Dr. Gerry St. Martin presents Paper in Mexico
SALISBURY, MD-- Dr. Gerry St. Martin, professor of French and Spanish at Salisbury University, presented his paper "Business Students in Chile - Non-Language Students Abroad: A Cautionary Tale" at the 13th annual conference of the American Association of Programs in Latin America and the Caribbean recently in Mérida, Mexico.
The paper described the cooperative efforts of SU's Franklin P. Perdue School of Business and Department of Modern Languages to deliver an international business travel/study course and a one-credit Spanish language and culture course at the Universidad Mariano Egaña in Santiago, Chile during the January 2000 winter term.
His paper focused on the development of the one-credit language and culture course as well as on the issues (personal safety, culture shock, survival language, student behavior, the foreign party scene, liability issues, etc.) which are all important responsibilities of the U.S. faculty on these foreign experiences.
"It was a wonderful experience overall: the Perdue School's close relationship with the Universidad Mariano Egaña, in Santiago, the capable support of Janine Vienna and the business expertise of Dr. Gerry DiBartolo were instrumental for a successful program," said St. Martin.
According to St. Martin, one of the most surprising elements of his course was the refreshing and persistent curiosity of the students about political issues in Chile. "This wreaked havoc on my class plans," said St. Martin, without regret. "I was very proud of the inquisitive attitude of students, and began to rethink the course."
St. Martin's presentation related the fact that the entire project in Chile was funded by a Title VI-A grant from the U.S. Department of Education which the Perdue School of Business worked hard to obtain. As these external funds ran out, St. Martin did not participate in the 2002 Chile Business experience for financial and programmatic reasons: programs need to be self supporting, and the School of Business is rightly committed to the development of its own faculty. While these are important issues, St. Martin's paper cautioned against taking students abroad without some programmatic and formal attention given to language (for foreign language sites) and culture (for all sites) by an expert in these fields.
It was most unfortunate, St. Martin's paper asserts, that the only formal lecture on language and culture in Chile 2002 was cancelled. Other Mérida conference presentations centered on similar issues and provided an invaluable interchange among study abroad directors, professionals and professors from various institutions in the U.S. and in Latin America who are committed to the improvement of foreign study opportunities for all students of their home campuses.
For St. Martin who has traveled extensively in Latin America, the pre- and post-conference activities in and near the Yucatán peninsula in February presented further opportunities to enhance his knowledge of the culture and pre-Colombian history of areas he had not yet seen (Chichen Itza, Mayan villages, Dzitnup and Uxmal among other places), but whose features figure prominently in the Spanish classes he teaches at Salisbury University.