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Poverty, development, multiracial politics,
a breathtaking natural environment: they all come together
in a unique study abroad program that seeks to prepare students
for global citizenship
by Kermit Pattison
One of the most memorable parts of Katie Dietrich's Macalester
education occurred halfway around the world.
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A
dozen students from four colleges gather at the southwest
tip of Africa. Macalester students pictured include
Meghan Rockwell-Ashton '07 (second from left),
Allesandra Williams '07 (third from left),
Miki Palchick '08 (second from right)
and Erin Gullikson '07 (fourth from right). Not shown: Dan Murphy-Cairns '06.
The three faculty pictured are Macalester Professor
Bill Moseley (back left) and South
Africans Mike Meadows (back right)
and Jane Battersby (sixth from right). |
In her junior year, Dietrich traveled to South Africa on a
study abroad program called "Globalization and the Natural
Environment." She and 10 other students found themselves
immersed in a multiracial country, emerging from decades of
white rule, where a stunning natural environment faced rapid
economic development.
For Dietrich, it was an eye opener on many levels. She witnessed
a nation renegotiating its racial politics. As a Midwesterner,
she was awestruck by the mountains and oceans where sea lions
sat on the rocks and dolphins jumped from the waves. She was
so enraptured by the diversity of flora that half her photos
depicted plants. She immersed herself in demanding seminars
and joined other students in an ambitious research project
that examined the environmental impact of South Africa's booming
wine industry, winding up as the coauthor of a paper published
by her South African professor.
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There was fun, too. "I went bungee jumping off the Guinness
Book of World Records' tallest jump," she recalls.
Indeed, the whole trip was something of an exhilarating plunge.
The program takes a unique interdisciplinary approach to an
ancient and complex drama: the interplay of humans and nature.
It combines rigorous classwork with field trips that illustrate
globalization as a local phenomenon in issues such as ecotourism,
HIV/AIDS, land reform, conservation, currency fluctuations
and crime. "It's both serious and adventuresome,"
says Ahmed Samatar, James Wallace Professor and dean of Macalester's
new Institute for Global Citizenship. "That, to me, is
what really typifies the Macalester education at its best."
Dietrich returned with a deeper interest in international
development. A 2005 graduate, she plans to attend graduate
school in geography and hopes to eventually work in water
resource management abroad, perhaps back in South Africa.
"It really refocused my view on life," she says.
"In truth, I finally found that global perspective that
Macalester desires to foster in students."
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