Two groups of students studying foreign languages were able to immerse themselves in different cultures recently through the Beyond Colgate program.
Twelve students spent a day at La Maison amérindienne, a museum and interpretive center east of Montreal, Quebec.
The museum is near the city of Mont-Saint-Hilaire, a French-speaking area that is fiercely proud of its language and culture.
“It’s an amazing opportunity for us to take advantage of the close proximity of this region and to have the students totally immerse themselves in another culture, even if it’s just for six hours or so,” said Mahadevi Ramakrishnan, who teaches French at Colgate and who led the trip.
The students, most of whom are members of the French Club, visited the museum that shows how Native Americans helped the original French settlers survive in the mid- to late-1700s.
They visited the cabane à sucre, or sugar shacks, used to create maple syrup, and learned how that syrup was used in a variety of food products.
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| Students take part in an activity at La Maison amérindienne, a museum and interpretive center east of Montreal, Quebec. SEE MORE PHOTOS HERE. |
The students also received a personalized tour of Mont-Saint-Hilaire by a city councilman and a director of the local historical society.
“There is no English spoken there, and it forces the students to work on their conversational skills,” said Ramakrishnan. “It’s a practical application of what we study in class.”
The Beyond Colgate program funds opportunities for students to extend their coursework through travel to museums, cultural events, research centers, and other destinations. Most travel is within upstate New York or to major cities in the Northeast.
The program helped a second group of students with an interest in Spanish to travel to New York City with faculty members Pilar Mejia Barrera and Roxana Paz.
Some students went to see a special retrospective called Phantom Sightings: Art After the Chicano Movement at El Museo del Barrio. Others went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to view Spanish and Latin American artworks.
The nearly 50 students also attended a performance at Repertorio Español, where they saw a play inspired by the classic Spanish novel Don Quixote, and enjoyed a meal at a Peruvian restaurant.
Spanish Club members helped organize and fund the trip, which also was supported by the Africana and Latin American Studies Program, Latin American Student Organization, and La Casa.
“The goal was to have an activity that included representation from all the Spanish speaking/cultural groups on campus, and the Spanish and Latin American majors,” said Romy Rodriguez ’11, Spanish Club president. “Without hesitation we can say we had success!”
Additional support for the two trips, which took place in early April, came from the dean of diversity and the dean of the college.
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| Students, faculty members, and language interns enjoy a Peruvian meal during their trip to New York City. |