Jaspers abroad 2022 Winter Study Abroad session in Barcelona, facilitated by Emmett Ryan.
ELIZABETH KALAJ/THE QUADRANGLE
By Julia Ciampa, Staff Writer
As the cold weather quickly approaches New York City, Manhattan University’s winter study-abroad groups have begun to book their trips.
Each year, Manhattan University offers a plethora of exciting opportunities for Jaspers to fully immerse themselves in different opportunities to explore new horizons around the world.
This coming winter, several university faculty including Brother Robert Berger, William Mulligan, Edgar Zavala, Ph.D., Andrew Skotnicki, Ph.D., Emmett Ryan, Ph.D. and Daniel Savoy, Ph.D., will embark across the world with students.
Each professor has been assigned to a specific program. The programs being offered include trips to Paris, Venice, Rome, Barcelona, Ireland and Buenos Aires in Argentina. As registration for all programs opened in early September, one trip in particular met its capacity for registration within five days, as it is one of the most popular programs offered.
Brother Robert, professor of religious studies, will run the exceedingly popular 2024 winter intersession trip to Rome, Italy, taking off on Dec. 26.
The course is a two-week intensive titled “Saints and The Catholic Imagination”. Brother Robert talked to The Quadrangle about his excitement for students to experience a different culture.
“I want students to experience the richness of other cultures,” Brother Robert said. “And also to get out of their comfort zones for a while and to see the world through different eyes. I am confident that this trip will give students more confidence in terms of focusing on material, and I think professionally, it widens their viewpoints in terms of the global influence that they are going to experience abroad.”
Senior Hannah Burgoyne will be joining Brother Robert’s trip to Rome, as her previous study abroad experience at Manhattan University in 2023 was a memorable one for her.
“In the spring of my sophomore year, I had the unforgettable opportunity to study abroad in Madrid for a semester,” Burgoyne said. “I think that when you start a study abroad trip, you’re very outside of your comfort zone, but having people from school who have the same experience as you forms strong bonds. When you spend a lot of time with people, you just naturally bond over things you have in common, which we try to reinforce. The bonds I have made during study abroad at MU have been so special to me.”
The facilitator of the Ireland trip, adjunct professor of music and theater William Mulligan, shared the importance of his role in fostering a community as the program coordinator.
Mulligan implements a certain requirement within his program where each student must post on Instagram a minimum of 10 pictures per day.
Mulligan utilizes this requirement to foster a community among the students, as this requirement allows everyone to see their trip in ways that they haven’t before. Creating a sense of community and belonging while abroad remains at the core of these study abroad trips, which both Brother Robert and Mulligan believe is a special component of studying abroad.
Brother Robert also believes that study abroad is interconnected to the values that Manhattan University holds as a Lasallian institution.
“The worldwide notion of Lasallian schools plays a significant role within these trips because I usually take my students to other international Lasallian institutions,” Brother Robert said. “Through seeing other institutions and Lasallian organizations besides Manhattan, I aim to get the students to recognize elements of social justice in terms of what other cultures experience. I also try to familiarize the students with values that are different from their experience in the United States.”
Mulligan looks forward to the winter study abroad program, as he mentions that he commonly sees students gain a deeper understanding of themselves.
“In my own experience with the students, they seem to grasp a greater sense of themselves and their place in the world,” Mulligan said. “When you’re at college and you’re on a small campus like Manhattan, it sometimes is easy to get lost in that world. Being in a different country opens you up to other people’s existence, cultures and different ways of living. Students are allowed to theoretically feel the warmth and culture of other lifestyles, as we bring our own senses of wonder and experience to the table.”