Spartans Go Global: Annual January Sessions Offer Memorable Study-Abroad Trips
Erin Hickle
Manchester University has given students the opportunity to travel during the January session known as “Jan-term” to students across campus. This year, professors are taking students to new countries in hopes to broaden their learning experiences and create lasting memories.
Spartans are still able to take classes online or on campus, but if they wish to travel during the month of January, they may. This year, MU is offering a number of classes in a variety of fields that will travel to many different places. Some of these classes include International Sports Medicine, Tapping into Beer Culture and Mathematics in Culture. This January, Jeff Beer, program director of Undergraduate Athletic Training and associate professor of exercise and sports sciences, is teaching International Sports Medicine. Beer will be taking students to Ireland and the United Kingdom in order to offer opportunities to study the European model of sports medicine while being immersed in the culture. The regions this class will visit have unique medical professionals, health care and sports medicine teams that will allow students to connect similarities and differences between the United States and other countries. This course hopes to provide students with firsthand experience in various facilities, universities and other sporting events.
Tim Brauch, associate professor of mathematics, is teaching Mathematics in Culture. This class is a three-credit course and will examine the development of mathematics while highlighting how other aspects—such as the history and technology in a different location and time—influenced the development and influence of mathematics. This course, however, cannot not be used for credit in the mathematics major or minor.
Another traveling course being offered during January 2020 is The Development of Modern Scientific Thought with Susan Klein, professor of chemistry. This course will examine how British scientists have contributed to the development of modern scientific theory. Students will be able to visit museums and historical sites in Great Britain in order to explore the lives and works of numerous scientists and how they have been influenced by their environment and daily lives. The students will take a historical, political and religious perspective while also looking at the social structure of each lives of these scientists.
Other courses being offered during January include International Sport Governance with Ryan Hedstrom, Tapping into Beer Culture with Michelle Calka, Medical Practicum with Jeff Osborne, Social Psychology with Marcie Coulter-Kern, Culture and Psychology with Rusty Coulter-Kern, Cultural Anthropology with Jared Friesen, and Practice in Peace Studies with Katy Gray Brown. Each class has its own cost in order to participate in the course and cover expenses.
If students are interested in traveling abroad, they can contact Thelma Rohrer, director of Study Abroad and Off-Campus Academic Programs. Students can also find more information about classes that will traveling during any time of the year through flyers posted around campus, emails and by looking under the course catalog in ChetNet’s Spartan Self-Service website open to all students.