Moria Dailey
Published: January 25, 2006
Tour of Italy
Dr. Charlie Schuler, head of the History, Languages and Philosophy department at PJC, has been taking groups of students to Italy and various other countries for the past 15 years. His next trip is planned for summer 2007, and will be a 20-day excursion to southern Italy as well as Greece, for the first time in the history of the trip.
“We’re going to do major cities; Rome and Naples, then catch the ferry from Naples over to Greece and go to Athens and possibly the island, Crete,” Schuler said.
The most recent trip to Italy, taken in May 2005, toured Italy, visiting cities such as Naples, Rome, Venice and Florence and then went into Switzerland, spending two days in Lucerne.
PJC philosophy professor Kermit Harrison accompanied Schuler and the students on the trip and said he had an amazing time.
“I got an appreciation for cultures different from mine and for American from the outside. I also got an appreciation for things we don’t do here that would be cool if we did. And the food; it was a new dining experience,” Harrison said.
Students can receive from three to six humanities credits for the trip, Schuler said. He estimates the cost of the 2007 trip to be about $2,600 and the trip is open to all students.
“Hopefully, they [students] will take my Greco-Roman History or Mythology class, but it’s open to anyone,” Schuler said.
Cambridge
Students in the Robinson’s Scholars Honors Program have the opportunity to travel to Cambridge University in England every other summer, spending a month studying at the university’s International Summer School program.
Six students from PJC will be making the trip to Cambridge this summer, said Marian Wernicke, an English professor at PJC. Wernicke will be accompanying the students to Cambridge this summer.
Students going to Cambridge have the opportunity to take two classes taught by Cambridge professors and other respected professors, Wernicke said. Students also are able to listen to daily supplementary lectures given by authorities on specified topics.
“We even got to hear Stephan Hawking one year,” Wernicke said, explaining that the well-known expert in physics, cosmology and mathematics gave a lecture during a group of PJC students’ previous visit to Cambridge.
Students who go on the trip are able to earn six humanities credits for going. They have to write one major paper for each course as well as write several smaller papers on some of the supplementary lectures they choose to attend. They are also responsible for a group project.
“In the past, the groups have done videos,” Wernicke said, adding that a video is not the only option; students are free to do anything they choose, as long as it is suitable to be presented to the board.
Matt Worden, one of the six students visiting Cambridge this summer, said he was going “because it looks good on an application.”
Cetamura
Students studying field archeology have had the opportunity to travel to Italy to participate in and learn about field excavation under the direction of PJC’s Dr. Patrick Rowe.
Rowe was co-director and field director of Cetamura, an archeological dig in Italy, for 27 years until his retirement two years ago.
“We’d take students to work for six weeks at the site. Most students we took were from FSU, but if a PJC student wanted to go, I’d arrange it,” Rowe said.
Cetamura was first occupied during the archaic period by the Etruscans, and then throughout history was occupied by various groups until finally being deserted after a fort located on the site was conquered by the Florentines in the 1600’s.
“If you’re going to get into the profession [field archeology], you need experience,” Rowe said, citing the fact that graduate students at FSU were even required to have a certain number of hours in a field setting to receive their degree.
Rowe also feels that the opportunity to travel abroad is invaluable to students.
Paris
Photography instructor Virginia Vanneman is taking the first of what she hopes will be annual trip for students to Paris this summer. She is taking 10 people on the two-week trip, ranging from instructors to current photography students at PJC.
Vanneman plans on spending two weeks exploring Paris, a city she has previously spent time in, with her students, as well as doing a rephotography project. Rephotography is a type of photography in which a current photographer visits the site shown in a past photographer’s photos and “retakes” the photos.
Vanneman’s artist of choice is 19th century French photographer Eugene Aget and she said she wanted to make the rephotography of his work a continuing project as something to connect past and future trips.
“Instead of going with a tour group, we’re going to do Paris at a more casual pace,” Vanneman said. She doesn’t want to have to rush students through Paris, but instead give them a chance to become immersed in the culture and visually investigate Paris through the art the city holds.
“I want to be able to show them French culture – buying coffee and baguette in the morning for breakfast, shopping at markets – things I’ve learned myself on past trips,” Vanneman said.
The trip is currently not worth college credit, but Vanneman hopes that someday it will be. The trip is open to all students, and while it is too late to sign up for this year’s trip, Vanneman hopes it will be an annual trip and encourages students interested to contact her by e-mail at Vvanneman@pjc.edu.
Florida
If traveling to Europe seems too much for you, there are two trips in Florida that are open to students. The first, a weekend trip to St. Petersburg to visit the Dali Museum and Ringling Museum in Sarasota will be happening in March, while the other trip, a two-week-long tour of the entire state is still in the planning stages, Dr. Charlie Schuler, head of the History, Languages and Philosophy department at PJC, said.
The trip to St. Petersburg will leave PJC at 4 a.m. March 11 and return either March 13 or 14 depending on the participants. “We can either leave Monday and head home or stay Monday and play on the beach and then come home Tuesday,” Schuler said.
Students who go on the trip will visit the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, which holds the largest collection of painter Salvatore Dali’s work in the world, as well as the Ringling Museum and House in Sarasota. The museum has a large college of paintings from the baroque period in Europe.
The cost of the trip is $65, and that includes admission to both museums as well as a hotel on St. Petersburg beach. Students who are interested need to see Schuler or Susan Roberts in the History, Languages and Philosophy Department in order to sign up.
“It’s going to be a four-part course, worth three humanities credits, that is going to be composed of literature, art, history and environmental study,” Schuler said of the cross-Florida trip. It is something he’s been thinking about for a while.
Students will read selections from Florida writers or writers who lived in Florida and then visit the places where said authors wrote or the places they wrote about, hear daily historical lectures, visit various art museums and hear environmental lectures at places like Wakulla Springs or the Everglades.
Schuler is currently working on getting the trip and the curriculum approved, and said once that is done, he hopes the trip will become an annual summer feature.