Myika Williams wins Gilman Scholarship

Congratulation to freshman Myika Williams who won a prestigious Gilman Scholarship from the US State Department to study abroad.

Myika will spend fall 2010 in Guatemala, Costa Rica and Peru, and will spend the spring at PSU in Paraguay.

Read her story here.

Learn how you can apply for a Gilman scholarship here.

Business in France

Twelve students from the Kelce College of Business spent 3 weeks in June studying Management and Marketing in La Rochelle, France. One of them was Alysha White. Read her story.

Report from PSU group program to Oaxaca Mexico

Went to Benito Juarez today, a small Zapotec village about 65 km from
Oaxaca and it was cool. We left Oaxaca about 7:30 am and got there a little after 9. They have a new road. Not the old winding, gravel road from Teotitlan del Valle but another one from Tlacalula. This one is sort of paved. We kept seeing signs that said, Caution this road has lots of potholes. Pay attention to those signs. But it wasn't all bad. At times there were stretches as much as 100 yards long with good pavement.

The area is now an ecotourism preserve and costs 50 pesos to get in (about $4). Well worth it. We took about an hour long hike high up a very steep hill to the top of the mountain. We took many, many & few more many's of pictures so we didn't kill ourselves getting up there. Great views, wildflowers, interesting stuff all the way. Take lots of water though.

Got to the top to the 'mirador' or viewpoint. Incredible vistas of Oaxaca valley. Also a suspended footbridge about 200 yards long across a canyon. We walked across it, the 5 of us. I made a movie of the students going across and then one of me going across. It was a little scary trying to hold the camera, talk, look down at my feet, shoot occasional still shots with my other hand, etc. The camera was a little shaky when I reached the other side. And what was on the other side? More vistas and the other side of the mountain of course. Nothing else. So we did the only logical thing. After resting and looking several minutes, we walked back across the bridge.

Rachel was first to go back and she found the zip lines we were looking for. There were two guys there with equipment waiting for us. They have 3 zip lines and the cost is 100 pesos for all three or about $7. The first line was longest and spanned the same canyon as the bridge. The cable looked in good condition but I wasn't sure I really wanted to do it. Well, Angela had to try it first. First one of the guys who met us had to go across to the other side as the 'catcher' to stop you on the other side. We watched him as he hung upside down like a monkey all the way across. Next Angela went with no problems. I thought 'that doesn´t look so bad´. I could maybe do that.

Quinn went next. Then the second helper guy went. Then we saw them go on the second line and then the third. It looked pretty easy. So when the helper guys came back the other 3 of us decided to go. I have to admit, I would have been just as happy not going, but when 4 girls do it with no problem I don't want them to think I am just a big fraidy cat. So I put on the harness and went last. It wasn't near as scary as I thought it would be, accept for getting turned around backwards in the middle of the canyon so I can't see where I am supposed to end up. But at the last minute I turned around, the helper guy caught me and I scampered up on top of the
big anchor rock.

Crystal Pihl - Story Detail - Pittsburg State University

Crystal Pihl, a graduate from PSU, studied abroad in Finland and Kazakhstan. Here is her story.

Crystal Pihl - Story Detail - Pittsburg State University

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Allison Keegan, Graduate student - Story Detail - Pittsburg State University

Allison Keegan, Graduate student - Story Detail - Pittsburg State University

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PSU Study Abroad in the News

PSU Study Abroad students and programs have been featured lately in several places. Check it out.

Allison Keegan was featured on the PSU web site as a banner story for her summer study abroad in Finland and South Korea. See the previous post.

Also the PSU Group program led by Dr. Steve Harmon that traveled to South America was featured in the PSU online magazine Universitas.
http://www.pittstate.edu/newsletter/universitas/index.dot?article=141775

Allison in Finland & South Korea

Allison, a graduate student at PSU, has set out on a summer of study abroad. First she studied at PSU's sister university Jyvaskyla in Finland and now she is at another sister university in South Korea, Hanyang University. She has been writing a blog about her experiences abroad. Check it out at http://allisonmkeegan.blogspot.com/2009/07/abc123.html.

Here is her last post as a sample:

One benefit I've received from studying both Finnish and Korean language is that I've been able to feel what it is like to be a child learning the alphabet for the first time. This feeling is true especially while learning Korean, since the characters are completely new to me. When I first began looking intensively at the Korean language, all I could ensue was that all those funky looking symbols meant something to somebody...but that somebody was certainly not me. I imagine that as a child I once felt the same way. My family has told me stories of how I used to listen to a story over and over, and then recite that story from memory while flipping the pages pretending as though I were actually reading. I can imagine the excitement I must have felt thinking as though I could actually read what "big people" could read.

Here I am, 20-something years after I first started "reading", and I am right back to that same beginning. I feel the same excitement when I can read more than a line or two in a story. The only difference now is that I feel myself holding in my excitement so as not to appear overly giddy and childlike. However, I've never been too good at holding back my excitement...so I am starting to just embrace it and feel happy about the accomplishments my class and I are making.

While I know we are making accomplishments, we are still often very confused because this language is so hard to grasp. I sit in class and I see my teacher try to explain things to us, and oftentimes I can see the frustration on her face because we just aren't picking it up. I completely understand her frustration because in her mind she is explaining something that is very easy and basic, and yet we are looking at her like a deer in headlights. I've been on that end many times while tutoring or teaching in a classroom, so I understand and can easily empathize with her point of view.

I feel as though this experience has given me the opportunity to empathize a little better with children in my future classroom. I knew that this experience would give me a chance to learn what it was like to be in the minority, with the hope that I could empathize with children in schools that also feel like they are in the minority. To my surprise, this experience has taught me so much more than that. At some point in time, all the students I work with will feel left out, behind or confused in the classroom...and I hope that I will be able to draw from this experience and have a greater amount of patience and understanding.