Students to study abroad during summer

Study abroad courses led by Northwestern College faculty will take students to Russia and China this summer.

Dr. Heather Josselyn-Cranson, a music professor and director of music ministries, will teach a program that focuses on Russian culture, music and language. The China program, led by Dr. Paul Bartlett and Dr. Dean Calsbeek of the kinesiology department, will examine how different cultures view the body. Both are four-week courses.

Josselyn-Cranson spent two years in Russia as a member of the Peace Corps and speaks Russian fluently. She and her students will stay in Artiom in eastern Russia, taking day trips to nearby Vladivostok and a six-day excursion to Moscow.

The course, May 14 to June 9, will immerse students in the Russian way of life by allowing them to live with host families and study the Russian language. Participants will also attend concerts; visit local museums and churches; and tour the Kremlin, St. Basil’s Cathedral and Lenin’s Tomb.

The kinesiology class, May 22 to June 18, will study the Chinese approach to medicine, physical fitness and sport, learning about past and current norms and traditions.

Students will stay in a dormitory at Bei Wei University in Beijing, where they will interact with Chinese students, study Mandarin and learn Tai Chi, a Chinese martial art. The Northwestern students will also hear from experts in medicine, fitness and sports; visit the 2008 Olympic venues in Beijing; and meet Olympic athletes and trainers. Excursions are planned to the Great Wall and Tai’an.

“I hope it changes the way students view their own society and opens their minds to things that are different,” Calsbeek says of summer study abroad. “I hope it helps them understand the way we do things is not the right way—it’s just a different way.”