Best Practices Conference in June, 2001

Hendrix College

Participants:

• Joyce Hardin
• Wayne Oudekerk

Project Title: Natural Science and Study Abroad

Project Description:

As part of its efforts to fulfill the College's stated mission to provide opportunities for our students to "investigate and appreciate the richly diverse cultural, intellectual and linguistic tradions shaping the contemporary world", Hendrix College promotes study abroad through the administration and financial support of several off-campus programs. However, a brief examination of the rates of participation in these study abroad opportunities by majors in the three divisions of the school -- humanities, the social sciences and the natural sciences -- shows that students in the latter are significantly under-represented: while natural science majors comprise roughly one third of all Hendrix students, they typically represent only about 10-12 % of the participants in term-long study abroad.

The situation in Biology is revelatory. Biology regularly has the highest or next to highest number of majors of any department on campus, yet very few majors ever get beyond the "I can't fit it into my schedule and graduate on time" phase. A very few adventuresome majors over the past several years have chosen to enroll in non-Hendrix semester-long programs in England and Scotland, thus allowing them to take required courses in their major while abroad, and this has worked reasonably well. Another option open to most majors is short-term summer study; in 1998 and again in 2000, 20-plus students participated in a two-and-a-half week tropical ecology program in Costa Rica set up by a Hendrix faculty member as part of his Field Ecology course. But the instructor admits freely that this exposure does not live up to the goals expressed in the College's mission statement as cited above.

The Hendrix College representatives at the Best Practices conference, Drs. Joyce Hardin and Wayne Oudekerk, would like to engage other participants in a discussion of this constellation of problems, learn what other institutions have been doing to address this situation, and perhaps look at ways in which closer collaboration among Global Partners institutions could help resolve this perennial problem.

Participants:

Name: Joyce Hardin

Title: Associate Professor of Biology and Chair of Natural Sciences Area

E-mail: hardin@hendrix.edu

Biographical Information: As an academic advisor in the Biology Department, I have been concerned that our students are not taking advantage of the study abroad opportunities available to them. I am interested in finding ways to encourage participation of natural science students in these programs.

Name: Wayne Oudekerk

Title: Associate Professor of German and Coordinator of International Programs

E-mail: oudekerk@hendrix.edu

Biographical Information: Wayne Oudekerk has been in his current position for seven years. His educational background includes a Masters in French from Middlebury College, a Doctorate in German from Syracuse University, and a total of three years in study abroad programs in Germany and France. The Coordinator position was created in 1994 to consolidate the administration of most of Hendrix's major study abroad programs, and involves one-third release time from teaching. Wayne is originally from the Adirondack Mountains of northern New York State, is married, and is expecting his first child in December.