By Christina Robertson
Mixing mud in the hot Mexican sun was not what Earl Brown expected to do to promote literacy.
Brown, 23, a senior from Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., majoring in Spanish, spent Summer 2000 in Mexico teaching illiterate adults how to read and write.
“I knocked on doors trying to find people to teach,” he said.
Brown”s research paper from his experience is one of 27 papers awarded by the David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies in the third annual International Inquiry Conference from Wednesday, March 7, through Friday, March 9.
More than 100 students have conducted foreign research projects during the past year, said Curtis Child, 23, a senior from Chicago, Illinois, majoring in sociology, and the assistant to the coordinator for the conference.
“The most valuable education is out there in the world. The classroom is important, but out there you get the culture,” said Eric Peterson, 26, a senior from Ephraim, Utah, majoring in Latin American studies.
Peterson conducted research in Cuba last summer. He said he set up his own research project and didn”t know what to expect because of negative propaganda that Americans have about Cuba.
“There is a negative feeling that Cuba is a scary, communist place, but it”s actually a nice, communist place,” he said.
Because he designed his own research project, Peterson said he had to find his own housing and food. He stayed in the cheapest places and ate the cheapest food.
The Boyer Commission would endorse Peterson”s efforts. This organization studied the education of undergraduates in the research university. In its overview, researchers said students paying tuition get less than their money”s worth, according to notes.cc.sunysb.edu/Pres/boyer.nsf .
The study reveals that many students graduate without grasping an understanding of how their knowledge relates to the rest of the world.
It reports, “The university has given them too little that will be of real value beyond a credential that will help them get their first jobs.”
BYU has encompassed these ideas.
More students at BYU participate in international programs than any other university, said Dave Shuler, administrator of international field studies.
The Kennedy Center sponsors the international field studies program to allow students the opportunity to participate internationally, Child said.
Students are given academic credit while they are sent abroad to conduct research, Child said. A professor oversees the student”s coursework from Provo, he said.
Some students have life changing experiences while abroad, Child said.
“A lot of people go to areas of the world where the way of life is completely foreign to their normal life experiences,” Child said.
