Taking a break from music this week - I wrote about spending a semester in Hawaii.UD students spend four months in Hawaii
What if I told you instead of spending a week without power you could have spent a week learning how to surf or relaxing on the North Shore? With the University of Dayton’s exchange program you could have been doing just that.
Twice a year, UD offers an exchange program with its fellow Marianist schools, Chaminade University in Honolulu, Hawaii, and St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas.
A list of qualifications must be met before a student can gain acceptance into the program. Students must supply qualifying information, write an essay expressing their interest in spending a semester n Hawaii and their plans regarding service opportunities. Once that was completed all students were asked to obtain letters of recommendation.
Another aspect students need to consider before making the decision to apply for this opportunity is to ensure that the classes they will take in Hawaii or Texas will transfer back to UD. To do this, students must hold meetings with their advisors to set up a schedule of classes that would later be approved by the dean of the student’s major.
This past year, around 25 students applied for the Chaminade University exchange, and the program accepted 10.
“The best part of having a semester in Hawaii is spending four months in a place few people get to experience for more than a week in their lifetime,” senior, Edward Kendralla said. “The laid back, relaxing atmosphere is an ideal place to go to school.”
The class schedule for most students typically consists of 12 credit hours made up of four three credit hour courses.
“The school life isn’t too intense,” senior Eric Weinheimer said. “I only have four classes: Hawaiian History, Sociology and Philosophy of Gender Roles, Poetry/Creative Writing and Sexuality in the Christian Life. As you can probably tell, I don’t kill myself over classes.”
Since Chaminade University is a campus of around 1,200 undergraduates, the class sizes tend to be made up of 15 to 20 students. This gives the exchange students a better chance of meeting new people and becoming more involved in the classes.
Classes seem to only be one small aspect of the exchange program. The idea of living on an island thousands of miles away from home is another.
“After being here, I really believe that everyone needs to live somewhere different in their lives,” Weinheimer said. “It doesn’t matter where, just far enough to get out of your comfort zone. The home you grow up in and the university you attend you develop comfort zones and (often) really don’t step out of them.”
The Chaminade University exchange gives students that chance to step out of their comfort zone, emerge from their shell and explore a new way of life.
Chaminade goes out of its way to make sure the new students feel welcome by arranging a bus tour and other activities for the students during their first week on the island. From that point on, what the students want to do is in their own hands.
“Resident Advisors in the apartment will plan activities every once in a while you can take advantage of,” Kendralla said. The current students involved in the exchange have formed an Exchange Student Organization that attempts to get funding through student activities to plan trips to the Polynesian cultural center, a University of Hawaii football game, the North Shore beach and a tour of the Dole Plantation, among other trips.
Other trips have included stops at Pearl Harbor, Kahua ranch – where TV shows and films such as Lost, Jurassic Park and 50 First Dates have filmed – and the North Shore. The exchange students can partake in hiking trips to Diamond Head and Manoa falls, surfing and snorkeling. But take caution: Kendralla recalled his own personal experience with snorkeling as “getting brutally attacked by a jellyfish.”
Chaminade also provides vans that can be driven by any student who gets certified to do so.
“Chaminade really supports the exchange students and does a lot to make sure we get the best out of this experience,” Weinheimer said.
Both students admitted to wishing that they would have joined the exchange program as juniors so that they could have spent the first semester of their senior year back at UD with friends.
“But this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I don’t regret my decision,” Weinheimer said. “It was good for me to participate in something completely new by stepping out of – 5,000 miles out of – my comfort zone.”
For more information on how to get involved in an exchange program such as the Chaminade University exchange, visit http://international.udayton.edu. All of the information needed to apply is provided.
“I’ve learned a lot about myself by challenging myself and stepping out of my comfort zone to learn new things about new people in new places,” Weinheimer said. “I am grateful for an opportunity like this and am incredibly lucky to have taken advantage of it.”
