04/08/2017
The EDU Travel Summer School 2017: Where life becomes knowledge.
“In order to write about life, first you must live it”, said Ernest Hemingway at some point in his early 20th century career. Being a traveler, he met with most aspects of life and wrote about it. But how do you live life? It takes time and courage to open up to new experiences, to think and reflect about them and to embrace new ideas.
Two dozen Penn State University students chose to invest their holiday time in the Netherlands ready to immerse into a foreign society and gain insights that put matters into a different perspective. They crossed the ocean and on July 28 this squad arrived in the Netherlands.
For it was a learning month in which renowned professors, lecturers and journalists taught about the dark places of society: ghettoes, crime, migration, racism and radicalism. This was combined with seeing this knowledge applied in daily practice; visits to the International Court of Crime, the Anne Frank House, a mental clinic, a youth prison, an adult prison, a reintegration centre, a drug addiction centre, police stations, the Rotterdam Harbour customs, the Districts Attorney’s office and the Red Light District. Or sailing in Amsterdam on a small refugee boat together with the Immigration Service and students from the Royal Dutch Military Police. Captain Tommy – a refugee himself – made sure everyone was comfortable and then asked how it would feel to cross the Mediterranean for 4 days and nights with this vessel holding 283 people. As this indeed happened some years ago. During those visits, the team engaged in deep thought with professors, professionals, clients, experience experts and Dutch students. Many questions were launched; the answers never revealing one truth but many.
It was a reflective month as well. Halfway the Summer School, the historic small village of Veenhuizen, in the relatively desolated North East of the country, was visited for two days. It was a moment of bonding, relaxation and reflection. Just a campfire and getting to know one another. Using Socrative conversation techniques to explore new ideas and explanations. By carefully listening, summarizing and elaborating, leading to higher abstract questioning.
But not to forget that it was a fun month too. Speed boating on the river Meuse that runs straight through the centre of Rotterdam, the biggest harbour in Europe. Or walking around the city, being guided by several guides showing the city from a different point of view. The Dutch Parliament was visited as well as the sun-drenched beaches in The Hague. Not to mention the various going out nights, dinners, trips to other countries and sightseeing. Various Dutch students joined the group and even from the Czech Republic two PhD students (Tereza & Tereza aka TnT aka ‘left Tereza’ & ‘right Tereza’) came and joined it all.
It was a month that participants will not likely forget. Hemingway would have had a good story to write. The story of life.
