards the end of my journey, I had dinner with a man on board the ship who is a Chapman alumni named John Scudder. He actually went on the very first voyage of Semester at Sea as a Chapman student back in the 70s. He defined being a global citizen as “trying to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes every day”. To have an understating of where that person has come from, of where they’re going, and to appreciate our differences as they make each and every one of us unique. He went on to tell me how his mom actually served on the Board of Trustees for Chapman and was a big fan of Albert Schweitzer and helped integrate these studies into the General Education program. I thought it was total bologna.
When I arrived back to our beautiful campus for the first time in months I was excited to see the flags of countries I visited around the Global Citizens fountain and to share my experiences with friends and peers. I visited our good friend Albert by the Argyros Forum walkway to reflect and noticed a little plaque that still stands there today “Remembering Valerie S. Scudder – Chapman Trustee, Friend of Albert Schweitzer”.
John was right after all.
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