INDIANA UNIVERSITY PURDUE UNIVERSITY INDIANAPOLIS

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STUDENTS EXPAND/SUPPLEMENT EDUCATION WITH OVERSEAS TRAVEL

INDIANAPOLIS - Each summer dozens of IUPUI students and professors participate in an educational migration - traveling abroad either to teach or learn in settings that reinforce what is being taught about other ways of life.

Some of this summer's travelers included 16 Herron School of Art students who visited art studios and attended lectures and classes in Pont-Aven, France, and China; students who toured England visiting sites linked to literary greats such as the Bronte sisters, John Keats, and William Shakespeare; a dozen IU School of Law - Indianapolis students who served as law interns around the world; and a husband-wife team of IUPUI professors who taught a sequence of classes in Greece.

Robert Sutton, associate professor of classical studies, taught "Ancient Athens on Site," in Athens, as the course name implies, while his wife, anthropology Professor Susan Sutton, taught "Modern Greece: Images and Realities" in classes held on the island of Paros.

About 45 students from various U.S. colleges, including nine from IUPUI, and 20 from IU Bloomington enrolled in the 3 credit hour courses taught by the Suttons. More than half took both courses in the sequence designed to give students an in-depth understanding of both ancient and modern Greece.

"Living within the society you are studying provides constant opportunity for direct experiential learning," Susan Sutton said. "What is taught within the classroom is repeatedly reinforced by what happens outside it."

This summer's classes were the second installment of what will be an annual summer offering by the IU Overseas Studies Offices. The Suttons will alternate teaching duties with faculty from IU Bloomington, returning to Greece every other year.

The program is sponsored in conjunction with the International Center for Hellenic and Mediterranean Studies, a private Greek organization that sponsors research and runs a academic year college program for English-speaking college students who wish to study in Greece. The IU classes are part of the center's efforts to expand its summer programs.

Activities during the classes included an archaeological dig at the site of a previously unknown religious sanctuary of the classical period.

Student Lauren Kussro, a Herron senior studying printmaking and painting, was among those who visited China this summer.

"Traveling to China not only widened my political and moral viewpoints, and the way I view every day life, but it also influenced my artistic perspective," Kussro said. "A lot of the newer art that the students and faculty are producing in China is amazing. It has the capability to be a real voice in protest against a lot of the political problems China is facing."

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