January Term offers unusual study opportunities
Huntington, Ind. " Touring the architecture of ancient Rome, taking inner-city kids camping in the wilds of Michigan, or serving the poor of Kenya or Haiti " these are among the unusual opportunities for study and service offered by Huntington College during January Term 2001.
Huntington's intensive three-week interterm begins January 8. A wide variety of courses are offered both on- and off-campus. Several courses integrate academic study with Christian service.
For example, chemistry professor Bill Bordeaux will again teach a course in Outdoor Environmental Education at Camp Michindoh near Hillsdale, Michigan. Huntington College students will serve as teachers, counselors and mentors to sixth-graders from Toledo, Ohio public schools. For many of these urban children, it will be their first opportunity to explore science and ecology in a hands-on, outdoor learning center.
Further afield, eleven students will join campus pastor Bill Fisher for three weeks in Kenya. They will work at a Generation 21 leadership conference at Nyayo Stadium, lay pipe and complete other maintenance projects at the Taraja ( Hope ) Home orphanage, join a safari at Masai Mara, minister to street children in Nairobi, and worship alongside Kenyan believers at Mombassa.
Mathematics professor Winfield Wetherbee will lead a missions project in the Republic of Haiti. Students will travel to the village of St. Ard to assist local missionaries with a variety of work projects. Along with these responsibilities will come opportunities to study the language, history, and culture of Haiti and gain an increased awareness of the needs of people in a third-world country.
In addition to these service-learning experiences, Huntington College also offers more traditional study tours during January term. For example, Prof. Ken Hopper will lead an Italian art tour of Rome and points north. Students will explore ancient and modern styles of painting, sculpture, and architecture on this study tour of Rome, Florence, Pisa, Venice and Assisi.
Sometimes, the study-tour is turned backwards as Huntington College hosts international guests. This year, for example, twelve students from Beijing Institute of Technology will join Huntington College students for a course in Consumer Behavior taught by business professor Jim O'Donnell. Good decisions in business, and in the marketing of goods and services, demand that a business manager have an understanding of how consumers are likely to respond, says O'Donnell. Yet few of us have an understanding of consumer behavior or of our own behavior when we shop. This course applies the concepts, principles, and theories of the social sciences to the study of consumer behavior.
The course will likely prove intriguing both to HC undergraduates and their Chinese guests as China enters the World Trade Organization, opens its markets, and struggles with the tension between command- and market-driven economic models. Beijing Institute of Technology is a prestigious, highly selective institution that enrolls students from all over China. The students chosen for this exchange program were selected for their academic excellence and their English ability.
Other on-campus courses offered during the three-week interterm will afford Huntington students an opportunity to examine interesting topics or explore subjects outside their major concentration. Thirty different classes will be offered. Unusual course titles include:
- Gumshoe Accounting: Learning to detect irregularities such as tax evasion, insurance fraud, and money laundering through forensic accounting.
- The Book as an Art Object: Exploring creative approaches to the contemporary artist's book.
- Money! Money! Money! A biblical view of personal finances drawn from the 2350 verses in scripture relating to money.
- The Dead Sea Scrolls: Investigating the life, theology, and history of the Jewish community located at Qumran.
- YinYang, Feng Shui and Chop Suey: An introduction to the Cantonese language and recognition of simple Chinese characters. Includes a field trip to Toronto for immersion in a middle-class Cantonese community.
- Christianity and Science Fiction: Exploring issues such as the birth of a new world, the establishment of a utopian society, or the expectation/fulfillment of a messianic figure.
- Dry Riverbed Glimpsed by Lightning: Examining the one-breath poetry of haiku, senryu, tanka, haibun, renga, and other forms of Japanese writing.
- Job Search Techniques: For those seeking an internship or career opportunity.
- Fractal Fantasia: Building complex and beautiful mathematical models with computers.
- Who's Afraid of Opera? Rehearsing light comedic scenes for performance at 8 p.m., February 2.
For detailed course descriptions of all 30 January Term offerings, visit the Registar's Office web site.
Huntington College is a Christian college of the liberal arts located in Huntington, Indiana. Founded in 1897, Huntington offers associate's, bachelor's, and master's degrees in nearly 50 academic concentrations.
