An eight-year vision for the faculty and staff of Baker University is taking a step toward a requirement that all students under the Quest program must have an “intercultural experience.”
When the program was being developed, a committee created a list of close to 30 understandings and outcomes to be accomplished. The committee found that global awareness and knowledge of other cultures is critical for students today.
“Now that (Quest) is fully rolled out, it’s wonderful to see how it has worked out,” Professor of French Erin Joyce said. “As we keep getting new students under the program, we as a college can all get under one roof.”
A new regulation states that all new students under the Quest program must take one semester of a language. Joyce says this change is a “baby step toward intercultural experiences.”
In addition to requiring a semester of language, BU will be adding a starting course in both Chinese and Arabic, two classes that had only been offered previously during Interterm.
Professor of Physics Mahmoud Al-Kofahi, who had previously taught Arabic during Interterm, believes that his course is a key way to bridge the gap between the East and the West — to open students’ eyes to traditions and cultures previously unavailable to them.
“This kind of course, Chinese, Arabic, languages in general, help bring us closer together as a nation,” Al-Kofahi said. “With the internet, the world is now one small village. I feel that I am serving a noble cause by bringing American and Arab cultures closer together.”
According to BBC, around 75 percent of the world’s population doesn’t speak a word of English, and learning a language gives students a chance to be internationally marketable and culturally aware.
Although Joyce believes it may be unrealistic to force students to travel abroad during their college years, she hopes that the Quest program will highly encourage traveling.
Sophomore Hannah Geenens, a double major in Spanish and secondary education, spent her Interterm in Spain. She believes that traveling gave her experiences that she would have never learned in a classroom.
“(Interterm) immersed me in the language,” Geenens said. “I was forced to speak and to understand so it took me out of classroom Spanish and brought it into my real life. It was my language for a month and that’s what I spoke to survive.”
The last outcome that would complete the Quest curriculum is “creative expression.” It would require all students to engage in an active experience with the performing arts. At this time there are no plans to put this regulation into action.
“I think for a liberal arts school like Baker, it’s a plus to have these learning opportunities,” Al-Kofani said. “It’s a part of the student education and student experience to have the chance to be exposed to other languages and other cultures. When you learn a language, you are also learning the culture and traditions that go along with that language.”
