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Diana Benanti

Daily Egyptian

Opportunities abroad abound for SIU students as various colleges and departments are offering overseas travel programs this summer. Below is a brief synopsis of various trips students can take this year. Space in many of the programs is limited, and most of the programs have March enrollment deadlines.

Le Petit Grand Tour d'Architecture

Le Petit Grand Tour d'Architecture, or "the little grand tour of architecture," is a four week European expedition that combines travel and study, technology and ancient architecture. The trip winds through Europe, and this year travelers will visit Italy, Paris, London, Greece and Germany.

Highlights of the trip include picnicking at Versailles in Paris, partying on Mykonos, Greece, and paying homage at Jim Morrison's grave in France.

Architecture professors Jon Davey and Michael Brazley started the trip in 1997. The eighth expedition will take place May 14 to June 11. Davey said the trip combines learning and play, and with such a loaded itinerary, the trip is physically exhausting.

Though the expedition was originally created for architecture students, Davey said it is open to all disciplines at the University and the study can be tailored to fit a student's needs.

All students are equipped with temporary laptop computers, cell phones and digital cameras and after a long day of sightseeing, students upload their pictures to a website, creating a digital journal of their adventures.

Students can obtain up to six credits for participating, and the trip counts as an Interdisciplinary University Core Curriculum course substitute. The cost of the trip is $5,500 and includes one meal a day, lodging at two and four star hotels, and travel by airplane, train, coach, hydrofoil, boat, ferry, bus and donkey.

Davey said there is room for a few more students for this year's trip, and registration is open until spaces are filled. For more information, visit www.siu.edu/~archtour.

Art and Culture in The Scottish Landscape: An Interdisciplinary Experience

The School of Art and Design and the Department of Cinema and Photography are organizing a trip to Scotland from May 18 to June 6. The trip is open to students of all disciplines and a few spaces are still available.

Students are housed in a 16th century castle, called Hospitalfield House, located in the verdant countryside of the Scottish Highlands, an hour and a half from Edinburgh in Arbroath. Hospitalfield House has been a sanctuary for painters, sculptors and artists of all disciplines for over 100 years and is an "artist residency and project workshop for the promotion of contemporary arts and international exchange," according to the castle's Web site.

Dan Overturf, an associate professor of cinema and photography, and Ed Shay, a professor in the School of Art and Design, will direct this year's trip.

Overturf said he encourages students not involved in photography and art to go on the trip. Overturf said the trip is conducive to flexibility, and often students make their own contacts in Scotland and pursue their own agenda.

"We have open days where people make their own decision on where to go and set up their own appointments," Overturf said.

Lee Buchsbaum went on the trip four times throughout his graduate career at SIU. Buchsbaum said he had never been abroad before going on the trip, and he used Scotland as a jumping-off point to visit the rest of Europe. On one of the trips he became interested in historic coal mining cultures, and Buchsbaum said about 60 percent of the work he does now as a freelance photographer and writer is linked to the work he did on his trips to Scotland.

The cost is $3,500 and includes airfare, lodging, meals and ground travel, as well as an extended stay in the Orkney Islands. Registration is open until slots are filled.

For more information, visit www.hopsitalfield.org.uk or

http://www.artanddesign.siu.edu/02news/02archive/02arch022005/abroad.html.

African Cultural Continuities: Ghana

This summer, students can visit goldmines, sit in on Parliament and see slave castles of Ghana, the Gold Coast.

The Department of Black American Studies will be taking its eighth trip to Ghana in June. Assistant Professor Leonard Gadzekpo is directing the trip, which he said will allow students to explore African history and culture.

The trip aims to show students the similarities between the Ghanaian food, music, religion and the rest of the African continent. Ghana was chosen because of its role in the transatlantic slave trade.

The trip will take place from June 30 to July 22. The total cost is $3,800 and is all-inclusive.

Gadzekpo said registration will close in mid-March and all students are welcome. Students are able to adapt the experience to their own field of study, and Gadzekpo said they and study the modern African approach to business, education, medicine, and even chocolate production.

The students will attend lectures at five different universities in Ghana, and will be able to see the education system from kindergarten to the college level.

"They get to see Africa first hand, not something reported, not something read in a book," Gadzekpo said. "They get to meet people [and] interact on a cultural level."

Graduate students can get three credit hours, and undergraduate students are eligible for three to six credit hours.

For more information, contact Leonard Gadzekpo at gadzekpo@siu.edu or visit http://colanmc.siu.edu/BAS495.

Ancient Legacies: Egypt and Greece

Students can enjoy a luxury cruise on the Nile, build a pyramid with sugar cubes and participate in the mummification process this summer with Ancient Legacies: Egypt, the longest running travel abroad program at the University.

This year is the 24th anniversary of the program. The program is open to all undergraduate and graduate students and members of the community. Students can earn up to six credits for participating in the program. The trip will take place twice this year, once from May 16-27 and also from June 11-23.

Philosophy professor Robert Hahn is the director of the program, and leads the trip every year with other professors including an Egyptologist, an art historian, an astronomer and an archeologist.

Hahn said the program is an interdisciplinary and team-taught project that offers hands-on experience to the Egyptian culture and studies Egypt's contributions to Western civilization.

The sister program, Greece: Ideals of Excellence will take place May 28 to June 10.

A patron has recently stepped forward to provide scholarships for students applying to either program. There will be six $1,500 scholarships and one $1,000 scholarship. The deadline for applying for scholarships is March 15. The total cost of the program is $4,580.

Hahn said the programs are one-third full, and students can apply up to April 15.

For more information, visit the trip website