There is a new study abroad program in Greece beginning in the summer of 2018.
OCU and Oklahoma State University are partnering to take students on a two-week study abroad program in Athens, Greece. Dr. Elizabeth Willner, chair of education department, and Tonya Hammer, assistant professor at Oklahoma State University College of Human Sciences, are leading the course.
The program, entitled “To Greece and Back: LGBTQ Advocacy in the Spotlight,” explores LGBTQ leadership and advocacy through media and literature.
Mary Benner, director of global engagement, started the program with Jeffrey J. Simpson, director of the OSU study abroad office. Benner said they met at a conference in Greece, and were introduced to various organizations that work with leadership and advocacy in the LGBTQ community.
Benner said that she and Simpson hope to continue the program annually.
“What we hope to do is have it be an ongoing program that would look at these issues from different perspectives on an annual basis,” Benner said. “So in the future we might look at things from the arts, or from performing arts, or from sociology, or from religion, or from political science.”
Benner said she hopes to open the doors to students across Oklahoma in the years to come.
Other summer study-abroad programs include
- “Travel Writing in Italy” in Siena, Italy,
- “Community Health Experience” in Belmopan, Belize,
- “Theatre in London” in London, England, which now offers an optional nine-day Extension to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, and includes a Voice and Dialects class,
- “Celtic Christianity in Ireland” in Dublin and Galway, Ireland, and
A trip through the Doers Cultural and Educational Foundation, which had annually been in Taiwan, but will travel to China for the first time.
Jacqueline Bennett, acting junior, said she liked the opportunity to learn voice and dialects in another country.
“That’s where a lot of the dialects come from, and what’s a better way to learn than from the people themselves?” Bennet said.
Questions and concerns should be directed to Mary Benner or Study Abroad at 405-208-5270, or at mbenner@okcu.edu. Students can also go to the OCU Study Abroad website.
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