Kaitlin Heatwole Archives - 91��Ƶ News

Seven fantastic reasons to go on an 91��Ƶ cross-cultural

Andrew Jenner — Tue, 12 Aug 2014 20:26:45 +0000

As one of the 91��Ƶ is well-known for its emphasis on cross-cultural understanding and real-world experience. Students in our program travel with veteran faculty who are more than experts – they’re mentors who veer off the beaten path and teach cross-cultural understanding. Time after time, graduates say their cross-cultural trip was “life-changing.”

The basics about cross-cultural

Each academic year 91��Ƶ offers three or four semester-long cross-cultural programs to destinations all over the world. At some point during their time in college, slightly over half of all 91��Ƶ students study overseas for a semester. Additionally, up to a half dozen three- to six-week programs are offered every summer.

Between the two options, a large majority of students at 91��Ƶ study abroad to fulfill its requirement for cross-cultural education, and the remainder have a supervised cross-cultural experience nearer to home. It’s a distinctive, long-standing and wildly popular part of the curriculum.

“We overwhelmingly hear from alumni that this is one of the best things that they did as an undergraduate because of the life experience and the self-understanding that they gain, the perspective [and] the language skills,” says , assistant to .

After surveying several dozen students recently returned from an overseas cross-cultural, we’ve compiled a list of the most common reasons students look back on the experience as one of the best of their college years.

1. Gain new self-confidence

(Photo by Bethany Hench)

Getting from A to B in a strange place is part of every cross-cultural, and students find it’s a fantastic way to build confidence in their abilities to navigate new life situations.

“After riding many trains, planes, and automobiles – and one camel – I now have the confidence and know-how to travel by myself to just about any destination,” says Emma King ’15.

Nursing major Afton Vanderwarker ’15 says being “able to function completely independently for the first time in my life on our week of free travel … showed me how much I’m capable of and that I really can go anywhere and do anything in the world.”

Students on the 2013 Honduras cross-cultural used horses to traverse the country terrain. (Photo by Bethany Crouse)

2. Learn a language

Many cross-culturals include formal language study as well as an immersion experience with another language. There’s no better way to learn.

“I left knowing zero Spanish and returned able to speak enough to have conversations with host families and most people I met on the street,” says Alex Witmer ’15.

3. Make new friendships from home that will last forever

“I left the U.S. with a group of strangers and came back with a family,” says Rebekah Graham ’13.

Expect to form tight, long-lasting bonds with the other students in your group. Emma King ’15 explains why: “They were the ones who helped you carry your bag up a mountain. They ate the same sketchy looking soup with the unidentifiable green stuff in it that you did. They can now speak a foreign language just as badly as you can and laugh along with you when you accidentally ask a shop owner for a kiss rather than asking for their attention. They know all your embarrassing digestion stories. They are the people that know you at your best and at your worst.”

4. Form friendships abroad, gaining insights into the world

“I am still in contact with people from Syria to Palestine that I met through home stays and our living experiences, as well as [having] connections with people from places such as Guam and Ukraine that I made during free travel,” says ’13.

Syria and Ukraine have been spending a lot of time in the international headlines lately; Nafziger’s contacts there have given him greater understanding of the events putting those countries in the media spotlight.

5. Expand your food horizons

Chances are good you’ll eat things you’ve never heard of before (e.g., chocobananos), and maybe things you’d never considered food before (e.g., chicken feet). And, chances are good, you’ll be very glad you had the opportunity.

“The street food which we were warned not to eat was the best food I’ve ever had in my life,” says Vanderwarker. “I’d fly back for street food.”

91��Ƶ’s fall 2014 cross-cultural to the Balkans, includes stays in Greece (pictured), Bulgaria and Turkey.

6. Do things you couldn’t possibly do at home

Hike Spain’s Camino de Santiago! Swim with sea lion pups! Tour the Colombian countryside by motorcycle! Students come back from their cross-cultural with memories to last a lifetime.

“I got to visit Hobbiton [movie set in New Zealand], which was the greatest day of my life,” says Bonnie Fisher ’14.

Kaitlin Heatwole ’11 spent her free-travel hiking a section of the Israel National Trail, hampered by a lack of English-language maps. The best one she and her friends could find wasn’t great – imagine using a road atlas to hike the Appalachian Trail – and they did indeed go a bit astray. But gummy bear candy kept spirits high and they made it to the end intact, on time, and the better for it.

7. Change your life forever, and for the better

Talk to students who have been on a cross-cultural, and you’ll hear some variation of this over and over:

“This semester abroad marked one of the greatest times of my life – challenging, but beautiful,” says Annie Dutcher ’08. “My time in Guatemala and Mexico was completely life-altering in all the best ways. I credit 91��Ƶ and this trip with opening my eyes to life outside of the U.S.”

Here are a few more take-aways:

“Even now, almost 15 months after returning to the U.S., I continue to strive for that sense of profound engagement with the world around me that I felt while on cross-cultural, and struggle to find ways to step outside of comfortable American life.” – Meg Smeltzer Miller ’13

“I learned how to choose to be content in each and every situation, no matter how difficult.” – Caitlyn Suttles ’13

“It did make me more reflective and thoughtful in my daily life. I don’t go a day without thinking of Honduras and the struggles those people face each and everyday.” – Patrick Campbell ’12, MA ’14

“If you want to leave college feeling like you’ve learned something and changed who you are in the best ways, cross cultural is the path you want to take. It’s a struggle but every moment – the hours in language class, the weight gain, the homesickness – is totally worth every penny and drop of sweat.” – Lani Prunés ’14

More info about cross-cultural

Learn more about cross-cultural study abroad at 91��Ƶ on the program website,��student blogs and our .

Couple Competes Separately, Wins Together

Mike Zucconi — Fri, 25 May 2012 15:16:59 +0000

What do you do with old research papers? If you are 91��Ƶ (91��Ƶ) graduates and Nathan Hershberger, you submit it to a competition and win $500 each.

Heatwole and Hershberger tied for top honors in the Anabaptist research paper contest, sponsored by the . The institute awarded Heatwole and Hershberger first place without knowing one small detail about the duo.

“They didn’t realize we were married until after they had announced the winners,” said Heatwole, who tied the knot with Hershberger in August 2010.

In awarding the couple a first-place tie, the committee stated in its award letter, “We decided to do something that we think has never been done before and may never be done again – award two first-place prizes to two individuals for two very fine papers.”

Heatwole graduated in 2011 with a degree in and now serves as office coordinator in . Her paper, “The Changing Relationship Between and Anabaptism,” allowed her to focus on Anabaptist institutions and “how they negotiate both the social justice and theological motivations for their work.”

I’m drawn to the motivations and methods for development and how they change over time,” said Heatwole. “I examined how MCC’s relationship to the Anabaptist principles has changed over time and highlight similarities in this shift to broader sociological trends of development.”

Hershberger, who graduated from 91��Ƶ in May 2012 with a degree in and , wrote his paper, “J. Denny Weaver, the Creeds, and Scripture: Thoughts on the Orientation of Anabaptism and Approaches to Theology,” on the differences between Weaver’s approach to scripture and theology and some contemporary approaches.

Hershberger said he wrote his paper in the fall of 2011 for his contemporary theology class.

“I spent a lot of time on atonement theology – thinking about the meaning of Christ’s death – and in particular J. Denny Weaver’s approach to that question, summed up in the book (and phrase) ‘The Nonviolent Atonement.'”

Heatwole and Hershberger heard about the contest through a friend and plan to use their combined winnings to buy a new laptop.

“Whatever is left over will go toward rent and groceries,” said Heatwole.

The Sider Institute for Anabaptist, Pietist and Wesleyan Studies facilitates the exploration and interpretation of the three theological traditions that have shaped the “personality” of Messiah College’s founding denomination, the Brethren in Christ Church.

Spring Break Y-Trip Focuses on Harrisonburg

Jim Bishop — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 04:00:00 +0000

They “gave up” their mid-semester break to perform a labor of love in their own back yard, doing so willingly and with much satisfaction.

Every year for spring break, several student groups spend the nine-day period doing service projects in various locales in the states – under the auspices of the Young People’s Christian Association (YPCA) – instead of going home or heading to warmer climes.

This year, for the first time, one group devoted the entire break to service projects right in Harrisonburg, Mar. 1-8. Listen to the March 11 chapel podcast featuring this and other spring break Y-trips!

91��Ƶ freshman Lucas Schrock-Hurst, (right), and his sister Grace Schrock-Hurst work on tiling the floor of Our Community Place.

Co-leaders Grace Schrock-Hurst and Rebekah [last name omitted on request] and Nathan Hershberger, Kaitlin Heatwole, Lucas Schrock-Hurst and Debbie Vasquez worked primarily with Our Community Place (OCP), a community center on N. Main St. across from The Little Grill collective restaurant.

They also related to New Bridges Immigrant Resource Center based at Community Mennonite Church.

At OCP, the students worked in the soup kitchen, helped organize activities for persons frequenting the center and laid tile in the main floor from a pattern designed by 91��Ƶ sophomore Kaitlin Heatwole.

With New Bridges, the group took part in a panel on immigration issues and visited immigrants at a local trailer park.

The students lived for the week at the Dean House across Water Street from Community Mennonite Church. To add a “green” element to their efforts, They walked or rode bike everywhere they went rather than using cars. They even borrowed 91��Ƶ recycling coordinator Jonathan Lantz-Trissel’s special cart to move their personal things from campus to the Dean House.

The group limited itself to bikes, walking and public buses for their modes of transportation during the service week in a concerted effort to be ‘green.’ (L to R): Lucas Schrock-Hurst, Rebecca [last name omitted on request], Debbie Vasquez, Grace Schrock-Hurst, Kaitlin Heatwole, and Nathan Hershberger

“There’s so much we can do right here in Harrisonburg,” said Grace Schrock- Hurst, a junior culture, religion and mission major from Harrisonburg. “When it’s over, we can continue the relationships we’ve started and learn more about the community.

“I would sum up our group’s experience in six words – surprising, humbling, challenging, enlightening, loving and beautiful,” Schrock-Hurst added.

Four 91��Ƶ students did Christian service projects at Hattie Larlham Center for children with severe disabilities, Mantua, Ohio. Another group of 10 spent the week at Jubilee Partners, a Christian intentional community in Comer, Ga., that works with refugees who settle in Atlanta.

Kaitlin Heatwole Archives - 91����Ƶ News

Seven fantastic reasons to go on an 91����Ƶ cross-cultural