Since 1997, Dr. Lynda Nyce has led seven groups of Bluffton University students to southern Texas and northern Mexico for a few weeks as part of the university's cross-cultural program.
Last winter, while on a leave of absence in France, the sociology professor found out that for many of the participants, those experiences were life-changing. And now, back on campus and directing the program, she wants to see if other former students have similar reactions to their Bluffton cross-cultural travels.
With the help of the university's alumni office, Nyce tracked down contact information for 110 former students who went to Texas and Mexico and asked them to complete an online survey. Nearly two-thirds of them responded to her request, which was made initially for a personal research project in connection with Bluffton's "Beyond Borders" immigration conference, held in March.
Not only was she struck by hearing from 71 of the 110 former students, but also "I was surprised how many people wanted to tell me stories," Nyce says.
One wrote that the positive experience of living briefly in another culture "gave me the self-confidence and interest to live a year in Germany. After those two experiences, my life has been primarily cross-cultural.
"Working with Ten Thousand Villages, and now a Catholic volunteer organization, I have traveled to many countries and experienced many cultures both domestically and internationally. I am currently bilingual, working on being trilingual, and have created a life for myself in which culture, religion and ethnicity are not barriers or borders, but rather a starting point."
Half of the respondents said their cross-cultural journey either did or still might impact their vocation, and some reported a "complete change" of career direction, indicating that even short-term experiences can affect people's plans and perspectives, Nyce notes.
For many of the students who have become teachers, it has helped them change their approach to students and introduce books and other materials differently, particularly to immigrant students, she says.
From effects on choosing their careers to how they work and deal with people on the job, the cross-cultural experience's impact on the respondents was "amazing and unexpected," adds Nyce, also the chair of Bluffton's social and behavioral sciences division.
Assessment is part of her plan as director of the cross-cultural program, and the first foray "went well enough that I would like to try this with another group, or maybe two others"-one that traveled internationally as well as one that stayed in the United States, she says.
Last spring, Bluffton students' international destinations for short-term experiences included Colombia, England and Wales, Guatemala, and Israel/Palestine; other groups went to New York City, Chicago and Native American communities in Arizona.
Semester-long programs are available in Northern Ireland and Washington, D.C., and students have also participated in programs affiliated with other institutions and organizations, including Central American Study and Service in Guatemala; Brethren Colleges Abroad in Mexico, Spain, Ecuador, England, Australia and Greece; and the Coalition for Christian Colleges and Universities in China, Uganda, Costa Rica/Latin America, England and Nashville, Tenn.
Among Bluffton's 2009 graduates, 84 percent participated in a cross-cultural experience-77 percent in one of the short-term trips, taken after spring-semester classes end in May, and 7 percent in a semester-long program. Each of the latter two numbers was up slightly from 2003, when they were 74 percent and 4 percent, respectively. Students may also meet the cross-cultural requirement by taking a foreign language.
Nyce advocates personal experience, not only from her research but also from her background. She spent her junior year of high school in India, where her parents-who also lived there before she was born-worked at international schools and for a Lutheran seminary.
While a student at Goshen College, where she earned her bachelor's degree, she spent time in China and in Mennonite Voluntary Service with Mexican-American children in San Antonio. Since then, she says she has tried to travel as much as possible, a goal aided by her mother-in-law being from France.
But her defining international education experience came in spring 2003, when Nyce taught in the Semester at Sea program. With about 640 students from 220 colleges and universities, she was on a ship that circumnavigated the globe, stopping in 11 countries along the way.
"I think that experience really solidified my sense that experiential learning is a good thing," she says, pointing out that 2010 graduate Kelsey Smith became, last fall, the third Bluffton student to spend a semester at sea.
"All of these experiences," Nyce adds, "make me think the experiential learning that takes students into as many settings as possible is an important part of Bluffton's mission."
It was obviously meaningful to another alumnus who went to Texas and Mexico. "Looking back, I can see how my cross-cultural experience has helped me to value corporations and churches that value caring for the poor and reaching out to those in need," the survey respondent wrote.
"The cross-cultural experience created a foundational awareness and sensitivity within me toward people who are disadvantaged and underserved medically and spiritually."
