CAPA WORLD

Marianne Zarzar is an official CAPA blogger, sharing her story in weekly posts on CAPA World. A Sociology of Law, Criminology, and Deviance major at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, she is studying abroad in Sydney.

In this week's post, Marianne opens up about her identity and details her background, both local and international experiences as a student, and how she felt at home in Sydney.

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I am an international student from Mexico studying in the United States. I have lived in Minnesota for around five years now, having finished two years of high school as an exchange student. I have honestly loved Minnesota ever since I got here my junior year of high school. Since I am already an international student, a lot of people were confused as to why I wanted to go abroad, given that I was technically already abroad. The answer, I think, is that international students see the world a little differently. I think we see, literally, a world of opportunities and feel a want and need to explore as many of them as we can.

At school with my friends in Mexico.

Studying abroad has always been a dream of mine. Ever since I was in school in Mexico and had the privilege of having American and Canadian teachers, I have dreamed of going abroad. My teachers instilled in me the desire to learn more about different cultures, and that desire has led me to where I am today. After that first year abroad, I ended up at an international school, still in Minnesota, where I was able to meet people from countries I did not even know existed. I think that was why studying abroad during college was so important to me.

Words by Emmie Madsen, a Journalism major at University of Missouri and CAPA London study abroad alum who is now a CAPA Ambassador.

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When planning ahead for your study abroad experience, students probably don’t expect their classes to be one of the highlights of their semester. But for my classmates and I, one of our classes was.

At CAPA London, we took a British Life and Culture class with a professor who helped give us a hands-on look at British culture. We took field trips across the city, visited historical sites, and learned from the perspective of someone who had been immersed in London his whole life.

Words by Montana Ryzuk, a Psychology major at Siena College and CAPA London study abroad alum who is now a CAPA Ambassador.

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It might sound cliché but studying abroad in a global city gave me a new perspective on the world. I turned twenty years old the summer prior to studying abroad. With nothing but traveling on my mind, this birthday gave me the realization that I had gone two decades without making it overseas more than anything else. As a result, I had an endless amount of questions and curiosity only to be answered by traveling and experiencing a new country (or seven) first hand.

I chose to study abroad with CAPA in London, England, because of the internship program, which stood out as a once in a lifetime opportunity to me. Prior to departure, I tried to have the least amount of expectations as possible, as everyone advises you to do. Because of this, I never imagined how diverse of a city London would be. But better yet, I never imagined the global awareness and appreciation for other cultures I would gain from just four months in a foreign city.

Sarah is an official CAPA vlogger for fall 2017, sharing her story in weekly posts on CAPA World. A Fashion Retail and Merchandising major at Lasell College, she is studying abroad in Shanghai this semester.

In this week's post, Sarah sheds more light into her academic experience as a study abroad student and how she likes her classes in Shanghai.

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Thanks Sarah!

Sarah's journey continues every Thursday so stay tuned.

Kristopher (also known as Kip) is an official CAPA vlogger for fall 2017, sharing his story in weekly posts on CAPA World. A Finance major at University of Colorado - Boulder, he is studying abroad in Florence this semester.

In this week's post, Kristopher chats with CAPA Professor Alessandro Marchi on education, life in Florence, and the Cultural History of the Mafia.

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Thanks Kip!

Kristopher's journey continues every Tuesday so stay tuned.

A CAPA Alumna Interview: Sarah Morgan

Meet Sarah Morgan, a History major and Journalist and Fine Art minor from the University of Delaware who studied abroad in London during fall 2010. Below, she talks about how she got out of her comfort zone through study abroad, how the locals of London left an impression on her, and how study abroad led her to work abroad in international education.

CAPAWORLD: Tell us a bit about yourself.
SARAH MORGAN: Hi!  My name is Sarah Morgan, and I'm an alumna of the 2010 Fall CAPA London program!  Originally from New Jersey, I attended the University of Delaware for my undergrad degree, where I majored in History, and minored in Journalism and Fine Art.  During my time at UD, I studied abroad three times- in Puerto Rico, Greece, and my final experience was with CAPA in London!  I’m a bit of a bookworm, and also love photography and yoga.

"Thoughts on Education Abroad" is a monthly column written by CAPA The Global Education Network's Deputy President and Chief Academic Officer Dr. Michael Woolf.

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Last month I talked about how we negotiate airports. I tried to describe what we can perceive in the transnational staging posts of airports. I wanted to illustrate what even an elderly, myopic traveller can learn through observation. However minimal my insights, that exercise represented something that is critical in education abroad: seeking to understand unfamiliar environments in ways that teach us what these places have to say to us and how they can impact upon our own sense of being an effective actor, or otherwise, within the spaces we inhabit.

 
Photo: public domain

"Thoughts on Education Abroad" is a monthly column written by CAPA The Global Education Network's Deputy President and Chief Academic Officer Dr. Michael Woolf.

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Beyond Tarzan

I was raised in an environment in which Africa was a place almost beyond our urchin imaginations. If we envisioned it at all, it was through the lens of that most colonial of figures: Tarzan, a “noble savage” with an English accent.

We were dimly aware that Africa was a real place: we had seen it in dog-eared atlases. Now and again bits of Africa would be in the news as places inexplicably (we thought) seeking independence from the British Empire. For most of us, though, Africa was a blank space we filled with fantasies. It was never real. It was an idea.

Photo: public domain

Words by Carly Hamilton, a journalism major at the University of Missouri who studied abroad in London during summer 2016.

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My study abroad experience this past summer in London, England revolved greatly around the Brexit vote. Prior to my arrival in the UK, I heard buzz about it but wasn’t able to fully understand the significance of this vote. Upon landing in London, that started to change.

I arrived in mid-May and the vote was set for Thursday, June 23^rd. Every morning on my walk to work, I would see people standing on the Hungerford and Golden Jubilee bridges. They were just talking to anyone who would listen about why the UK should stay in the European Union. It seemed that every day, the cover of each newspaper had something to do with the upcoming vote. My interest in the matter grew immensely as I started to understand that I would be present for such a huge moment in history, especially if the vote was to leave.

Once I got more comfortable at my internship with the travel PR agency known as the Brighter Group, I spoke with my supervisor, Stephen, about the vote and what it meant to him as a UK citizen. In summary, he explained to me that anyone who wanted to leave the EU was an idiot. He felt that the UK wasn’t nearly large enough to function on its own and that it would be a disaster if the vote were to leave. It was clear that everyone else in the office felt the same way, although they didn’t voice it as boldly.

"Thoughts on Education Abroad" is a monthly column written by CAPA The Global Education Network's Deputy President and Chief Academic Officer Dr. Michael Woolf.

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What William Tyndale did

William Tyndale changed the world with words. His translation of the Bible into common English coincided with Gutenberg’s new printing techniques. The conjunction of a translation that was comprehensible to a wider population with the means of “mass” production reshaped the world. Tyndale was born in 1494 and executed for heresy and treason in 1536. The idea of extending access to the mysteries of religion ran counter to the elitist orthodoxies of the time. Nevertheless, Tyndale’s work paved the way for the King James translation and was responsible for the first step in a process that embedded the Bible into the consciousness of the English-speaking world for at least four centuries. He was a revolutionary.

The dissemination of the Bible did more than impact faith; literature in English reached deeply into biblical sources for creative energy and common reference. As a consequence, over centuries literature existed at two levels: the events and figures recorded in the works, and points of biblical reference commonly understood by readers. There was a shared context that, at a minimum, gave readers a field of common understanding. It is of course possible to read Shakespeare, Marlowe, Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, T.S. Eliot (and a myriad of other English and American writers) and enjoy, at some level, intriguing stories. However, without at least a rudimentary knowledge of the biblical references the work is diminished. The reader is disconnected from the full meaning and is able to engage only at a relatively superficial level. An analogy with the visual arts is appropriate. How would an art historian understand the tradition of Western art without some knowledge of its critical sources? Without that awareness, we have a bunch of pretty and horrible pictures.

Illustration: Early printing press, 1568 (public domain)