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Students Study in Salzburg
Story and photos by Kristalyn Bunyan
Untitled
Whitney Simmons, Dr. Lucia Carter, Beth Ann Dellinger, Kristalyn Bunyan, Jason Miller - Click for gallery
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Trekking through the snowy streets of Salzburg, gazing up at ornate baroque cathedrals, and listening to Mozart music in a fortress overlooking the town, four Mars Hill College students caught a glimpse of Europe.
The students and Assistant Professor of History Lucia Carter participated in the Salzburg Seminar's International Study Program (ISP) during the first week of January.
The Mars Hill group joined 45 students and 9 faculty from seven other US colleges and universities. Students dined and studied in the Schloss Leopoldskron, an 18th century palace that overlooks the Austrian Alps.
The Salzburg Seminar, which seeks to promote global dialogue, perspectives, and change, was created by three young men from Harvard University in 1947.
"Global Citizenship: America and the World" was the theme of the ISP seminar. Prominent leaders in their fields of academia and civil service graced the seminar students with speeches discussing the ethnocentricity of maps, the European perception of the U.S., the declaration of human rights, and global citizenship.
Students and faculty talked with experts, such as Michael Daxner, a former special counselor to the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo, and Tom Koenings, commissioner of human rights policy and humanitarian aid at the German Federal Government's Foreign Office.
"Not all people involved with politics are doing it for personal interest. Some, like the U.N. envoy to Afghanistan, believe it is important to protect human rights and be on the side of the victims," said Carter.
Senior Jason Miller said, "Working with experts like Tom and Michael who are senior U.N. officials was amazing. I spent a week talking about human rights with the man who is going to be helping rebuild the country of Afghanistan in a few weeks. You can't get any better than that!"
Besides listening to lectures and participating in discussions, students researched the crisis in Kosovo in March 2004, where Serbs and Albanians rioted, killing nineteen people.
They then broke into groups representing different U.N. bodies, international non-governmental organizations, and government agencies. As representatives of their designated organizations, the groups responded to the crisis by creating a press release and policy paper and attending a mock press conference and round table discussion.
Research on human rights abuses and international events expanded far beyond the palace's library and computers. A visit to Dachau, site of the first Nazi concentration camp, sobered the seminarians. Medical experiments and forced labor were imposed on the prisoners of the camp.
Carter recommends that students attend international seminars such as the Salzburg Seminar. "You live, eat and study in an 18th century palace as if you were the owner. You get the chance to attend lectures given by the top experts in the field that live and eat with you. The seminar is important to promote global awareness, to show students how Europeans live, and to enable them to ask any questions of the big names in the academic and political world."
For information on study abroad programs, contact Gordon Hinners, director of international education, at ghinners@mhc.edu.
Hilltop Reporter and Editor Kristalyn Bunyan was a Salzburg Seminar participant.
Comment from Readers:
Brittany Hicks - Fellow traveller - 1/26/2006, 6:54:54 p.m. - I must say, what a fabulous article, Kristalyn, on a truly unforgettable experience. I really enjoyed working with you and the rest of our group; I am very proud of us and I think we did an excellent job in all aspects of our project. I am sure the students at Mars Hill who attended the ISP miss the Seminar and the Schloss as much as myself and my peers from Davis & Elkins College. I would not hesitate to go into international politics if I could be guaranteed to work with people as competent, motivated, and cooperative as our group members were. The same must be said for all of the students and faculty of the Salzburg Seminar. It was truly an unforgettable experience, and I thank everyone involved for helping make it so. Take care and let us hope we will have occasion to see each other again in Europe. :-)
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