by Kate Kovarik

    One of Saint Louis University’s newest adjunct faculty members, Norma Lehmann-Vogelweid, has innovated a study abroad prep course for the fall semester. The one-hour credit class is meant to “provide students the skills for understanding others’ behaviors and values and for interacting with individuals from different cultural backgrounds,” Lehmann-Vogelweid said.

    The new course will not be mandatory for all study abroad students and in fact will have no prerequisites attached. Students who have not chosen a country to visit are still welcome to sign up and take the course. 

    “Country-specific assignments will come in the latter part of the semester when application deadlines have passed,” she said. 

    For the past year, the Lehmann-Vogelweid has been advocating the course across the SLU campus. Advertised at the study abroad office and supported by SLU’s faculty, the course has recruited 12 prospective study abroad students.  “I lived in Brazil, Switzerland, and Portugal and came back to the US to work with study abroad students.”

    Joseph Heathcott, Ph. D., an American studies professor at SLU’s St. Louis campus and Madrid campus, believes the course will help students “arrive to the host countries with a more mature and seasoned knowledge base.  This is important, because American students are perceived by their European peers—often with real justification—to be rather undereducated about the host countries.”

    Heathcott stated that, from his experience, European students are typically just as educated about American politics as they are about their native country, whereas American students generally only know their own. He concluded the class will emphasize the importance of “not only studying the countries in advance, but nurturing habits that will lead to ongoing self-education once in a country.”

    Brighid O’Neil, who is a current study abroad student at the Rome Center, feels that she would have benefited from having more than the one provided informational meeting before leaving.

    “An informational meeting that gives you the basics of the school, where you are living, things to expect, what to bring, etc. would be nice. But I think it’s cool just to be over here and make it on my own, too,” she said.

    SLU study abroad students have had no choice but to have this attitude for a while, and even study abroad students who have returned, like senior Mike Morrow, “can’t really see that class really doing anything… unless it was somehow able to teach people to be more tolerant.”

    Lehmann-Vogelweid admits the course “won’t take anxiety away.  Students will still have to use and adapt with what they have learned. There will still be that initial phase where students are scared. However, students will learn to recognize and cross borders of understanding. They will learn not to judge what is better but know how a culture is based on its values and history.”  

    The class is not meant to cause anxiety and set up students for a let down, but give a realistic view of “what it means to an American in a global age,” as Hatchett puts it. Students will be able to get settled and not be overwhelmed by the new culture.

    Junior Jody Wynen, who is enrolled in the course, said that she is excited about the class “mostly because it is meant to equip me with the knowledge I need to successfully acclimate into a foreign culture.”

    Because this class is experimental, it does not count as a core credit, but that process is in the works.  Lehmann-Vogelweid has also proposed a re-entry course. Director of the Center for Social Justice Ashley Cruce believes the course will “provide a structured, formal venue for preparing for study abroad with one's peers and an instructor who has a wealth of experience—working and living abroad.”

    The class takes place on Wednesdays 1:10-2:00 p.m. in Ritter Hall 310.