Pilots all over the world

Pilots All Over the World Many UP students, faculty and staff have gone outside normal study abroad and travel options and have left their mark on locations farther away than The Commons.

October 15, 2009

Pilots on the Hill

Hannah Gray Staff Writer gray12@up.edu As UP junior Katie Scally was dropping a bill off at The Capitol, via an underground shuttle, she ran into John McCain.

“That can be a typical day,” Scally said. “You never know who you are going to run into.”

Scally is currently in Washington, D.C., not only as a student at American University, but also an intern in California Senator Dianne Feinstein’s office.

Scally is taking two fourcredit classes and has an internship, which accounts for another four credits. The program is a semester long, according to Scally, who is studying political science and communication studies.

Scally’s internship responsibilities include researching issues and writing memos for Feinstein, as well as answering constituent calls. Sometimes the constituents are angry and yell.

Scally says she deals with them calmly.

“Every day is a new day,” Scally said.

Already, Scally has talked to representatives at Capitol Hill and with campaigners and staffers.

“I was the one person in the group at UP into politics, but everyone is like that here,” Scal-

Students chuck traditional study abroad programs in lieu of a cruise ship

The Beacon

ly joked about herself and her friends. “I found home. I found my people.”

Jennifer Wascher, the hall director for Corrado, went to Japan in the summer of 2005.

Her trip was through the Japan Exchange and Teaching Pro-

gramme. Wascher helped teach English at a high school in Fuchu-Shi, Japan.

“Travel is a passion of mine, and I wanted to take that to the next level,” Wascher said. “Going to Japan was really having to be a fish out of water.”

Wascher most importantly notes that the Japanese were friendly and patient with her Japanese speaking skills.

“The Japanese were welcoming but curious,” Wascher said.

She had the feeling of being “othered,” since she was the

Courtesy of Katie Scally

Junior Katie Scally points at the U.S. Capitol building while standing atop a balcony at the Newsueum.

The Newsueum is a museum that just opened in Washington D.C. dedicated to journalism, journalism history and freedom of the press.

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white girl in Japan.

Japanese students had the huge stress of “cram school.” Essentially, the students would go to school all day and then go to cram school at night, according to Wascher.

“How I understood it, high school was harder than their universities,” Wascher said.

Even though the school where she taught had a policy against attending cram school, many students still went. It was something accepted within the culture.

Sometimes student would even fall asleep during class because they would be studying for long hours.

“The biggest issue was students were studying too much,” she said.

The students looked forward to their English class because Wascher was a native speaker, which was engaging.

Wascher was also able to travel during the breaks and on weekends, in Japan and abroad.

“Some of the food was a bit of a shocker,” Wascher joked.

“Sushi in Japan is different. You don’t get California rolls.”

At one point she even ate raw chicken, which she said was delicious.

Another interesting aspect See Exchange, page 10

All aboard for study abroad

Lauren Seynhaeve Staff Writer seynhaev13@up.edu Around 8 a.m., announcements sound throughout an old cruise ship and 750 students from all over the United States awaken to get ready for their day in a new country.

The University of Virginia hosts a Semester at Sea program, which takes students around the world. While the ship is at sea, classes are taught by professors from all over the country. While the ship is in port, field studies and other excursions are available.

“It was the coolest thing I’ve ever done in my entire life,” said University of Portland senior Barto Barto, who took the trip last spring.

Barto decided that the study abroad programs offered by UP weren’t for her, and while she was researching her other options, she came across Semester

at Sea. While on her cruise, Barto visited the Bahamas, Spain, Morocco, Namibia, South Africa, Mauritius, India, Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Japan, Hawaii, Guatemala and Florida.

“It gave me a whole new look at the world,” she said. “You can’t really explain your experience with people who weren’t with you because the things you see are so profound and moving that words can’t describe it.”

Barto said picking a favorite country would be difficult, since each one she visited is individually extraordinary. But she does remember a favorite excursion she went on while in India. Her group flew from their port in Chennai to the oldest living city in the world, Varanasi.

“I was raised Catholic but felt a vibration and sense of clarity in Varanasi that I have never experienced anywhere else in the world,” she said.

For over 2,000 years, Varanasi’s citizens have practiced ceremonial cremation of the dead along the river. The act is meant to help the souls move on peacefully into their next life.

“At dusk I participated in a ceremony celebrating the God-

dess of the River, the Mother Ganges,” she said. “It was extremely moving to see with my own eyes one of the oldest funeral rites in human history.”

In addition to this emotionally moving excursion, Barto was able to dive off the coast of South Africa with great white sharks, walk along the Great Wall of China and tour the Taj Mahal, amongst other things.

“It’s just incredible,” she said.

In addition to seeing important sights, Barto made sure to try the local delicacies.

“In every country I ate as much food as possible, I’m a big fan of trying different

Courtesy of Kelsey Barto

Senior Kelsea Barto sits on the Great Wall of China with her friend TJ Gary. Barto See Abroad, page 10 particpated in Semester at Sea, which is a study abroad program which takes place on a ship. When the ship is in port, students can go on excursions.

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October 15, 2009

Ecuador

Pilots All Over the World

A bucket list is supposed to be a compilation of things that a person wants to do before they die. Alumna Mary Catey’s might just kill her.

Among the 103 goals is one that seems simple when compared with “learn how to golf and get good enough to play in a pro-am,” “run an ultra-marathon” or “set foot on all seven continents in the world.”

When brainstorming about the seven continents, many forget about Antarctica. Well, not Catey.

“After I graduated from UP, I decided to Google jobs in Antarctica,” she said. The results were all for research and science, which she said she was not qualified to do. But, she thought to herself, everyone has to eat.

“So I typed in kitchen jobs and I got a phone call a week later telling me to fill out paperwork,” Catey said.

Catey left for the frozen continent on Sept.

28, 2008 and flew to Denver for a few days of training. She then flew to Los Angeles and then to Sydney, then to New Zealand and finally, after delays due to blizzards, Catey reached Antarctica.

“When I first got there, it was negative 17 degrees with wind,” Catey said. “The snot froze in my nose and I was like, ‘Oh my god what did I get myself into!’”

Catey arrived the first week of October.

“It was summertime there, so there were 24 hours of daylight,” said Catey. “It was extremely dry; it’s the driest and windiest and most barren wasteland, a very stark and isolated environment.”

During her time in Antarctica, Catey lived on a base with 1000 others and worked in the kitchen.

Thailand

Where in the world are UP students?

The first time UP junior Sasha Ramage was grounded was not by her mom or her dad, but by her Ecuadorian host family when she was 16.

During her junior year of high school, Ramage spent five months as an exchange student in Ecuador. She was inspired to go after hearing two of her friends raving about their foreign exchange trips.

“I was ready for something new,” she said.

She knew nothing about Ecuador except that it was an exclusively Spanish-speaking country.

She stayed with a host family in Riobamba, a little colonial town in Ecuador. Her host family quickly became simply her family – Ramage was a daughter, not a guest. Her host family included her dad, mom, two sisters and her brother. Living in a conventional family was a new experience for her.

Her curfew was 7 p.m. on weekdays, and was allowed out until midnight only once during the weekends. “They were very strict with me,” she said.

One night while hanging out with friends, she didn’t come home until 1 a.m. As she crept up the stairs and snuck past her parent’s bedroom, the light clicked on.

“We were worried about you,” they said.

She was grounded from celebrating Halloween, and was to Courtesy of Sasha Ramage be the last Halloween Ecuadorians In her junior year of high school, junior Sasha Ramage (in pink) spent would be celebrating. The next a semester studying abroad in Ecuador. While in Ecuador, Ramage year, the new president decided that went to an all-girls school and became very close with both her host because Halloween was an Amerifamily and her schoolmates. can holiday, they were not going to celebrate it.

“I was really sad because it was the only Halloween I would have been able to celebrate there,” she said.

Ramage attended an all-girls, private Catholic school complete with uniforms and nuns. “It was religious, it was weird, but it was them,” she said.

She went out often with friends, getting into bars and going to their favorite spot in town.

“It’s a big part of it to go out with friends and live their life, do what they do,” she said.

Expressing how she felt was difficult at first, and it took about a month for Ramage to start having a good time. She spent that first month carrying around a dictionary, but after a while she left it behind and simply asked how to say things she didn’t know.

Ramage has been to Ecuador four times now, and still keeps in close contact with her host family through phone calls, emails and of course, Facebook. Her host dad told her that he will always be her dad, and before she left said, “I’ll walk you down the aisle when you get married.”

“It changed my entire life,” she said. “I’m a Spanish and social work major and there’s a reason for that.”

– Elizabeth Tertadian

Antartica

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“You see the same people all the time,” she said. “It reminded me of college, we all lived in dorms on base.

It was same experience, the only difference being that there were a bunch of old people around.”

Catey noted that the base was ultimately college for old people.

Though many of them were scientists studying flora, fauna, the atmosphere and ice core samples, they would all converge at the pub on base after their workday was completed.

“Basically, all we did was drink beer and work. Sound familiar?” she said.

Living in such close proximity to people, Catey experienced a strong sense of commuCourtesy of Mary Catey nity. Though she was a cook, she also douWhile working in Antartica as a cook, UP bled as “science support.”

“Everybody is in it together,” she said. “We alumna Mary Catey did extra work around the base to make the base a livable home. were all important.”

This was Catey’s first trip to the Southpeople, cliques and why individuals choose go ern Hemisphere. She left Antarctica on Feb. 8, 2009 having gained more knowledge about to such an isolated place.

Her reason was the completion of her Buckboth cooking and herself.

“I learned that I’m a whole lot more inde- et List. The continents of South America, Asia pendent that I thought I was,” she said. “And and Africa still remain before she can check number eight off of that list. that I can make new friends anywhere.”

– Olga Mosiychuk Catey has a degree in sociology and wants to go back to Antarctica someday to research

Not many students can say they researched inside antimalaria compounds in Thailand. However, senior Josh Parks can.

Parks looked at traditional Thai plants for anti-malaria compounds. The particular plant he was looking at was primarily used for stomach pains, according to Parks.

Parks worked through the program Research Experiences for Undergraduates, based in Thailand.

“I just wanted to get out of the country,” Parks said.

Parks found three compounds within the plant that are being tested for biological activity to see if they work against malaria, according to Parks.

During his time in Thailand, Parks traveled and soaked up the Thai culture.

At restaurants, while you eat the waiter will stand next to the table the whole time, and you are not supposed to tip them, Parks said.

Also, the beds are hard, like a board, according to Parks.

“I would sleep on the floor because it was more comfortable,” he said.

Parks also spent two days in the hospital due to a minor motorcycling accident.

“Thai medical programs are extremely decent,” Parks said. “They have really good programs and doctors, but for really cheap.”

Parks noted the Thais were very hospitable, and they never acted like it was a burden to help.

“Thai people are so inviting, it takes you back,” Parks said.

In fact, Parks still keeps in contact via Facebook with the Thai grad students he worked with.

“It’s the only reason why I got a Facebook,” he said.

The research is a possible area of interest for graduate school. Parks wants to go into natural products and chemistry.

“Thai people are happy as a whole,” Parks said. “They are the happiest people I’ve ever meet in my life, as a culture.”

– Hannah Gray

Ethiopia

For sophomore Mary Giday, Ethiopia isn’t just another vacationing destination, the archeological locale of Lucy or one of the most ancient countries of the world.

It’s her home.

And it’s the aspect of home she most dotingly remembers: the communal atmosphere, the celebratory gatherings of the community, the spontaneous collective chatter over coffee.

“When the neighbors are coming over, they just knock,” Giday said. “There’s no need to call.”

Born and raised in Ethiopia, Giday immigrated to the United States at the age of twelve. Her family is from the Tigray tribe of Northern Ethiopia.

She traveled back to her homeland once during the summer when she was seventeen.

“My mom wanted us to move, she wanted us to have a better higher education,” Giday said.

Higher education in Ethiopia is difficult to obtain. In order to attend university, students have to pass a strenuous nationalized entrance exam. According to Giday, if you fail, your life is over. There are fewer options to enroll in a university.

Having lived in the United States for seven years, Giday has noticed plenty of cultural differences between the U.S. and Ethiopia, from the scarcity of taxis in Portland, to the exquisite dress of city folk in Addis Ababa and the unreserved nature of individuals on the streets of Ethiopia.

“People aren’t scared to talk to you out of nowhere,” Giday said.

“In Ethiopia, they aren’t reserved or apprehensive when meeting for the first time. There are no walls.”

The feeling of community is especially apparent during big celebratory gatherings, which typically feature plenty of dancing, cooked lamb and coffee to spare. During traditional holidays, shepherds travel through the towns and the community members can pick and choose their own little lambs. The host always offers and presents their guests with their very best.

Giday is apt to point out the singleness and uniqueness of her experiences, especially since Ethiopia is often represented as a poor nation. According to her, there’s always something bad to the good, like in any country.

“My experience is different than all other Ethiopian experiences,” Giday said. “I can’t speak for all Ethiopians” For her, Ethiopia is just home sweet home.

– Ona Golonka

Australia

In Broome, Australia, class means bird watching and examining the great variety local plant species.

It might involve a trip to one of the many biological phenomena that are abundant in the sun-burnt country.

On one such trip UP sophomore Michael Pacholec visited a 375-million year old coral reef, with a prehistoric creature’s remains still preserved in the limestone.

“You weren’t confined to the classroom,” Pacholec said, “We took field trips for our classes, the hands on approach is really cool.”

Pacholec spent five weeks in Broome, Australia this last summer with UP students on a summer study abroad trip.

If classes were extraordinary, time out of the classroom provided even more adventure.

Oasis Club, the local night spot and Matso’s Local Brewery which serves delicious food, drink and live music became the hang outs of UP students in Broome when classes ended.

Cable Beach was another popular destination for swimming in the warm ocean, barbeques with friends and watch breath taking sunsets.

The students also took day trips to explore. Pacholec especially recommends the Aboriginal Cultural Tour, where he learned about the tragic history of conflicts between European settlers and native aborigines.

Pacholec also enjoyed a tour of the Malcolm Douglas’ Crocodile Farm, which comprises a crazy collection of crocodiles removed from habitats where they had become a hazard.

“One of them had eaten a horse.” Pacholec said.

Diving into local culture, Pacholec tasted different delicious Australian

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Courtesy of Josh Parks

Senior Josh Parks (top right) white water rafts on a river in a national park in Thailand. Parks is accompanied by other Research Experience for Undergraduate students as well as graduate students and a professor.

fare such as potato wedges with melted cheese slathered in sour cream and chili sauce.

He was even brave enough to try the famous Australian goo, vegemite.

“I almost threw up,” Pacholec said. “It’s super salty and everything you wouldn’t want for a taste in your mouth.”

Pacholec also mingled with the locals during his trip making friends with the two Australian students that accompanied UP students on their trip.

“They are really laid back and pretty outgoing.”

Pacholec said.

One of Broome’s major attractions is the Staircase to the Moon which is a natural tide phenomenon that happens at the full moon between October and March. The city celebrates with a festival and hundreds of people come out to watch the tide turn and the optical illusion occur when the conditions are just right.

Out of all of the amazing attractions that Pacholec experienced, he is most grateful for the chance to make friends.

“You become such good friends with the people that you are there with,” Pacholec said, “Friends that you probably wouldn’t have met otherwise.”

– Megan Osborn Courtesy of Michael Pacholec

Michael Pacholec pretends to eat a lizard at the Malcom Douglas Crocodile Park. The park raises corcodiles to sell their hides as a cheaper and more environmentally friendly option to poaching.

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The Beacon

Pilots All Over the World

October 15, 2009

Fr. Claude assists Ugandan university Ona Golonka Staff Writer golonka12@up.edu Uganda. A place that entices you not to leave. A place so enticing that the Rev. Claude Pomerleau C.S.C. wanted to stay for more than one year.

Pomerleau, a political science professor at UP, went to Uganda last year to help establish a Master’s of Arts in International Affairs program for Uganda Martyrs University, a small liberal-arts university similar to UP. He was the director of the international affairs pilot program during its first year. Pomerleau planned target groups of students, decided which courses to be taught and figured out which professors would teach the courses.

“It takes a lot of experience of failing and succeeding and knowing how universities work,” Pomerleau said.

The Master’s program, established in the East African School of Diplomacy and International Studies, is the first of its kind in East Africa. It trains people, specifically East Africans, to become specialists for United Nations agencies and other international organizations.

“Now, they don’t have to come to the U.S. or Europe to get a degree,” Pomerleau said.

Pomerleau has high hopes for developing nations.

“What I want to see for developing countries, what we have

to give to the developing world, is 2,000 years of loving the life of the mind,” he said.

One part of Pomerleau’s mission at Uganda Martyrs University was to help set up a Holy Cross presence there. Holy Cross wants to “shoe-horn” its presence at the university by slowly, yet firmly, establishing itself there.

Though the main university campus is in Nkozi, Pomerleau lived in a Holy Cross community in the capital of Kampala, 82 kilometers away. He commuted to Nkozi by long bus rides.

While in Kampala, he bought a helmet and a backpack and rode around on boda-bodas, Ugandan motorbike taxis. According to Pomerleau, a lot of the boda-bodas are piloted by former child soldiers.

“I did tours of the city with them,” Pomerleau said. “No one else in Holy Cross did – they thought it was ridiculous.”

Pomerleau also spent his time with a fellow Holy Cross priest from Notre Dame, who spent the year teaching at Uganda Martyrs. They spent their days walking around Kampala and talking

to seminarians, people going to Nairobi and Ugandans.

“It was an unbelievable discovery of a totally different world, but with human beings who are just like you and me,” Pomerleau said. “The richest part of education is living in other countries, listening and talking to its peoples.”

During his year-long stay, Pomerleau noticed the good relations between Catholics and Muslims in Uganda. Many Catholics and Muslims in Uganda intermarry.

“There is a strong presence of

the Catholic Church, especially amongst the poor,” Pomerleau said.

There are also a lot of Muslims and mosques in Kampala.

Pomerleau heard the Islamic call to prayers every morning from his dwelling window.

He also grew accustomed to the sounds coming from the Kabala-Gala district, which was right below the hill of the Holy Cross community in Kampala.

“I heard all the music and dancing till 3 a.m.” said Pomerleau. “I learned to go to sleep with the music.”

Pomerleau said he was impressed by the enormously bright students of the university, some of whom hailed from the Congo or Tanzania. He fondly remembers one student who boldly introduced himself, saying “I’m big black Ben.” Then there was the multi-lingual student who declared “I want to be the secretary-general of the United Nations” at the age of sixteen. By sixteen years he had already known five languages.

“They have such high hopes,” Pomerleau said.

He misses Uganda and would like to return to teach there for one or two semesters.

“The tolerance, acceptance and hospitality of the Ugandans was just spectacular,” Pomerleau said. “Traveling abroad is Courtesy of Fr. Claude Pomerleau about discovering who you are While spending time in Uganda, the Rev. Claude Pomerleau, C.S.C., attended a graduation of the Uganda and what your abilities are.”

Martyrs University. Pomerleau went to Uganda last year to help establish a Master’s of Arts in International Affairs at the university.

ABROAD: Semester on the high seas

Continued from page 7

foods,” she said.

Senior Tyler Tate also participated in Semester at Sea during spring semester of 2008. Two of his cousins had gone earlier and had spoken highly of the program causing Tate to decide to go himself.

“I thought it was really cool,” he said. “You see a lot of stuff and you meet a lot of people. It was kind of surreal.”

Tate described the days in port as different each time.

“How much fun you have in port is up to you,” he said.

“There are planned tours, but if you were on a tour and you found something cool you couldn’t stop to explore, so going out on your own was more interesting.”

Another drawback of the tours is that they cost a bit extra.

Tate also said that it was hard to pick tours because they must be

chosen in advance of the semester, when students haven’t yet had time or opportunity to get to know each other.

Tate said with research and good planning, individual excursions with friends were always more fun than the tours.

“There’s so many people and so many things to do, you will meet with people you mesh with,” he said.

Tate and a few friends decided to fly to Singapore while the ship was in a Malaysian port.

On a very popular excursion in Vietnam, Tate got the opportunity to work in an orphanage.

“You get a survey of the world” he said. “I think everyone should travel.”

Both Barto and Tate made many friends from all over the U.S. “You really bond with people from around the country,” Barto said. “There was a group of about 20 of us, and I still keep in

contact with all of them.”

Tate agreed that bonding is a lot easier when you travel with other people.

“Figuring out where you are in a different country with other people really helps,” he said.

When the ship is at sea, the days are a bit less exotic, as classes are in session. Students are allowed to take a maximum of five classes. Both Barto and Tate felt the material was manageable and, at times, even easy.

Once classes were finished, most people went to the upper deck to sunbathe by the pool.

Other amenities are available, such as massages and a sauna, but extra services are not included in the price of the program.

Tate said that he would generally play basketball with friends around three in the afternoon and hang out for the rest of his time.

“We would relax on the deck and sun tan,” he said. “We would

The program also requires field experience, in which students look at the various perspectives of the war, how the battle took place and how the terrain affected the battle.

“We look at how it affects the battle because the terrain is a huge part of the military, especially with the Civil War,” Ong said. “I love it here.”

Ong is interning with Museum Services, working in the archives. Currently, Ong is taking inventory of relics.

“I’ve seen more bullets than I’ll ever want to see again,” Ong said.

Ong also came across old poker chips soldiers made out of soft bullets, as well as a chair that was on the platform when Lincoln gave the Gettysburg ad-

dress.

In September, Ong went to the anniversary of the Battle of Antietam. The rangers at the park led an all day walk along the battlefield, to coincide with the same time of day the battle occurred years ago, according to Ong. “Pretty much the entire day I had shivers going up my spine,” Ong said.

also watch movies – we could get cheap $.50 knockoffs in China.”

Junior Elle Hoxworth will spend next semester at sea. She’ll start in San Diego, and go to Hawaii, China, Japan, Vietnam, India, South Africa, Ghana, Brazil and end in up Florida.

“I’ve always known that I wanted to study abroad,” she said. “I have the opportunity to go to countries I never would on my own.”

In order to participate in this program, students need to take a leave of absence from UP. In other words, students need to drop out of UP and reapply once the semester is over. As with any other non-UP credits, transferring must be discussed on an individual basis with the student’s college.

Tate described the process as annoying, but doable.

“I’m so excited,” Hoxworth said with a smile. “I think everyone should have the opportunity

to see cultures that are really different than their own and to come into contact with people from all over the world to help them become global citizens.”

Hoxworth said that each semester there is a theme onboard the ship. For example last summer, the theme was “Social Justice in the Mediterranean.” She is happy the theme for her semester is “Sustainability.”

Throughout the semester there is a focus on the ship’s theme and speakers from around the world are invited to talk onboard.

Additionally, the classes available onboard are relevant to the countries the students visit.

Although everything is taught in English, the program manages to immerse students in other cultures.

“It’s probably the biggest thing that has impacted my life,” Barto said. “I would recommend the program to anyone.”

EXCHANGE: Trading places

Continued from page 7

was the toilets. In Japan, the toilets had a sink connected to the top of it. The water from the sink, after you wash your hands, goes into the toilet as you flush.

The sink water then becomes the toilet water. The toilets were sustainable, Wascher said.

“Nothing was shocking, just interesting,” Wascher said.

Nicholas Ong, a junior at UP, is currently at Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Penn., taking Civil War classes and interning with the Gettysburg National Military Park.

The classes go into more specific topics pertaining to the Civil War, such as Lincoln and civil liberties and women and the war, according to Ong.

Courtesy of Nicholas Ong

Junior Nicholas Ong and his Gettysburg semester group visit Burnside’sBridge in Antietam. Ong and his group on the anniversary of the Battle of Antietam.