Letter to the editor

Missing INTC? Students can still experience many of its benefits studying abroad

Many of the points made by Josh Goodell in his thoughtful editorial “INTC-ya later” are surely shared by others at PLU.

The INTC program was indeed unique, but its absence certainly should not discourage PLU students from, as Mr. Goodell so compellingly notes about himself,“greatly expanding [their] breadth of understanding on a scale far outreaching anything [they] could have imagined or hoped for prior to [their] participation” in the INTC.

At PLU, for the same comprehensive fee as being on campus (plus the cost of to-ing and fro-ing, i.e. getting there and returning home) every student has the opportunity to study and learn about Latin America as a region, with Mexico as a case study, through PLU’s Oaxaca program.

Or to learn about the Caribbean and the celebration of its multicultural population, values, and arts through PLU’s Trinidad program.

To study and learn firsthand about the emergence of China as a global power in what is surely the Asian century through PLU’s program in Sichuan, China.

Or to study conflict resolution and development in PLU’s Norway program alongside students from Namibia.

Additionally, these programs have been carefully designed to advance two key concepts of the INTC program—cross-cultural and comparative approaches to important regions of the world. And these programs are usually smaller and faculty led, offering the kind of student-faculty interaction for which the INTC was known.

However, if these programs don’t meet a student’s particular academic needs, the Wang Center is committed to assisting in finding a program that does—there are many to consider.
The point is, one does not need a set of GURs to take a transdisciplinary approach to one’s education. One simply needs the initiative to explore the amazingly diverse options PLU makes available to every student.

Neal Sobania
Executive Director,
The Wang Center for International Programs