Flight Dates, Numbers, and Alumni

There seems to be a new link on the Salzburg Seminar website, either that or I didn't see it the last times I visited. Check out a description of the International Studies Program for Undergraduate Students. They offer lots of information, including what CUNY schools have been going to the seminar: BMCC, Bronx Community College, Hostos Community College, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Kingsborough Community College, LaGuardia Community College, and Queensborough Community College.

I also found out that initially around 70 people applied for the seminar at BMCC out of which 30 were chosen to interview. Then, over 2 and a half days of interviewing, the 15 finalists were picked. It's surprising to me that not more than 70 apply, but perhaps that has to do with the fact that it is only the third year that BMCC is going. Dean Craig went with a group of students in 2005 for the first time. In 2006, Vice President Haynes chaperoned the group, and this year Mr. Mars is going.

We had our last workshop on Friday, and we have one more next week when we will get our T-shirts, laptops, etc., and then it's off to Austria! We also received our flight dates: on April 1, Sunday, we will be leaving JFK on Lufthansa, flight 405, at 9:10 PM. We'll have to be at the airport two hours early, since it's an international flight. We connect to a flight on Austrian Airlines (264) in Frankfurt, Germany (not long enough to meet up with my friends) and finally arrive in Salzburg at 1:40 PM. We leave Austria on Monday, April 9, at 2:25 PM on Austrian Airlines, flight number 265. We connect to Lufthansa in Frankfurt on flight number 404 to arrive at JFK at 5 PM.

At our last workshop Dean Craig invited some former attendees to speak to us about their experience. Sabine, whom I recognized from my first semester Philosophy class, said that she had been at a crossroads before attending the seminar. She encouraged us to talk to the professors and make connections. Many of them said that it was an emotional, eye-opening time. BMCC stood out by how they presented themselves. Some alumni who weren't able to attend sent e-mails: Graham said that his experience was like a painting: you attempt to look at small beautiful parts but realize that in its entirety can it only be fully appreciated. Like a fish who lives in a bucket is transferred into the ocean. Ilva added that in order to change the world today one must understand how international organizations work. Just to see the magnitude of the change Salzburg had on her, she told us how she was now studying International Studies with a focus on Green Architecture. Everyone agreed on one thing: be open-minded.

Other ideas were to spend time in the beautiful and resourceful library, to take notes, they will be helpful later on. Talk to everyone, other students, professors, facilitators. And if you want to be extra prepared, read up on current events and research as much as you can with a focus on globalization.

In the end of the meeting we practiced German for a little while. I recommended Language Guide, as well as a great book titled "German in 10 Minutes a Day."

Itinerary and Other Details

This is our group! Including Mr. Mars, our chaperone, on the very left. Very exciting.

I finally studied the booklet in more detail. It's a filled week, no doubt. Each morning we are scheduled for a talk of some sort from 9 until 10 AM. We then have coffee/tea (I love that) at 10, after which there is another discussion. Lunch is at 12:30 every day, and after another group activity we have coffee/tea again at 3:30 PM. More program until dinner at 6:30, and then we have the last event of the day which includes a fireside talk on Wednesday, sounds cozy.

On Wednesday, April 5, we will be visiting Dachau, a concentration camp. Ironically, this is something I always voted for when we were deciding where to go on our field trips back in Germany, but I was overruled each time. Now that I live across the ocean I get the chance to actually finally go there. My Mom lived through WWII, her father, my grandfather, died in a field in Russia. She used to tell me how Americans would give the children chewing gum, but then it wasn't well known in Germany and people thought that they were trying to poison the children, so they never ate it but threw it out instead.

Our Dachau visit will be an interesting starting point of conversation considering all the other genocides that have happened but have not received similar reactions. I can't wait. I can sense that this trip will be truly life-changing.

To give you a better idea of what this entire program is actually about, let me quote from the syllabus:

"In an age of new international challenges and tensions, the need for Americans to understand international affairs, to recognize cultural values other than their own, and to view world events from a variety of perspectives, has becomes increasingly
critical. The purpose of this program is to provide an intensive seven-day international experience for participants to explore pressing issues of global
concern and to view such issues from a perspective both literally and figuratively outside the borders of the United States.

Participants should leave with knowledge and skills to acquire a better understanding of the international political order, the global economy, and worldwide social developments. Because the Salzburg Seminar is located in the heart of Europe, the session will pay special attention to the political, economic and cultural history of the trans-Atlantic relationship, its future dimensions, and the impact such changes may have on the rest of the world. At the same time, mindful of increasing global interconnectedness, the session will consider issues of particular concern to regions of the developing world. In this way, students will be exposed to the relationship between the historical legacy of the latter part of the 20th century, global responsibility, humanitarian intervention, and social justice.

It is intended that this program will make students more aware of global issues and of what it means to be a 'good citizen', more discerning on the assessment of information pertaining to world affairs, and more understanding of America's place in the worlds as well as of non-Americans' perception of the U.S."

This was a bit lengthy but I it sums it all up so well it deserves the space. This is what this seminar will be all about.

We will do all this through pedagogical modules which include plenary lectures, small group work, and some cultural exchange which will include meeting local students, film screenings, and a classical concert.

There's a (still subject to change) list of faculty for the seminar, and finally lecture topics, also still subject to change: Mapping Ethnocentrism, The First Universal Nation: The American People in the 20th and 21st Century, The Third Sector: Creating Inclusive Societies, Emerging Diseases and Bio-Terrorism: Global Health and Economic Issues of Importance, The Legacy of the Holocaust in Europe: An Introduction to the Visit to the Former Concentration Camp in Dachau, Civil Society and Foreign Aid: The Eastern European Experience, The U.S. of America and the World: Views From a Distance, and finally The Role of the UN Today.

For our pre-reading we have Europe vs. America on our list as well as Inescapable Side by Side: An Interview with David Held, a text called Mass Migrations on Europe (published by the European Science Foundation), the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and Beyond Hegemony.

Our First Workshop

To your right you see Schloss Leopoldskron. I can almost smell the fresh Austrian air.

Finally, this past Friday our group met at school for our first workshop. Now I feel like there is too much information to blog about! We were immersed in filling out various agreement forms, our personal biographies for the seminar, etc.

We got thick booklets of information to seep through: our syllabus, reading assignments, tips for traveling abroad, weather forecasts, and more.

In the very beginning we played switch: we would talk to a new person and find out as much as we could about them until Dean Craig would say "switch." Turns out that two pairs of people have identical birth dates in our group! Whoever found out first would win an umbrella. I think Kimberly won. It was fun, and I was delighted to find out that our group is super diverse: a lot of us have similar stories of working another job, getting married, simply having a nontraditional path. Everyone is from all over the place, Morocco, Turkey, Israel, Haiti, Germany, Philippines, and the list goes on and on.

Dean Craig had saved quotes that we said when she told us that we had been picked for the trip. She'd show them to us and we'd have to guess if it was us. It was pretty neat, most everyone guessed right and many gave a recap of how they'd felt.

Dean Craig also told us that last year some students ended up having visa problems and couldn't go. Yikes. I hope that our group won't run into that. You'd think that they'd cut us some slack and provide a smoother way of getting visas for everyone without having to run back and forth and gathering insane amounts of paperwork.

We've developed a google group that we communicate through and are sharing information about insurance and carry-on restrictions and such. We'll be interlinking our blogs here until the school finds a way to give us a website that we can all post to.

Our next workshop is in two weeks. Stay tuned for more updates!