{"id":40741,"date":"2018-12-17T09:15:17","date_gmt":"2018-12-17T14:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=40741"},"modified":"2019-06-12T12:28:55","modified_gmt":"2019-06-12T16:28:55","slug":"on-cross-cultural-to-vast-china-students-make-personal-connections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2018\/on-cross-cultural-to-vast-china-students-make-personal-connections\/","title":{"rendered":"On cross-cultural to vast China, students make personal connections"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"848\" height=\"636\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bA6iy6Sxssw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Students on the fall-cross-cultural, led by Professor <a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/faculty-staff\/?show=sprungms\">Mary Sprunger<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/faculty-staff\/?show=bylerme\">Myrrl Byler<\/a>, experienced the vastness and diversity of China, from Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Buddhist temples and the Great Wall to villages, rice fields and sacred mountains.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_40743\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-40743\" style=\"width: 169px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2018\/12\/on-cross-cultural-to-vast-china-students-make-personal-connections\/43958535494_f7f8f0fe47_z\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-40743\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-40743\" src=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/is\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2018\/12\/43958535494_f7f8f0fe47_z-169x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"169\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2018\/12\/43958535494_f7f8f0fe47_z-169x300.jpg 169w, https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2018\/12\/43958535494_f7f8f0fe47_z.jpg 360w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 169px) 100vw, 169px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-40743\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students on the Great Wall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While the semester of travel was an experiential introduction to the county\u2019s social, political and environmental challenges and 4,000-year history, it also provided connection to its people, with the group of 10 students visiting with Chinese Christians and university students, as well as staying with host families.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>EMU faculty have introduced students to cultural learning through educational travel in more than 80 locations around the globe over the last 30 years. Graduates call the experiences &#8220;life-changing,&#8221; and say they provide a foundation for global living, leading and serving. Through studying in China, EMU students gained insights into the country that, with the world&#8217;s largest population, will become even more globally significant in coming decades.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The students shared <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=bA6iy6Sxssw\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">photos<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and stories of their experiences during a December campus worship service, and wrote <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crosscultural\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">blog posts<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> throughout the semester.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The group was based in Nanchong, a \u201csmall provincial city\u201d of \u201conly about 1.3 million,\u201d <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crosscultural\/2018\/12\/10\/china-why-study-in-such-a-small-city\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Brandi Nelson<\/strong> wrote<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. There they were able to observe urban and rural life away from Western influence and the modernization in larger cities. That location \u201cgave us a more realistic view of China,\u201d she wrote. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When students met their host families in Nanchong, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crosscultural\/2018\/09\/14\/china-host-families\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Anna Cahill<\/strong> wrote<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, \u201cI was terrified, but I was also hopeful. \u2026 I silently prayed to be assigned to a family who knew English.\u201d They didn\u2019t \u2013 but Cahill soon found them to be \u201cwonderful\u201d and \u201cloving.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Students on the fall-cross-cultural, led by Professor Mary Sprunger and Myrrl Byler, experienced the vastness and diversity of China, from Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Buddhist temples and the Great Wall <a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2018\/on-cross-cultural-to-vast-china-students-make-personal-connections\/\" target=\"_self\" class=\"more-link\">... read more <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">about On cross-cultural to vast China, students make personal connections<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":40745,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17562,5593,4513],"tags":[14214,6795,7256,17597],"feature":[],"class_list":["post-40741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-digest","category-intercultural","category-student-life","tag-cross-cultural-program","tag-diversity","tag-mary-sprunger","tag-myrll-byler"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - 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