University of Michigan - Michiganensian Yearbook (Ann Arbor, MI)

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1C staff members assist American students far left] and foreign stu- dents [left]. ' World Campus Afloat ' [upper left], better known as The Floating University. Students during a five day safari [below] at Nairobi National Park in Kenya. Dean Alder- son [lower right], college sponsor of the ' World Campus Afloat ' program. Greeting of students [lower left] by natives at Port Madras, India. here and abroad The IC ' s goal is to share cross-cultural experiences and to help students abroad escape the American tourist syndrome. The center provides inside information on min- imizing travel expenses and increasing the efficiency and enjoyment for the student planning to travel overseas. For a brief time, students traveling abroad escape routine conformity, traditions, and rules of the University and of society in America. The student experiences the free- dom and frustration of taking-on the role of a stranger in a foreign country, and of sharing universally the trials common to all foreign- ers past and present. The student traveling overseas is often somewhat lost, tucked-away on an unfamiliar continent with natives who speak only prim- itive languages. The student abroad remains lost in one sense but in another, his exposure to new horizons broadens his total awareness of life on the ' other ' side of the world. 29

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students learn of foreign lands Michigan ' s International Center (1C) pro- vides an import and export (input and out- put) of foreign and American students. The center channels a great deal of information and services pertaining to the Ann Arbor community and to diverse foreign countries. Foreign and American students discover the realities of cross-cultural exchange during projects, programs and events sponsored by Michigan ' s 1C. The 1C helps prepare American students for personalized and productive study, tra- vel, or work experience abroad. Staff members at the 1C recently organized a campus travel information network. The net- work enables prospective travelers to talk on a one-to-one basis with experienced travelers or with foreign citizens from the countries which the students plan to visit. The center assists foreign students in gaining acceptance by providing opportun- ities for interaction and participation in non- academic areas of the local community. Staff members at the 1C counsel foreign students with problems in the area of housing, work clearances, immigration and naturalization regulations, health insurance and currency exchange. A large part of the staffs time is spent in- terpreting the workings of the University bureaucracy to foreign students. The 1C counsels foreign students for the purpose of helping them cope with the unfamiliar and complex problems of attending a huge educational institution. 1C offices also sponsor travel fairs and travel ori entation seminars in attempting to bring together ' first-timers ' and experienced travelers. The seminars are designed to in- clude foreign students who have adjusted to life at an American university. The University of M InUTruilioiul Center 28

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Many Michigan students earn all of their academic credits in Ann Arbor after four years of lecture halls, laboratories, libraries and books. Common obstacles for many students wishing to travel beyond the Ann Arbor community are opportunity and finan- ces. A substantial majority of Michigan students rarely venture beyond the confines of their native state. Always however, a small percentage of students are drawn to the exploration of diverse and alternate cultures and life styles. For these ' traveling students ' , Ann Arbor is perhaps merely the focal point, center or home oase of a cultural circuit. For the student abroad, the street of a foreign city becomes a lecture hall, and laboratories are the marketplaces and stores where a student observes and analyzes a foreign culture. Extensive travel becomes an education in itself for the traveling student. A library of cultural awareness develops as a student exposes himself to far-away count- ries, cities, cultures, governments, traditions and aspects of different societies. students seek Women and children of an Indian family [upper right] in a temple in Delhi, India. Zebras [below] in Nairobi National Park in Kenya. Students [upper right] at Deer Park in Nara, Japan. Women students [right] on the beach at Goree, a french port in Dakay, Senegal. Children [far right] watching their mother sell coconuts at a roadside in Mysor, India. Students at Michigan may receive academ- ic credit for participating in any of more than 350 study opportunities abroad. Overseas programs are offered to undergraduate and graduate students by North American edu- cational institutions and organizations. The cultural awareness which a student gains from traveling abroad is an education in itself. The student traveler studies within a program designed specifically as an alter- native to ' classically dull ' textbook education. Tired of looking at pictures in history books, the student choosing travel abroad sees the conditions of a country as they really exist. TO- 30