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History Department Travel Program
The travel program is extremely beneficial for students on an academic level. History classes at Wheeling Jesuit University focus on a range of topics, from Immigration to the First and Second World Wars, from the Cold War to the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, among others. Complementing their coursework, students are able to explore where history was made. Students can visit Ellis Island, walk the battlefields of the D-Day beaches or Verdun, stroll down the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris or the Ringstrasse in Vienna, visit the Vatican in Rome or the famous Cologne Cathedral and touch the remaining pieces of the Berlin Wall. The program is perhaps even more valuable for the personal development of students. Traveling throughout Europe and the United States fosters both intellectual growth and individual responsibility. From a more tangible perspective, coming into contact with different cultures is an unparalleled experience and provides history majors with a real advantage in today’s globalized economy. Previous trips led by history professors include trips to Ireland, New York, Berlin and Metz/Trier/Paris with trips to Vienna, Munich, the Rhine River Valley, Normandy, London, Rome and Prague on the future schedule. For further information, please contact Dr. Jeff Rutherford at jrutherford@wju.edu or 304-243-2276. Student Testimonials France/Germany 2012 "The trip was like a 'dream-come-true' ending to my senior year and the years spent at WJU. My favorite things were getting to spend some quality time with my classmates and my professors. The sites were spectacular as well. I really enjoyed Metz and Trier for their quaintness and European 'authenticity.' The hostel stays were fun too because they gave us the full European young adult travel experience. Paris captivated me! Overall, it was just a superb trip!"
The trip also provided unscheduled time for self-guided activities. I took in a performance of the Berlin Philharmonic playing Dmitri Shostakovich’s fifth symphony during a free day. Getting to hear one of the classics of the orchestral repertoire, performed by one of the top-rated symphonies in the world, directed by one of the outstanding conductors in all of music today--Simon Rattle--thrilled me. Sitting in an audience of people whose language I did not know, I strangely felt connected to them; the music communicated something to us all that we could not have told each other with words." --Ryan Norman
--Emily Harden
These relaxing educational experiences were countered by our trip's sobering, awakening focus on World War II and the Cold War. Walking alongside the notorious Berlin wall and being beaten by the sun at an old Nazi concentration camp made me realize that much of what I had previously learned in history classrooms was part of a mental world unconnected from the tangible places we visited. To me, learning history has gained in dimensions - not only depth or breadth - because of the trip. I used to wonder why professors quoted gargantuan death statistics from battles and genocides. "Why wouldn't they just focus on quoting people's personal laments?," I wondered, believing no one could comprehend these meaninglessly huge figures. But standing on dry, sparsely foliated dirt in the endless expanse of the camp's inner yard established the terrifying reality of such statistics: tragedies never happen in textbooks. They happen to real people in real places." |
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