Student Reflections

OWU’s unique travel-learning courses offer students an opportunity to blend classroom theory with hands-on, real-world experience. Students and faculty then take these experiences back to the classroom, helping to bring theory to life and adding depth and breadth to discussion.

Not only are travel-learning courses valuable for the knowledge gained, but also for the community built between faculty and students and among students themselves. All the students featured here found their travel-learning to be meaningful in various ways. But we’ll let them tell you all about it.

Travel-Learning Course: Biofuels
Biofuels/The Vietnam Experience: Ohio Wesleyan student Joanne Neugebauer talks about the two Travel-Learning classes in which the participated. She recommends the Travel-Learning experience wholeheartedly, especially taking a course outside the student’s major. “You’ll be surprised at what you learn,” she says.

Travel-Learning Course: Mexican Migration
Mexican Migration: Ohio Wesleyan student Ellen Platt shares her experience of living with a host family and working with another student to gain perspective on Mexican children’s views of Mexico and the United States. She remains grateful for the experience of “being in that beautiful place with those wonderful people.”

Travel-Learning Course: Political-Social Cabaret
Political-Social Cabaret: OWU student Dave Winnyk is in on the ground floor of a new Ohio Wesleyan group that grew out of the Travel-Learning Course in the political-social cabaret style of theatre. A Travel-Learning Course “will change the way you think about education,” he says.

Travel-Learning Course: The Vietnam Experience
The Vietnam Experience: “I wanted to take the Travel-Learning Course that was farthest away,” says Kristen Suarez, a lifetime resident of Central Ohio. So she went to Vietnam for two weeks with a group of students, two professors, and an Ohio Wesleyan alumnus. Now the Ohio Wesleyan student is an ardent advocate for study-travel in as many cultures as possible.