Starting Off the Year Right with JanTerm

Breadcrumb

February 3, 2015

Whittier College, JanTerm, Hawaii, 2015Whittier College's JanTerm classes give students the opportunity to get ahead, catch up, or enroll in a faculty-led study abroad course. This past January, students explored topics such as social media and theatre, nanotechnology and society, business and environmental science in Hawai'i, and baseball and religion to name a few.

Students enrolled in Professor Gil Gonzalez's theatre course took to social media (such as Twitter and blogs) to express their critiques of classic theater productions such as A Streetcar Named DesireThe Glass Menagerie, and Our Lady of 121st Street.

“I feel the course blog offers students a way to engage technology and write in a meaningful manner," said Gonzalez. "I really want to connect the students with the critical (a.k.a critique) aspects of the course and to do it many different ways, with many different styles of writing. The play analysis course blog highlights the interdisciplinary of theatre as an art form."

Gonzalez’s course is an example of how digital technologies are reshaping pedagogical approaches and transforming research through liberal arts education.

The convergence between technology and the sciences was explored in Nanotechnology and Society taught by Professor of Physics Serkan Zorba. This course considered the ethical and societal implications that the developments of science and technology have on our culture. “I love it,” said Robert Colter ’15. “There are people outside of my major which made our lecture about the political revolution just mind-boggling. Professor Zorba also does a good job of taking such a complex subject and simplifying it through theoretical analysis.”

Students with an interest in environmental science and business traveled to Hawai'i for their study abroad trip during JanTerm. Hawaii’s scenic backdrop served as the classroom for the course Managing Multinational Corporations taught by Professor Dan Duran and Professor of Environmental Science Cinzia Fissore's the course World’s Views: Globalization, Environment, and Agricultural Economy.

While in Hawai'i, the class met with more than a dozen organizations and discussed topics on sustainability, such as renewable energy, resort hotel sustainability strategies, and sustainable agricultural practices. The course allowed Whittier students to reflect through daily blog posts on how environmental and socio-political conditions affect the management of international business operations in Hawai'i.

The course Sport, Play, and Ritual taught by Professor of Religious Studies Joe Price explored the spiritual dimensions of an athlete’s experience and the public’s response of sports participation as well as its role in the community in ancient and modern cultures. “All sports are religious rituals,” said Hannah Ellett ’17. “I’m an athlete and I feel a certain religious aspect as a Catholic and religious individual. I’ve always had that religious connection with [swimming].”