The Explorations/Study Abroad program at Baldwin-Wallace College launched a new exchange initiative with an immersion experience in India during the winter break. Twenty students went on a 14-day study tour of the country accompanied by professors Ellen Posman (religion) and Javier Morales-Ortiz (political science) and B-W President Richard Durst and his wife, Karen. The group was based at Christ College in Bangalore but kept up an exhausting pace to soak up all they could about the vast country during their short stay.
“We visited so many different parts of India,” said Amanda Evans, a sophomore communications major from Valencia, Pa. “We went to the mountains and to the beaches, to cities to rural villages.” In many ways, she said, Indian cities are much like American cities, but more crowded. “The extent of the westernization surprised us,” she added. “American fast food restaurants are everywhere (but with different menus). The traffic is unbelievable.” Evans also was surprised to see “so many monkeys running free…like squirrels in our country,” she said.
From Bangalore, the students traveled to several cities, visited temples, shrines, a botanical garden and wildlife sanctuary, attended a kathakali (classical dance-drama) performance, spent a night in a rural village, experienced high tea and celebrated New Year’s Eve at a lavish hotel. In addition to these excursions, the students attended lectures about all aspects of Indian culture.
Schools in Bangalore Share Name of B-W Founder, John Baldwin
The Dursts took a side trip to the Baldwin School for Boys and the Baldwin School for Girls in Bangalore.
“They were so enthusiastic about our shared history and heritage, and seemed to delight in the fact that we were there after all of these years,” President Durst said. He learned that the schools were reconstituted in 1881 after John Baldwin donated $3,000. Because of his gift, they were renamed in his honor. The school officials seemed incredibly honored, Durst said, when he announced that B-W would establish a scholarship for graduates of the Baldwin schools.
Posman deemed the trip “a total success. I felt that the students got to see the diversity of India as well as the meeting of tradition and modernity.” Morales-Ortiz agreed. He and Posman were there to work with the students who received academic credit in either political science or religion through their work during the trip and back on campus.
Amy Dawson, a senior broadcasting major from Amherst, spoke for most of the group when she said, “it was the worst/best trip ever. It was such an unusual experience, especially for those for whom it was the first trip abroad. Most said they would want to go back but not for a while.”
Although they saw the very rich and the very poor, Dawson said she was impressed by everyone’s happiness and passion for life. “I also fell in love with their outlook on religion,” she said. “They all have a devotion to their own god but they celebrate their differences. There is a sense of connectedness; everyone is a part of each other. One way India has changed me is to make me even more passionate to help out with my community and my country.”
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