USCTIMES
JUNE-JULY 2017 / VOL. 28, NO.5
NOW BOARDING
Build It, They Will Come
Age of Discovery
Near & Far
Research calls for diversifying Palmetto State tourism, page 4
Faculty reminisce about their study abroad experiences, page 8
Students report back about their global classroom, page 14
USC TIMES / STAFF
FROM THE EDITOR USC Times is published 10 times a year for the faculty and staff of the University of South Carolina by the Office of Communications & Public Affairs, Wes Hickman, director. Managing Editor Craig Brandhorst Creative Director Bob Wertz Designer Brinnan Wimberly Contributors Chris Horn Page Ivey Megan Sexton Melinda Waldrop Photographer Kim Truett Printer USC Printing Services Campus correspondents James Raby, Aiken Kerry Jarvis, Beaufort Jeanne Petrizzo, Greenville Shana Dry, Lancaster Jane Brewer, Salkehatchie Misty Hatfield, Sumter Annie Smith, Union Tammy Whaley, Upstate Jay Darby, Palmetto College Submissions Did you know you can submit ideas for future issues of USC Times? Share your story by emailing or calling Craig Brandhorst at craigb1@mailbox.sc.edu, 803-777-3681.
Out of Office The USC Times summer issue ought to be our easiest publication all year. Campus is quieter, schedules are lighter, a well-deserved vacation is just around the bend. Apart from the editor’s letter, which is always the last order of business, we really should be done with it by the last week of May. So how is it we find ourselves scrambling each June just to get it out by July? Three reasons: campus is quieter, schedules are lighter, a well-deserved vacation is just around the bend. A fourth reason, and a fifth: a lot of faculty members take advantage of the summer break to do research out of town, and a lot of students take advantage of it to see the world. We get it: the world is a classroom, the world is a lab, the world is a mirror through which we can better understand ourselves. And as we learned from a few lucky students this month, that’s particularly true when you spend the first part of the summer gazing at sunsets in Tuscany (“Near & Far,” page 14). We’re not jealous. We’re simply assessing the situation over here in the War Memorial Building, and the situation right now is this: scheduling interviews, conducting interviews, corresponding about edits and rounding up photos gets trickier once your subjects skip town, and even more so when — OK, alright, we’re a little bit jealous. That’s the danger of putting out a travel issue while you’re stuck in a cubicle. But it’s also this: we prefer to do our interviews face-to-face. We just do. We like putting a smile with the name, a voice with what’s said. We like to get out of the office now and again, too — even if only to visit someone else’s. We get some pretty great stories that way, like our feature on South Carolina tourism (“Build It, They Will Come,” page 4) or the half dozen study abroad reminiscences we got from our faculty just before they jetted off again (“Age of Discovery,” page 8). Yeah, we still managed a few interviews the old-fashioned way, but not all of them. Not even most. When one of your professors is leading a Global Classroom Maymester course in Costa Rica, another is in Spain and your students are all over the map, how on earth could you? And why on earth would you? No, we don’t begrudge anyone their time off, especially if they’re going someplace interesting, doing something important or learning something cool. In fact, now that we’ve finally knocked out the summer issue, we’re going to take a few days off ourselves. But first, what do you say we wrap up the editor’s letter? It’s the last order of business before we light out, and there’s a vacation just around the bend. See you in August,
CRAIG BRANDHORST MANAGING EDITOR The University of South Carolina does not discriminate in educational or employment opportunities or decisions for qualified persons on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetics, sexual orientation or veteran status.
ON THE COVER — Looming deadline? Need everyone to stay focused? Confiscate the passports until you go to the printer.
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TIMES FIVE
Meet the New Dean
Teacher Appreciation Day returns to Williams-Brice Stadium on Oct. 28, when South Carolina hosts Vanderbilt during Homecoming Weekend. This is the third straight year the Gamecocks will honor educators by offering discounted football tickets to teachers, school staff and families. Visit gamecocksonline.com for more information.
Tom Reichert has been named dean of the College of Information and Communications and will start Aug. 1. As dean, Reichert will oversee both the School of Journalism and Mass Communications and the School of Library and Information Science. He succeeds Charles Bierbauer, who is retiring as dean after leading the college since 2002. Reichert’s research interests include advertising and media content and effects. He comes to USC from the University of Georgia, where he was a professor and head of the Department of Advertising and Public Relations.
Put on a Clinic
CAN YOU CARRY THE PILLOWS, TOO?
The Arnold School of Public Health’s Department of Exercise Science has a state-of-the-art Clinical Exercise Research Center that offers research opportunities for faculty members across campus. The center, which has supported a dozen major projects in the past five years involving more than 1,000 participants, can support faculty and student research and clinical activities simultaneously. Equipment at the center allows for assessment of cardiorespiratory fitness by measuring active and resting respiratory consumption and metabolic rate. Cardiac activity is monitored using an electrocardiogram. There is also a phlebotomy room where blood can be collected, processed and analyzed for lipids, glucose, metabolic hormones, cytokines, inflammatory markers and indicators of appetite and hunger. Visit the Clinical Exercise Research Center’s website for a full list of services or contact Sarah Schumacher at dickeysc@mailbox.sc.edu or 803-777-3331.
The Move-In Crew needs faculty and staff volunteers to help move more than 5,000 incoming freshmen into residence halls. Faculty and staff volunteers typically are assigned two-hour shifts to help families move possessions into rooms and point them in the right direction. Help is needed between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. Aug. 16 and between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., Aug. 22. Email samovein@mailbox.sc.edu or visit sc.edu/ success/moveincrew.html to register.
COUNT ON A DISCOUNT
EXCEL AT THE OFFICE The Office of Organizational and Professional Development is offering courses in Microsoft Office and Excel on July 18, 25 and 27. The intermediate Excel course is available 9-11 a.m. on July 18 or 27. The cost is $30. Participants will learn many formulas and different ways to evaluate data, including pivot tables and how to protect data. You should be comfortable using Excel to handle simple data inputs prior to taking this course. The Microsoft Office course is also $30 and will be held 9-10:30 a.m., July 25. To learn about more classes available over the summer, visit the Organizational and Professional Development’s website on the Division of Human Resources site.
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BUILD IT... THEY WILL COME BY PAGE IVEY
South Carolina’s tourism industry has seen rapid growth in the past 20 years. USC researchers want it to grow even more by appealing to African-American tourists and retirees. South Carolina’s beaches are no secret. Neither are its golf courses. Neither is its rich and varied history, which stretches back to the earliest Colonies. Also no secret: the value these attractions add to the state’s tourism industry. South Carolina draws more than 30 million visitors annually, generating more than $20 billion a year. More than 250,000 people work in hospitality jobs statewide. For all the tourist dollars pouring into the state’s economy, though, there’s still plenty of untapped potential, says Simon Hudson, director of USC’s SmartState Center of Economic Excellence in Tourism and Economic Development. And that’s not idle speculation. Recently, Hudson and his fellow researchers conducted a pair of studies that identify two very target audiences for growth: African-American tourists and prospective retirees. Hudson also argues for a less-is-more approach that may seem counterintuitive — until you take a trip down the coast.
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Bucket and Spade Brigade For decades, South Carolina’s beaches have beckoned visitors from the mid-Atlantic and the Midwest. Families loaded up their station wagons every summer, came to our 230 miles of beautiful coastline and stayed for a week in a hotel or beach cottage. Places like Myrtle Beach and Garden City swelled. Further south, tourists descended on Isle of Palms, Folly Beach and Fripp Island. “By the 1960s, advanced ideas about landscape architecture and resort development began to emerge,” says Rich Harrill, professor and director of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Travel and Tourism Industry Center and the International Tourism Research Institute at the university. “It was at this time that Myrtle Beach, Charleston and Hilton Head began to develop as destinations. These are the origins of tourism in South Carolina.” But these locations now draw different types of visitors. Charleston offers high-end accommodations and restaurants, as well as art and history. Hilton Head, which came online in the 1960s with the development of resort “plantations,” is well known for its golf courses, and the high-end shopping and dining that followed. With 100-plus golf courses of its own, the Myrtle Beach area taps
into a similar market but is more generally geared toward the family beach traveler. Combined, these coastal destinations pump big money into the state’s economy. Darla Moore School of Business economist Joey Von Nessen says expenditures and employment have increased by 50 percent in the past two decades. But as Hudson points out, if the state is going to continue to grow at a comparable rate, it will need to further diversify its offerings and ramp up quality. “One thing our research told us is that we haven’t got the up-market shops or hotels that sophisticated travelers want,” Hudson says. “If we don’t get those, it will
forever be the bucket and spade brigade on Myrtle Beach that doesn’t spend any money and that everybody complains about. My philosophy is let’s have less tourists, but more high-yield tourists.”
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Corridor of Opportunity Nearly 100 years ago, African-Americans suffering under Jim Crow laws and segregation in the South began moving north in numbers so large that the phenomenon became known as the “Great Migration.” Generations of families left for better opportunities in Philadelphia, New York, Chicago and other large cities from the 1910s through the 1970s. Now, that trend is reversing, and tourism stands to benefit. “Many African-Americans that moved up north are returning home and rediscovering their South Carolina roots, cultural heritage and history,” Harrill says. Currently, African-American tourists make up about 12 percent of South Carolina’s travel market, says Hudson, who last year completed a study on African-American tourism for the South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism. “The perception based on previous data was, ‘Well, they’re not that important a
market. They don’t spend as much. They tend to bring their own food and stay with friends and family.’ But that’s not true,” Hudson says. “African-American travelers spend just as much as other groups.” That demographic is also more upwardly mobile. “If you’re breaking into the $200,000-a-year salary bracket this year,” he adds, “you’re more likely to be African-American than white.” But what sort of activities does the state offer these tourists when they arrive? And what does the industry do to promote those activities? The history is there, but the product in many respects still isn’t — and the marketing needs to catch up as well, according to Hudson. “Despite the rich history and culture, awareness is very low,” he says. “The Gullah Geechee corridor is the only living national heritage corridor in the United States, and yet nobody knows about it.” Designated in 2006, the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor is partially funded and administered through the Department of the Interior and the National Park Service. It covers a strip of coastline from Pender County, N.C., to St. Johns County, Fla., and includes communities descended directly from slaves who survived the Middle Passage from central and west Africa. “We were talking about genealogy and the potential for bringing African-Americans because there’s an increased desire to retrace your roots,” Hudson says. “I did a semester at sea last year, and one of the countries I was in was Ghana. I was just amazed at the slave castles. I mean, they’re spooky places, but they’re the No. 1 tourist attraction in Ghana
and among African-Americans traveling to trace their roots.” And, as Hudson explains, building on that interest in African-American culture could have a positive ripple effect. “There’s a lot of opportunity,” he says. “The African-American museum in Charleston will hopefully open in 2019, which will give something for us to focus on, then spread people around to other sites. At the moment, we have 500-odd sites and there’s no focal point to say, ‘You’ve got to go here. You’ll get the full story.’”
Return to Retire A second burgeoning market identified by Hudson and other researchers at USC is the retiree. The idea is that if you can get folks here to visit, they will think of South Carolina when it’s time to kick back and enjoy their golden years, bringing their lifetime of savings with them. “The state has had a sort of love-hate relationship with retirees. They want their money but they don’t want their illnesses,” Hudson says. “One thing we know from research over the last decade or so is today’s retirees are very different from retirees a decade ago.” According to the recent study conducted by Hudson’s group, today’s retirees are active and want to continue their education. They want to volunteer and give back to their communities. They aren’t ready to sit in a rocking chair on the porch and may even want to start new businesses. They are connected online and have healthy lifestyles. “I don’t think we should even use the word retiree these days,” Hudson says. “It’s a new stage of life. A study came out recently that said nearly 60 percent of people say they are going to transition into retirement. They are going to go parttime. “So there’s that retiree transition stage, in the mid-50s to mid-60s, where people are asking, ‘Where would I like to spend my last 20 years?’”
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And, these retirees are looking to get the most for their money. “Many retirees who live in a bungalow up north move down to South Carolina, and they can live like a king by comparison,” Von Nessen says. “They can live near the beach or the lake, and they have a quality of life here that is much higher than many cities up north.” Catching these folks as tourists when they are thinking about where to retire is important, according to Hudson. But even more important is having places for them to go when they do decide to retire. “We need to realize as a state that this is an economic opportunity,” he says. “Considering we don’t have a formal policy or any certified retirement community program, we’ve done very well in attracting retirees. Our study showed how much more successful we can be if there were some sort of structured, coordinated effort. “We found that people who had been on holiday here were significantly more likely to retire to South Carolina.” Hudson would also like to see state and local governments encourage the development of retirement communities, creating a critical mass that can attract new businesses, and not just in the more obvious tourist towns. College towns could also be a big draw for retirees because of the opportunities to continue their education. Small rural towns with lakes also could be on the list. It’s the same sort of marketing that is done to attract companies to show the quality of life their workers would enjoy if a company relocated here. “You’re promoting a lifestyle, and so I think there’s an opportunity for us in South Carolina to promote the state to everybody — for your Boeings, for your tourists, for your retirees, everybody,” Hudson says. T
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Age of Discovery Study abroad can be a revelatory experience, and the rewards only increase with the passage of time. USC Times tracked down several USC faculty and staff members who studied abroad when they were students and asked them to reflect on what they learned — not just about the world but about themselves.
As told to Craig Brandhorst
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Anne Gulick Associate professor | English
I went to Columbia University for undergrad, and when I applied I remember reading about this exchange program they had with Oxford and Cambridge. That was something I came into college really wanting to do. I had to apply my sophomore year. Part of what was cool about it was that it was one of the first applications where I had to foreground my research interests, as opposed to simply filling out a college application. This was a chance for me to say, “I want to study postcolonial literature, and I think this would be a good place for me to do it.” It was a moment to mature a little bit as a student and as a scholar, to have to think about why I wanted to do that. I ended up at Cambridge, and when I arrived, in the moment, it was sort of terrifying, having to figure out everything from scratch. When you show up for freshman orientation in college, there are people in big red T-shirts, people with laundry bins to help you carry your stuff; there are parents nearby who maybe are being really annoying but also helping you keep track of where your keys are. This was me just completely on my own. Negotiating the different cultural differences and norms was constantly surprising. Everybody at Cambridge had a bedder, someone who comes in, makes your bed and cleans up your room a few times a week. It sounds luxurious, and it was, but it was also obtrusive and weird. At 9 a.m. someone would be at my door, ready to clean, and if something was amiss, the porters at my college could hear about it and I could be reprimanded for how I was living in the college’s residential space. My biggest adventure wasn’t academic and may freak some parents out. There was a student program that had originated in Cambridge
but spread all around the country called Hitch to Morocco. The idea was to raise money for a nonprofit educational program by promising to hitchhike from Cambridge to Morocco in groups of two or three, one man in each group, and you were to call in every 24 hours to let them know you were OK. You could take ferries, obviously, from Dover to Calais, and then from Malaga to Tangiers, but otherwise you had to hitch. You couldn’t take a train, you couldn’t take a bus. It was probably pretty stupid, but I think it was also one of the most beneficial experiences I had. Going to England instead of going to a country where I didn’t speak the language was sort of a tame version of study abroad. This was a moment where I really had to draw on the French and the Spanish that I had to communicate basic things. It was not a tourist experience. This was me having conversations with people that I never would have encountered otherwise. We met families, we met a truck driver who cooked us a meal by the side of the road in Spain, we slept in truck stops — it was very exciting, a sort of “Oh my God, what am I doing?” experience. It was also interesting just traveling with these other students. They were both from East Anglia University, which is also in Cambridge but has very different demographics. I was already learning a lot about class, and about how uncomfortable Americans are talking about class relative to people in other countries. The people from East Anglia University were lovely, but they weren’t afraid to tell me what they thought of Cambridge. I wasn’t used to talking through that. Honestly, that was one of the biggest learning experiences, just negotiating those conversations with people who were right down the street from me but who I otherwise might never have encountered.
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Saskia Coenen Snyder Associate professor | History
I was born in the Netherlands and went to the University of Utrecht to study English language and literature. A subdivision of that was American studies, and part of that program was to do study abroad in the United States. That took me and two other women to Laramie, Wyo., in 1996. We were part of a project digitizing photographs of 1930s America at the American Heritage Center, which documents American culture. We were in Wyoming for three months, into April — so, the coldest months in Wyoming — and we went from one of the most densely populated countries in Europe to one of the most sparsely populated places in the United States. It was not only an amazing cultural experience, seeing how people live and work in a different part of the world, but also, geographically, it was unlike anything we had ever seen. We were used to seeing people everywhere. That you could drive for two hours in Wyoming and not see a soul was eye-opening. We arrived probably around midnight in Laramie, but because of jet lag I woke up around five in the morning, and I distinctly remember I saw the sunrise. We were high up, and I looked out and saw the most spectacular sunrise I’d ever seen. In Holland, you don’t see that. I saw the mountains, I saw the sunrise, and I thought, “Oh — this is awesome.” I forgot my jet lag almost instantly. It was very romantic, the image that we had of America. It was very much shaped by pop culture, movies and music, Coca-Cola and McDonalds. But also, most Europeans, including my own family, have a cultural image of Americans as political bullies, and of course we brought those expectations with us. But once you are in the country,
that whole stereotype is immediately shattered. We discovered that the vast majority of Americans are generous and kind, very hospitable. People talk about America as if it’s this one homogeneous place. There are thousands of different versions of America. The really cool thing was that the director of the center looked at us and said, “You’re students in American studies, and you’re in America. We’re not going to stick you in an office for three months. Go rent a car, and I’ll see you in a couple weeks.” He basically told us, “Go have your own experience,” which was fantastic. We went to Utah, Colorado, the Dakotas, Arizona. One of my friends, Anette, had this winter coat that was so yellow it almost lit up in the dark. Nobody in Wyoming wears something like that, so when we walked into a diner people turned as if to say, “What the — you’re not from here!” But all of that was an adventure. It was the way an internship should be, I think. We got work done, but we also saw a lot, met a lot of people and made connections. Anette went back a year later to study in Laramie. And I met people there. I met my husband there (David Snyder, senior lecturer in history and faculty principal of Carolina International House at Maxcy College). We were friends then. When I decided I wanted to come back to the U.S. for graduate school, he put me in touch with the professors. I would never have become an academic had it not been for Wyoming. I can say that for sure. Without those connections, I don’t know — I sometimes wonder where I would be. But I know it enriched me. I knew I wanted to be here. People ask me, “Do you want to go back to the Netherlands?” We’re going back for a year next year, and I miss it sometimes, of course, but I don’t think I want to live there anymore. I’ve become used to the space here. I no longer “go home” to the Netherlands. I’ve become a visitor there. This is home now.
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Susan Vinson First-year academic adviser | College of Education
The summer after my sophomore year, while I was at Wheaton College, I went to Ecuador. I was an English and secondary education major and played on the tennis team, but I wanted to minor in Spanish, so I pretty much had to go abroad that summer. It was a good experience overall, but looking back I sometimes feel like I squandered it a bit. It was a matter of maturity, I think. I was nineteen, it was the first time I’d really been out of the country by myself, and when I flew to Miami, where everyone was going to meet up, for whatever reason I was in a panic. I called my parents from Miami just boohooing and sobbing, “Oh, I don’t want to do this!” But my dad handled it so well. He was very even-keeled, and he asked me, “Well, why don’t you want to go?” I said, “I don’t know, I’m just scared! I don’t know anybody!” Really, though, I think it was just a fear of the unknown. So my dad said, “If you really want to come home, we’ll fly you home, but
I think you’re going to miss out, and I think you’re going to regret it.” I always relate that story when I’m talking to parents at orientation, and I tell students, “Don’t do that to your parents!” But my dad was very calm, he didn’t fuss at me, and after I finished sobbing, I said, “OK, OK. I’ll go.” My poor parents. When I got there, I loved my classes, and I loved learning about the culture. That part was great. But when it came to speaking the language, I just didn’t do it. I was so afraid of what people would think if I didn’t get it exactly right. There were about 10 of us in the group, and everyone else really improved while we were there. They just didn’t worry about making mistakes. They didn’t worry if people were going to laugh at them. As a result, they all got better at conversation than I did. I was glad I stuck it out, though, and part of that was just knowing I could do it. I was
the youngest of four children, and the brother that’s closest in age to me is four years older. In some sense, I was like an only child, and I know I was spoiled to a certain extent, so it was good to do something that scared me to death. Maybe I didn’t take full advantage of everything, but I went through with it, and I got to know people I wouldn’t otherwise have met. Hopefully, we all draw from our experiences in our jobs. I know that what I learned about myself helps when I’m advising students, when I’m talking to them about taking advantage of opportunities when they’re presented. Sometimes a student might think I can’t relate to what they’re going through, because I’m older, but when somebody has a fear of the unknown, even if it’s just that they’re afraid to take a certain class, I can say, “Hey, I know what it feels like. I’ve been there. It’s going to be OK.”
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Nancy Buchan Associate dean | Undergraduate programs and Moore School of Business Associate professor | International Business
I was an international relations and economics major at the University of Wisconsin — Madison, but I went to Sophia University in Tokyo for a year abroad, and I liked it so much I stayed for two. At that time, in the mid-80s, Japan was booming. It was the country to emulate in business, everybody was talking about consensus style management. But also, personally, my mother is Japanese. I had never been there, so I decided to take Japanese in college because I wanted to learn more about her culture. Before that, I couldn’t really speak Japanese. I knew the names of some foods, I could count to 10. Although there is a lot of English in Tokyo, when you first arrive it doesn’t necessarily feel like that. It’s like being in the deep end of a pool, and not only is it deep, but the water is murky. You don’t really know where the boundaries are. You don’t know how to buy a subway ticket. You don’t know how to get food. The best word to describe it is “overwhelming.” You have so much stimuli coming at you, and you’re continually having to process it; you’re psychologically tired.
But Sophia at the time had a second campus for foreigners that was about a five-minute walk away from the main campus, so I went from a campus of 55,000 students to one building. We were from all over the world, which made it really, really fun. I had friends from France, Australia, China and Germany. My best friend was from Singapore. Everybody was just as lost and overwhelmed and just as excited. Everybody rode the trains. You hear about the Japanese trains running on time, down to the nanosecond, and that’s absolutely true. You also learn that during rush hour they have pushers to push you on. You cannot breathe. I had one friend who fainted. Just riding your bike to the subway station was interesting. Thousands of bikes looked exactly the same and nobody locked them, which to an American was really confusing. Everything I did was a learning experience. I had a modeling job; Americans at the time were viewed as glamorous. I had two different teaching jobs. This was the height of the boom, so I taught English to Japanese businessmen for $100 an hour. I also taught kindergarten in a part of Tokyo that I had never explored before. I had them draw pictures of the different body parts, so they drew monsters — with five legs, or three eyes, or six ears — and labeled them in English. I still have those. They are the cutest things.
Of course, I was also taking great classes and had phenomenal professors. One of my professors, an Italian banker, became a mentor, and we were in contact for many years. I originally thought I would go into political science, and he set me on the course toward business, so it really changed my life. The other thing was, I got to know my family. There was this whole side of my family from my mother’s side that I had never met. My grandmother died while I was there, and at the funeral I met everybody. I really had the best of both worlds, life as a gaijin, or foreigner, but also, I could get deep into Japanese culture because of the window that my own family provided me. I went to stay with an uncle, who had children about the same age as me, so I got to experience family life, and what holidays are like in Japan. They lived in a resort town called Atami, which is not far from Yokohama. It was the town where my mother grew up, so my uncle would tell me, “This is where your mom and I would do this or do that.” One morning there was an octopus in the sink, and he was like, “Oh, your mother and I used to go diving for these all the time.” I just learned so much about my mother. It absolutely changed our relationship. So much of who she is is culturally laden with Japanese values that I did not understand before I went. What’s funny, though, is we never really speak to each other in Japanese, just a few phrases sometimes. Because I grew up only speaking English, our relationship is based on English. Still, once in a while, she’ll say something that only a Japanese word or phrase can capture, and I understand exactly what she means.
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David Simmons Associate professor | Anthropology
Thousands of termites rise and fall, hitting my neck and face, crawling under my shirt, falling in my beer. I’m sitting in the front parlor of a friend’s house, and I’m struck that no one else seems to think this is a big deal. This was 1993, during my first experience with research abroad. I was doing fieldwork in Ara, Osun State, Nigeria, for my masters thesis at Iowa State University, working through an affiliation with the University of Ibadan. While I’d traveled to Europe before, West Africa was a radically different experience. Nothing in Iowa could have prepared me for it. The rainy season in Nigeria is the time when termites migrate, filling the skies in great clouds. In smaller cities and towns, people stand beneath streetlights at night with buckets as termites plummet to the pavement. The insects are a great source of protein. As utterly different as this seemed to me, my experience with bugs was only one of many that challenged my deeply ingrained cultural assumptions about the way the world works. Take male friendship. If you visit a disco in Nigeria, it’s common to see men dancing with men. Best male friends will typically walk down the street holding hands — with their girlfriends or wives walking behind them. In the United States, we would find such behavior highly questionable. Most American men would jump out of their skins if another man tried to hold their hands or asked them to dance. But in Nigeria, touch and physical proximity are normal functions of male
friendship. It’s what real men do. And it revealed to me that there are other models of masculinity, of friendship, that challenge and expand the accepted models that I grew up with in the United States. Ideas about illness and misfortune require close attention there, too. My host father, who was also a barber, cut my hair every couple of weeks. One time, I followed him to the back of the family compound after he’d swept up my cut hair. There, he put it in a neat pile and proceeded to burn it. Unsure of why he’d set fire to my cut hair, I asked him about it. He said it was his way of protecting me. “From what?” I asked, incredulous. “From bewitchment,” he responded matter-of-factly. His concern was real. Anyone who was jealous or envious of me, he explained, could use my hair to cast a spell on me. My initial concern over him burning my hair melted away, but it was replaced by a new one: did I need to worry about bewitchment? By the end of my abroad experience, a few months later, I had more questions than answers. How could I and my fellow human beings have such drastically different worldviews and ways of interpreting reality? What accounted for these differences? Fortunately for me, I belong to a discipline, anthropology, that devotes itself to answering these big questions. And little did I know that this initial experience in Nigeria would lead to a lifetime in study abroad. Now, as a professor in USC’s Global Health in Costa Rica program, and as faculty principal for the Galen Health Fellows Living/Learning Community, I have the unique opportunity to share my love of studying and living abroad, and my love of health sciences, directly with my students. BY DAVID SIMMONS
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GET SMART
NEAR & FAR
Beyond the classroom experiences take USC students overseas and just down the road
Summer is a great time for student travel, and if you can earn a few credit hours in the process, all the better. USC Times exchanged emails with two students studying in Italy this May as part of a global classroom experience and with a third student currently studying abroad at the University of Vienna. For good measure, we also checked in with an anthropology major who spent the first part of the summer digging for American history just a few miles from home. BY MELINDA WALDROP
HANNAH CAMPO | SENIOR
Why did you take this course? I’ve always wanted to go to Italy, and I’ve always wanted to study abroad. This program made a trip to the country affordable, while also giving me the shortterm abroad experience I was looking for. How does the course fit into your career ambitions? My dream job is to design playbills for Broadway shows. This course fulfilled one of my major requirements while also exposing me to companies and professionals in my desired field.
Sorrento, Italy
The marketing and management major studied “Marketing Communications in Italy” during Maymester.
What has been your best experience so far? Seeing the ruins of Pompeii was absolutely amazing. I had no idea how large the city was, or how much archaeologists and historians had been able to learn about the ancient citizens by analyzing the ruins. Do you speak Italian? I took beginner’s and intermediate Italian during my sophomore year of college.
Florence, Italy
I was able to remember key terms and phrases that were really useful. Although most people spoke English where we were, I still felt a little more comfortable in the environment, and helpful to the group. What’s the coolest thing you've seen? I think the business visits, particularly the Florence School of the Arts, were an amazing opportunity. The ruins and tourist sites were accessible to everyone, but without the school, I wouldn’t have been able to get an inside look into these Italian companies. Anything else? I can never fully explain how this trip will impact and benefit my life. I would recommend study abroad to any student of any major. For those who are worried about the cost, I would say that there are many payment options and scholarship opportunities available. The school wants you to go just as badly as you do.
VOL. 28, NO.5 15
COMFORT, DISCOMFORT AND FLEXIBILITY Magdalena Grudzinski-Hall talks study abroad
ANNA BROCKMAN | JUNIOR
Capri, Italy
The international business and political science major studied “Marketing Communications in Italy” during Maymester.
Why did you decide to participate in this course? Because I’m an international business major, I’ll study abroad for a semester during the spring of my junior year. I recognized this Maymester trip as a way to get my feet wet in international travel. Living, studying and working with 19 other students and professors for 12 days was a great way to experience a small chunk of what I will experience next year. How does the course fit into your studies and your career ambitions? Italy's economy relies heavily on tourism, so we’ve visited such famous spots as the Duomo, the Colosseum, the Forum, the Vatican and Pompeii to observe the way in which their website communications and special events promote tourism traffic. We’ve visited businesses such as the Florence Opera House, FLY and MRM/McCann to observe their marketing communications strategies as well. What’s been your best experience so far? My favorite experience so far has been in Florence, when all of us traveled up a huge hill to San Miniato, a thousand-year-old cathedral. The cathedral itself and the view from the top were incredible. We walked down the hill a little ways to find a huge overlook with a view of the entire city. You could see the green rolling hills with little colorful houses on the left with the beautiful historic city on the right. My classmates and I had the opportunity to sit and watch the sunset while sipping champagne and listening to music. This experience is one I will never forget. What has been the most difficult thing? Travel. I traveled alone, for the first time ever. On my way to Florence, everything that could've gone wrong did. By the time I landed in Dusseldorf, I had five minutes from the time I got off the plane to make it to the next gate. I was relieved when this flight was also delayed, but then I died a little inside when they told me I couldn't board because AirBerlin had already changed my flight and luggage situation. The next flight out was six hours later, and then it got delayed three times before getting canceled. What has been the coolest thing you’ve seen? That’s a pretty impossible question to answer, as I’ve seen a variety of incredible things every day. The sunset over Florence, the view from the top of the Duomo, the vastness of the Colosseum, the Lizzie McGuire-ness of the Trevi Fountain, the breathtaking ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and the beauty of the Amalfi Coast are just a few of the cool things I’ve had the opportunity to see.
Ask Magdalena Grudzinski-Hall what makes for a successful study abroad experience, and the director of USC’s Study Abroad Office boils it down to a single word. “Flexibility,” she says. “I think that’s one of the key characteristics of a good world traveler.” Being able to adapt to unfamiliar cultures and unexpected developments doesn’t just make for a smoother experience, she says; it also opens more opportunities. But while flexibility comes naturally for some students, others come into the Study Abroad Office with some trepidation. “I talk about being comfortable with being uncomfortable,” says Grudzinski-Hall. “For some students, their heart skips a beat the moment they see that immigration officer and have to show their passport in a non-English speaking country. For another student, it’s a challenge going into a grocery and buying food when no one at the cash register speaks English.” For those students who aren’t ready to spend a semester in France, or a year in China, there are short-term global classroom experiences led by USC faculty members. “The majority of our students who do study abroad do it short term,” says Grudzinski-Hall. “They travel together, they’re on site together. We call these bubble models — students feel safe, they’re speaking English. It’s a little version of our campus dropped down someplace else.” And while the global classroom may not offer the same degree of self-discovery that students often report after immersing themselves in a foreign culture, it’s the right fit for many students, particularly if they’ve never been abroad. “It’s a different kind of experience, but for the student who has never traveled, it’s a safe experience,” says Grudzinski-Hall. “In the field of study abroad we talk about level of intensity. For the student who has never traveled, traveling in a group with a faculty member is intense, it’s enough.” It’s also rewarding. Wherever they go, however long they stay, Grudzinski-Hall can attest to the effect such experiences have on a student’s personal growth. “It’s interesting to see them come back,” she says. “Their eyes sparkle a little bit. Their understanding of their place on campus and what they’re working toward is clearer. Research has shown that when they come back they often add a minor, switch a major, add a language or take a language class they never considered before.” They start thinking about careers, too, she says — and, in many cases, more travel. “For a lot of students who, prior to study abroad, would never have considered working abroad, this becomes something they see themselves doing — teaching English somewhere or joining the Peace Corps,” she says. “The cliché about it broadening horizons is absolutely true.” By Craig Brandhorst
16 USCTIMES / JUNE-JULY 2017
Predjama Castle in south-central Slovenia
TRUDEE WILTSHIRE | SENIOR
Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria
The human resource managament major (Spanish and Portuguese minor) studied abroad at the University of Vienna. What are you studying? I am currently taking three business courses in English, two Spanish courses and two Portuguese courses. Had you traveled abroad before? I’d been around the Caribbean and Central America prior to college, and since college I've spent short amounts of time in the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Spain and Portugal. Until my semester abroad, I’d never left the United States for more than two weeks at a time. What made you want to study abroad? During my freshman and sophomore years at USC, I lived in the International House at Maxcy College, where I met students from
all over the world and learned about study abroad programs. I knew I wanted to go to Europe, to a place that would accommodate my areas of study and be a good location for traveling. I had trouble finding a university in Portugal that also had Spanish courses and vice versa, but surprisingly, I found that the University of Vienna met all of my needs. Do you speak German? I tried to learn some basic conversational German before my semester abroad, but I still can only do the basics like ordering in restaurants or asking directions. I’ve found that most Austrians, especially young ones, speak decent English, so it has not been too much of an obstacle. It’s definitely gotten easier with time. How does the course work fit into your studies and your career ambitions? I still don’t know what exactly I want to do as a career, but I know that I want to utilize my foreign language skills to work in international management or marketing, perhaps somewhere like Brazil. What has been your best experience so far? Last month, I randomly found a really cheap plane ticket to Cluj-Napoca, Romania, and spontaneously bought it. Unlike any other places I’ve visited while here, I knew nothing about Romania. I decided to make it a whole weekend of adventure, so after a day in Cluj-Napoca, I took an overnight bus to Bucharest, and then after the second day I took another overnight bus to Sofia, Bulgaria. I’ve done short solo trips, but never in countries that I’m completely unfamiliar with. It ended
Lake Hallstatt in western Austria
up being my favorite trip of the semester! I met other solo travelers, got purposely lost and discovered new things about myself. I encourage anyone studying abroad to go out on a whim, even if it’s completely outside your comfort zone. What’s the coolest thing you’ve seen? I know I already mentioned Romania being my favorite trip, but I think my favorite sight was the Palace of Parliament in Bucharest. It’s the second-largest administrative building in the world (The Pentagon is the largest), but I had never heard of it. It was massive and absolutely stunning, but the history was even more fascinating. I really had no idea that Romania had such a recent history of communism, and the eloquent design of the palace was the work of a communist ruler who didn’t live to see his completed masterpiece. Is there anything you’d like to add? I think most people worry about making friends abroad, but honestly, everyone is in the same boat upon arrival. I live alone here in Austria and thought my chances of making friends would be even lower without having roommates. Every student is nervous and has no idea what to expect, so making friends was easier than I expected. My study abroad program offers so many networking events to meet students. There are BBQs, flag parades, cooking classes, concerts — pretty much anything and everything to make sure students can make international friends that they’ll keep for a lifetime.
VOL. 28, NO.5 17
Not So Far Afield Archaeology students attend Maymester field school at Revolutionary War site
Austen Monzel spent three weeks of summer digging through 200-year-old trash. Monzel is one of five USC students who joined archaeology professor Steven D. Smith, director of the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, at a field school in May at the Ninety Six National Historic Site. The students searched for historic remnants of a trading post established by 18th-century entrepreneur Robert Gouedy in the 1750s. The post was later fortified by the Americans in 1759, expanded in 1761, and was twice attacked by Cherokee Indians. “We’re pretty sure we found the edge of the palisade wall,” Monzel says. Ninety Six, an early colonial settlement, played an important role in South Carolina history. Besides Gouedy’s post, the park includes the colonial village of Ninety Six and two Revolutionary War forts. The task of helping document that role kept Monzel and his fellow searchers sifting through layers of discolored soil, two centimeters at a time. “I’m interested in finding out what happened there,” says Monzel, a senior anthropology major from Bluffton, S.C. “It tells a story of what was going on. We can tell what people ate, what tools they were using.” The summer field school at Ninety Six is a U.S. National Park Service pilot program. If additional funding can be secured, the Park Service, in partnership with SCIAA, hopes to conduct research at other American Revolution Parks, including Cowpens (S.C.) National Battlefield, Kings Mountain (N.C.) National Military Park and the Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail in York County, S.C. “All of those parks are Revolutionary War battlefields that now share a superintendent and management team,” says Sarah Cunningham, chief of integrated resources and facilities for the Southern Campaign of the American Revolution Parks. “We were able to devote some funding and put that into an agreement and work with Steve to create a field school. The agreement is broad enough that we can initiate work at any other parks.” Along with helping establish the palisade ditch, the USC students also discovered a trash pit filled with time-weathered treasures such as animal bones and arrowheads. Monzel also unearthed ceramic and glass fragments and a few yet-to-be-identified teeth. “The students are getting archaeological experience. They’ve learned a lot,” Smith says. “We hope to establish this as a continuing program with the National Park Service.” Cunningham says that while a fair amount of archaeological work has been done at the Ninety Six site, not much has taken place in recent years. “There are a lot of things that we don’t know yet about Ninety Six,” she says. “One of the ways that we can learn more and tell the story of what happened here and the people who lived here is through archaeology. Only so much is written down. Being able to see what’s underground can give really good insight.” Other finds from the Ninety Six field school included musket balls, lead shot and pieces of a cannon. “I really enjoyed just going out there and digging and seeing what we could find,” Monzel says. Cunningham hopes additional field schools can “create a new cadre of archaeologists who are interested in Revolutionary War battlefields,” she says. “I’m excited about what the future holds if we can continue getting additional field schools. That’s my ultimate dream, to have a field school every summer.” T
Students used metal detectors to pinpoint what sites might require further study at the Ninety Six Historic Site. The early colonial settlement played an important role in South Carolina history and includes the sites of two Revolutionary War forts.
Students in an archaeological field school led by USC professor Steven D. Smith sift through soil at the Ninety Six National Historic Site. The students found evidence of a trash pit containing bones, arrowheads and ceramic fragments.
18 USCTIMES / JUNE-JULY 2017
BREAKTHROUGH BREAKOUT
THE HUNGER GAME Med School researcher explores the urge to eat
By Chris Horn
It’s half past noon and your stomach has started grumbling in a language all its own but with a message that’s easily translated: Feed me! “It’s one of our basic urges. If we don’t eat, we don’t have energy to survive,” says Claudia Grillo, a research associate professor in physiology, pharmacology and neuroscience at USC’s School of Medicine. Grillo is keenly interested in the neurological pathways that govern our hunger drive, especially an obscure circuit that involves the raphe, a collection of nuclei in the midbrain. Grillo’s research has demonstrated
“My major interest is to identify novel circuits that regulate food intake, which will allow us to identify new targets for the development of therapeutic strategies to treat obesity,” Grillo says. Leptin and its associated neurological circuits in the brain help explain physiological hunger — the drive to eat that keeps us alive. But what about the “drive” to eat an entire bag of popcorn or chocolate chip cookies long after your stomach has reached the point of satiety? That pleasure drive is called hedonic hunger, Grillo says. Hedonic
that the raphe has receptors for a hormone called leptin that’s produced
hunger might lead us to eat too much or, if we’re feeling sad, might
by fatty tissue. She was recently awarded a four-year, $900,000 grant
temporarily suppress hunger. Understanding the neurological circuits that
from the National Science Foundation to investigate the interplay
drive hedonic hunger is on Grillo’s future to-do list.
between leptin and the raphe. Scientists have extensively studied leptin’s effect on the hypothalamus, an almond-sized part of the brain that helps to regulate body temperature, sleep, thirst and hunger. “But it’s important that we
“Maybe at some point I will go into that field. Probably the mechanisms are not so different than those driving physiological hunger,” she says. “Certainly, hedonic hunger is a big component of the obesity epidemic.” For now, Grillo will be busy studying the raphe/leptin circuit and
understand all of the mechanisms that can regulate hunger,” Grillo says.
getting ready to welcome two undergraduate students to her lab for a
Her research shows that the raphe is stimulated by leptin to produce and
summer internship component of the NSF grant. The idea is to recruit
release a mood-regulating neurotransmitter called serotonin, which has a
interns from populations under represented in science and medicine and
dampening effect on hunger.
provide experiential learning opportunities that create a foundation for
“But the more adipose tissue you have, the more leptin you produce,” Grillo says. And similar to insulin resistance in Type 2 diabetes, very high levels of leptin lead to leptin resistance. In that scenario, leptin’s signals to
future success in biomedical or basic research. “Maybe if they study hunger in my lab, they’ll develop a hunger for a career in science,” Grillo quips.
T
the brain that you don’t need more to eat are eventually ignored. Top: Claudia Grillo with fellow School of Medicine researchers Jim Fadel, left, and Larry Reagan.
VOL. 28, NO.5 19
SYSTEM EQUATION
USC UNION: IDENTITY AND HEALTH
BY PAGE IVEY
PROFESSOR, STUDENT WORK ON RELIGIOUS IDENTITY RESEARCH AT USC UNION USC Union sociology professor Majdouline Aziz understands the importance of mentors. During her graduate studies, it was her research mentor who turned her on to studying religious identity development — specifically, religious identity of Muslim Americans. “My recent research focuses on the factors that contribute to the development of Muslim religious identity because the majority of the research in that area focuses on Christian and Jewish identity,” says Aziz, a 2005 graduate of USC Columbia with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. For her research, she enlisted one of her students, Kelsey Granger, who has become Aziz’s first real mentee in her three years as a professor at USC Union. Granger, who is from Baltimore but moved to South Carolina with her mother after high school, says the experience has turned her on to both the field of sociology and research in general. “I love getting to find out new things and learn new things,” says Granger, who earned an associate degree from USC Union and is finishing a bachelor’s in health promotion and education and biology through Palmetto College. “Dr. Aziz makes it really easy to undertake things like this. I have a personal interest in the topic, but I really feel facilitated by her to continue doing so.” As for Aziz, she says she can see stark differences in how she developed her religious identity and how her brother developed his, in part because of the differences in their ages when they arrived in the U.S.
“I was just starting kindergarten, and he was starting high school,” she says. “He remembers the traditions and the values and everything that goes along with that. Being primarily raised in the U.S., I don’t remember anything from overseas. “It is just a different experience. I can see where they come from and I can see where the American value system comes from. It’s just kind of turned into — I hate to say melting pot, but that’s what it is, a melting pot in my head.” Granger’s role was to compile and analyze the existing research on the development of Muslim American religious identity, so Aziz could find an unexplored area. Granger presented her findings on existing research at last year’s Southern Sociological Society meeting in Atlanta. “That was a totally new experience for me, being able to present something I had worked on like that,” says Granger, who
wants to become a physician assistant and work in reproductive health. This summer, Granger and Aziz will put together the results of her research, write a paper and try to get it published. Granger says the research fits in with her public health studies in that sociological factors and religion are big parts of a person’s health and well-being. “I have always been interested in health and medicine, and in the past few years, I became interested in sexual and reproductive health, which combines sociology, psychology and health promotion,” she says. “So going into that field satisfies my drive not only to go into medicine, but to keep in mind the other areas I have an interest in.” T
ENDNOTES Study abroad is on the rise at USC. In 2015-2016*, the Study Abroad Office reported 1,743 undergraduate study abroad experiences, up 15 percent over the previous year, and 56 faculty-led study abroad programs, up 17 percent. Students visited 60 countries worldwide that academic year, and USC provided $589,672 in financial aid for study abroad programming. Still, Magdalena Grudzinski-Hall, director of the Study Abroad Office, sees room for growth. “We need to be sending more, particularly undergraduates,” she says. “There are pockets on campus that are underrepresented, so one of our main goals is to educate our campus partners about the value of study abroad.”
60
total countries represented*
*Final data from 2016-17 still pending