Summer's Scholars

Climbing mountains and building houses for fun and credit

Hiking in the Himalayas, journalism in Jerusalem, fine arts in Florence. Exotic diversions? Not entirely. Overseas summer programs, once limited to dusty archaeological digs and guided museum hops, are turning higher education into high adventure. This year thousands of Americans are traveling abroad to take part in more than 400 U.S.-sponsored programs. Colleges throughout the country have found that with the scarcity of summer employment, students want to combine some solid learning with their summer fun. Better still, most of the courses offer credits toward degrees.

The opportunities are wide-ranging, from Michigan State's New Delhi-based seminar on the theaters of India and Southeast Asia to Boston University's program in Eastern Europe on film animation. Brown University sponsors the greatest adventure of all: a two-month course in the Himalayas called "Exploration." Under the supervision of a university geology professor, some 30 students study Indian history and languages, geology and mountain climbing. One special test: an expedition to the summit of 22,000-ft. Mount Devistan.

Some summer students give back to their host countries as much as they gain. Brigham Young University's "Project Guatemala" is more of a mission than a course. For eight weeks, 44 students teach nutrition, agriculture and health care to Guatemalans. Last year engineering students built frame houses to replace dwellings that had been destroyed by the 1976 Guatemala City earthquake. Their reward: six to eight credits.

Many students use summer programs to make career decisions. An eleven-week course offered by New York's Union College in Britain, Sweden and Poland gives 25 students a look at socialized medicine. "I want to see where U.S. medicine might be heading," says Junior Nathan Keever. Michigan State Junior Beth Anthony is spending four weeks studying the BBC and mass media in Britain under a program sponsored by her school. "Like everyone else, I am looking for a good job when I graduate," Anthony admits. "I thought this program would give me a plus on my resume."

For exposure to the rigors of a prospective career, Boston University's "Journalism in Jerusalem" program is hard to beat. During two months, 29 students are lectured on politics and history by Hebrew University faculty members, then tutored by Jerusalem Post staffers on news reporting. Their grades are partly based on the quality and number of stories they get published back home. Says Director Elaine Littell: "This program challenges the would-be journalist with almost every problem he is likely to encounter--language barriers, a volatile political system, some censorship, uneasy and unfriendly borders."

Such experience does not come cheaply. The Jerusalem program costs $1,800 plus airfare; Brown's Himalayan adventure, $3,000; and Union College's medical tour, $2,550.

Laments Edward Hackett of the University of Maine at Orono: "We used to have a good number of summer programs in foreign countries, but they all became too expensive." But nine students from Evergreen State College in Washington seem to have found a way to have their foreign course without the high cost. They are traveling through France, Italy and England this summer studying medieval monuments--and saving money by sleeping in campgrounds and cooking their own meals. Estimated tab for two months including airfare: $1,500.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.