Bon Voyage, 2013 SPANners!SPAN students bound for South Africa and France this summer were honored by SPAN alumni, friends, and family at the annual Bon Voyage Banquet April 20. The program ended with a ceremony that carried out SPAN's motto, "It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness." For more photos, see Bon Voyage banquet link.
SPAN groups now preparing for France and South AfricaRemember those meetings with your country group before your summer abroad? That's what is going on right now for the students preparing research topics, advance contacts, housing, transportation, and more.
Below is the South Africa group, with a map of the country. Dr. Andrew Carlson, the group's advisor, at center back, meets regularly with (from left), Alyssa Banks, Felicia Wilson, Becky Lietzau, Rachel Scarfone, and Michelle Weiss. Tatiana Freeman is shown in separate photo. Michelle attends the University of Minnesota; Dr.Carlson teaches at Metro State University, where the other students are enrolled.
Below, the 2013 France group uses Skype technology for their planning meetings. Seated at left is the group's advisor, Dr. Kim Munholland, University of Minnesota emeritus professor of history. Students in the room are, from left, Jacqueline Stein, Camille Lizama, and Peter Clausen. On the computer screen (and in the separate photo) is Leah Rogotzke, who is a graduate student at the University of Jordan.
Leah Rogotzke
Fall SPAN Newsletter now onlineThe Fall 2012 SPAN Newsletter, full of photos: new advisors, 2012 SPANners, Bon Voyage Banquet, and SPAN reunion groups from the 40s, 50s, and 60s. Enjoy! Newsletter
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What is SPAN?
SPAN, the Student Project for Amity among Nations, offers a one-of-a-kind international learning experience. Students travel abroad to conduct research on a self-chosen topic and to build bridges of understanding across borders, cultures, and continents. SPAN is Minnesota's oldest study abroad program and is open to students from all of Minnesota's colleges and universities. Since the program began in 1947, more than 4,500 SPANners have visited 93 countries on six continents.
During summer 2012 SPAN student researchers traveled to Great Britain and Russia. In summer 2013, they will go to Cuba and South Africa.
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Some quotes that apply to the SPAN experience!
"The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page." - St. Augustine
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain
"Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living." - Miriam Beard
We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the
life that is waiting for us." - Joseph Campbell
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