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The program
offers a series of trips as extensions of spring semester
course work each year. The trips are open to students and
their families, faculty and staff, former students and
community members and range in cost from $1,250 to $2,250.
This year the
group left July 11, four days after a series of four bomb
attacks struck London’s public transit system during the
morning rush hour. At 8:50 a.m., three bombs exploded within
50 seconds of each other on three London Underground trains.
A fourth bomb exploded on a bus at 9:47 a.m. in Tavistock
Square.
Fifty-six
people were killed in the attacks, including the four
suspected bombers, and 700 people were injured. The bombings
caused a severe daylong disruption of the city’s
transportation and mobile telecommunications system.
Al-Qaida
claimed responsibility for the attacks. The same group is
responsible for the hijacked jetliners that hit the World
Trade Center buildings in New York and the Pentagon in
Washington on September 11, 2001. A fourth plane crashed in
a field in Pennsylvania on the same day.
The London
bombings four years later were on the first full day of the
31st G8 Summit, and one day after London was chosen to host
the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Martha York,
coordinator for international education at Schreiner
University, said no one backed out of the planned departure.
Dr. Kualapai, who created a visually lush and moving photo
album of the group’s time in London, (see it on Schreiner’s
Web site at
www.schreiner.edu/london/index.html),
said the aftereffects of the July 7 bombing were evident
everywhere throughout the group’s time in London, from the
recovery of casualties from Aldgate Station where one of the
bombings took place, to the transformation of the normally
quiet Gower Street where they lodged into a bustling
thoroughfare due to diverted traffic. “Security was much
higher than the year before,” she said. “People seemed to
get back to normal pretty quickly, but you could feel an
undercurrent of tension there.”
Photo by Elijah Stone,
Schreiner graduate ’05 |
Schreiner University student and staff member, Terri
Van Kirk, participated in the trip with her daughter
and fellow Schreiner
student, Katherine Van Kirk. “I was pretty
apprehensive about taking the trip right after the
bombing, especially since I had never traveled out
of the country before,” Terri Van Kirk said. “I
expected it to be really chaotic over there, but it
wasn’t like that at all.”
Then came July 21, just four days before the group
was set to return home, when a second series of four
explosions rocked the London Underground and a
London bus. Fortunately, only the detonators of the
bombs exploded. No one was killed and there was only
one injury reported.
The incident occurred not far from the house at 35
Gower Street where the group was staying. “When it
happened I didn’t know what to think. I was really
worried about everyone in the house making it back
safely,” said Katherine Van Kirk. “I held it
together until we got back to the house and then I
just broke down.” |
Despite the scary moments—or maybe because of them—many
people on the trip had their view of themselves and the
place where they live expanded. “It is interesting to
see ourselves reflected in someone else’s mirror,” Dr.
Kualapai said.
Katherine Van Kirk said this about it: “It really opened
my eyes to the fact that we are all human and we all
want the same things. We tend to think everything is so
different (in another country) but really it’s not.”
The
trip also gave those participating a first-hand view of
the sights and sounds of one of the most vibrant cities
in the world.
A
photo album of the trip was created using students’
aesthetics course work associated with the trip. Each
student on the trip was responsible for a portion of the
pictures and the text that compose the album. It
captures the vibrancy of the colors at the Royal Botanic
Kew Gardens, and there is Hampton Court Palace, which
offers an overview of architectural history along with
stunning landscaping. St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Tower of
London, the British Museum, the list goes on and on, as
will the trips that give students a chance to experience
other cities and countries first-hand.
“The
London trip invites students to study the philosophical
and political implications of the aesthetic experience
from an international perspective and to relate their
understanding of art and beauty to their personal
experiences,” said Dr. Kualapai.
There
are three Schreiner-sponsored Study Abroad trips
scheduled for next year. York said she feels the trips
are essential to a student’s education.
“This
can be a life-changing experience for students. It gives
them a clear idea of how the United States fits in with
the rest of the world,” said York.
It
can also reveal possibilities the world beyond college
holds for them.
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