The Spring Institute for Global Studies serves a selected group of students aspiring to a broader understanding of global forces, issues, concerns and the ideals of stewardship, as learned about from within the context of a specific cultural perspective.   Students spend spring term living overseas, based in a particular country from which they will examine both a broad range of topics crucial to global and human development (in politics, economics, the environment, health, education, development, culture, and so on)  and also focus on specific themes, which will change from year to year.  The locations and themes will be determined in some part by the disciplines and interests of the faculty involved, which may also reflect areas of significant or growing interest to the University or may represent an opportunity to introduce areas currently less well represented in the University’s regular curriculum.  Generally, there will be at least two W&L faculty from different departments participating in the academic offerings of the program, augmented by guest lecturers and specialists drawn from the local area.

 

A student on the recent Spring Institute in India wrote that the experience:

 

exposed me not only to a new culture and world, but to a new way of thinking about the world.  My immersion in a new and vibrant culture gave me confidence to travel, speak to the natives (or at least TRY to communicate) while at the same time it gave me a sense of responsibility in the world. The thought that most came home was from one of our lecturers who said something to the effect of: What America does matters. We are all looking thousands and thousands of miles away to your country to see what you are doing because it effects our lives. Americans have a tremendous responsibility, because when you vote, you are not just voting for a candidate and how he will affect your life, but on something or someone that can and will affect the world.

This was coupled with my complete disgust that there were a dozen or so Mysore citizens killed in a rainstorm and no one in the Western world would ever even know about it. The surplus of rain had washed them and their shacks out and killed them. At the same time, all the US news sources along with the BBC and other reputable news providers were covering the tornado that swept through Kansas and killed six or seven people. While this is a terrible event as well, surely we can do something about a RAINSTORM and protect people from it. This was accepted as typical and natural and no one on the other side of the world would never know. Shouldn't we being doing something (as it would be so simple) to keep these unnecessary deaths from happening?

That event really came home to me.

Another student on the program wrote:

Since being back in the States, I have had a lot of time to reflect on my experiences.  What do I remember most vividly?  The laughter of children, the toothless grins of the elderly, the hospitality of shopkeepers, and the sacrificial kindness of those who worked to make my visit to India the best it could be.  Like everything about India, my experience was a paradox.  I will never enjoy being blatantly stared at, but I will always be flattered by families who want me in their family pictures.  I may never get over the smell of India, but I do have to agree that it is "the worst good smell in the world" (quote taken from a novel I picked up in an Indian bookstore).  Driving may seem like a chaotic nightmare, but I eventually deduced the rhyme and reason for even the strangest traffic patterns.

 

Living in India, even just for six weeks, made me realize how blessed I am (as saccharine as that may sound).  It also made me realize how little I know about a country with one of the largest democracies in the world-- a country whose survival is so linked to my own.  I don't think I know more having studied in India.  Rather, I have questioned everything.  That is the true beauty of going abroad.