By Kerri Linsenbigler
Features Assignment Editor
For the third time, the U.S Department of State chose St. Bonaventure to host a five-week program for Central and South American students, according to Maddalena Marinari.
“This is such an exciting opportunity to get to know other cultures by not going anywhere,” said Marinari, associate professor of history. “Since I have quite a bit of experience with international students, international exchanges and being international myself, I said yes right away. But since this is very competitive, we didn’t know if we were going to get it, so it’s quite exciting to find out that we did again.”
The program, held previously in the summers of 2009 and 2010, runs from the beginning of July to the first week of August. Twenty students from Ecuador, Venezuela and Columbia will live on campus and take classes in U.S. history, politics and culture. The students will experience America even further through their travels around Western New York, Chicago, New York City and Washington, D.C.
“We’ll go to Darien Lake, and we’ll spend an overnight at the Chautauqua Institution,” said Melissa Yaworsky, one of the program coordinators. “There’s a portion of the grant that requires that we travel in the U.S.”
Bonaventure applied for the program in conjunction with two other colleges, University of Massachusetts Amherst and the University of Arizona, both of which will also host students. Studying at Bonaventure, however, is a unique experience, according to Marinari.
“I think often times people abroad think of the U.S. as New York City or L.A., if you’re lucky. Maybe Chicago, but that’s it,” Marinari said. “So here you get a completely new perspective. It’s Western New York, it’s a rural setting and it’s a really tight-knit community. So, I think they’ll be surprised by how different it is from the movies and the stereotypes they have.”
Even though this is a summer program for international students, Bonaventure students can still be involved as mentors.
“They help them acclimate to living in the residence halls, help them get to class, if they need help with the readings,” Yaworsky said. “Just help run the program and make sure things go smoothly. They get the group to where they need to be and just be with them pretty much 24/7.”
Mentors live and travel with the South American students, Yaworsky said. They are responsible for planning activities and the day-to-day experience.
Marinari said the mentors add another layer to the experience for the students. She said they offer a window into the life of a young American college student and what it really means to live in the U.S.
“From (the professors), they’ll get the history, get the politics, they’ll get the economy, all that fun stuff that they should know,” she said. “But I think it’s thanks to the mentor they look at the life of the young people.”
Emily Sorokes, a senior journalism and mass communication major, mentored during the 2010 program.
“It was crazy,” she said. “My title was a mentor, but I lived and breathed with these other students. It was kind of hard balancing being in charge and also being their friend.”
According to Sorokes, the learning experience far outweighed the challenge of being both a friend and leader. The international students learned more about American culture while Bonaventure students experienced South American culture, she said. Sorokes also said she learned to appreciate the safety of the U.S. in comparison to some of the international students’ homes.
“When we went to New York City, we told them, ‘Now guys, you’ve got to be careful,’” she said. “And they were like, ‘New York City is like Disney World compared to Caracas or Bogota.’”
Marinari agreed learning about different cultures is the most important aspect of the program.
“I think in the 21st century, students should be global citizens,” Marinari said. “So I think it’s an education experience for both sides. Essentially, they are cultural ambassadors.”
The deadline for mentor applications is today. For more information, contact Yaworsky or Marinari.
linsenka10@bonaventure.edu
