GNST 200 Pre-Departure Orientation

-  God's Call to go Global  -

This extensive pre-departure orientation will prepare students for cross-cultural travel and living by providing a list of opportunities to do so and addressing such issues as cultural sensitivity, cross-cultural interaction and communication, culture shock and adjustment, safety, and ethics.

GNST 200 Syllabus

Meet the Instructors

During [the GSNT 200] course the Travel Guides the instructors will share with you their enthusiasm for cross-cultural living and studying.  Our Travel Guides have all completed the Global Perspectives Seminar and fulfilled their cross-cultural requirement.  Some Travel Guides have been on a single trip, others have traveled and studied in a number of different countries, and several Guides have grown up internationally.  All of them loved their international experience and want to share it with you.

I have lived and worked in over 35 countries.  I grew up on the Hopi Reservations of Northern Arizona.  During my college years, I found myself in Yugoslavia working for two years with the International Red Cross.  While teaching at Lee and completing the dissertation for my doctorate, I lived and researched in Guatemala and Mexico.  Soon after which my wife and I moved to China where we lived for a period of time in Henan Province, Anhui province and Hong Kong.  My most recent anthropological research projects have taken me to Jordan and New Zealand. Hosting Lee University students, I have led study abroad trips to China, Ecuador, Argentina and Peru.  My most recent trip is called “Adventures to Peru” and I take students to the Andes Mountains to visit the ancient ruins of Machu Picchu, down the Amazon River to visit tribal peoples and along the beautiful desert coast to commune with nature. If you want a “real” adventure, come along.

I love traveling, talking about my experiences, sharing stories of the exciting people I have met, instructing students about nonverbal communication, telling tales about my own and others cultural mistakes, and hearing others relate their own adventures.  Life is so wonderful and full of excitement, people are so beautiful and different, and God has made the world for us to live in as one family.  Yet, we can only do that when we meet each other face-to-face, share the joys and sorrows of life together, and engage in collective worship.  This course is preparation for a great, life-changing journey into another culture.

At Lee University, we have one of the finest study abroad programs of any university in the world.  We offer over 20 different faculty led trips each year to a variety of places in the world: Argentina, Chile, China, Peru, Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, England, Scotland, Ireland, Greece, Turkey, Jordan, France, Italy, and others. Students are also able to design their own independent course of study to fulfill the cross-cultural experience requirement.  We have had students involved with a variety of domestic ethnic communities and many students have chosen to travel internationally.

I know the value of traveling and studying other cultures.  I have lived and worked in Egypt, have ongoing research projects in Jordan and in Santiago, Chile.  Also, I have visited a number of other countries for varying amounts of times: Australia, Malaysia, Philippines, and Kenya, to name a few.

The Global Perspectives requirement is an important part of the general education core that will have an impact on you as a Christian and as a citizen. Christians who understand the world, and who are connected with the world, will have a greater effect in fulfilling the mission of the Church. The Apostle Paul is a good example of a Christian who understood the world (he knew at least 3 languages) and was connected with it (he traveled and established meaningful and long-lasting relationships where he went). Likewise, citizens of the United States (or of any other country) who are better informed about, and better connected to, the world, are able to make better decisions that affect the whole world. Consider our current situation with regard to terrorism and the war in Iraq. As a nation, we would be in a better position to deal with both of those matters if there were more U.S. citizens who knew Arabic, knew about the Middle East, and had meaningful connections there.

I look forward to preparing you for an experience that I know can change your life. The Global Perspectives experience can make you better Christians and more valuable citizens.