World Events with WVWC Ties

This past week, my First Year Seminar class has been discussing the fact that Wesleyan has intentionally interacted with the world for a very long time.

Veterans

On this Veteran’s Day (2019) I am mindful that many students encountered the world during their military service. During World Wars I and II many students, who had never been far from home, found themselves in France, Germany, and other places. Many came home with a new view of the world.  They served as soldiers, pilots, officers, and chaplains. The same happened in Korea and in Vietnam, and in such places as the Middle East and Afghanistan.

For example, according to his obituary in 2015, Franklin “Hank” Ellis (Class of 1943 and long-time coach and professor at WVWC)

was the Commanding Officer on the USS LCT 710 from May of 1944 through March of 1945 where he carried cargo from large ships to and across the Beaches of Normandy. He made the D-Day landing on Utah Beach, Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944. In June of 1945, he was the Gunnery Officer on the USS LCI 728 in Pearl Harbor, HI. Mr. Ellis returned to Normandy for the 20th Reunion of D-Day, in 1964, the 50th Reunion in 1994, and the 60th Reunion in 2004. In 2015, he was awarded the French Legion Medal of Honor by the French government.

Faculty

Throughout the history of the college, there have been more than two dozen faculty members from more than 20 countries other than the United States. Others, born here, have lived and studied abroad thus enlarging their view of the world. All of these have impacted the lives of their students in ways beyond the curriculum. They have shared new perspectives about the world.

Many faculty have led study abroad trips, creating opportunities for thousands of students to expand their horizons.

Many have been speakers and participants at international conferences, such as Drs. Jessica Scott, Tamara Bailey, and Coty Martin at the International Studies Association International Conference in Accra, Ghana this year – the first time this annual event has ever been held in Africa. “Currents of Knowledge: Knowledge Production in the Global South Informing the Global North.” Co-Presenting at the ISA International Conference, Accra, Ghana, August 2019

International Students

As early as 1926, Methodist Missionaries around the world were making it possible for students to come to Wesleyan. Dorothy Lee was the first from China, and later a scholarship in her name was created. This scholarship has enabled hundreds of others to follow, including her own daughter, Julia B.

Sports teams and the arts have recruited international students as well, and these students have brought new perspectives to all academic disciplines.

Study and Travel Opportunities

From May term trips to summer programs, professors and students have been part of study abroad opportunities. Each time they came back to Buckhannon with new ideas of how people are alike as well as how their differences help to create new possiblities.

Scholarship Opportunities are available, both nationally competitive (like the Fulbright) and made possible by generous friends, such as the Maxine Bruhns Scholarship. There are many study-abroad opportunities.

Jazz Ensemble

The West Virginia Wesleyan Jazz Ensemble was invited, through the Friendship Ambassador Program, to tour Romania in 1973.  Less than a year later, they were invited to tour Poland on a similar program. Since then there have been numerous Goodwill Ambassador trips to Europe with the group playing in: Poland, Romania, Estonia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Austria, Latvia, Finland, the Czech Republic,Ukraine, and the Soviet Union/Russia. 

Many of these tours included time in countries under Communist rule during the period of the Cold War.

[Many of these people will gather in Buckhannon next Saturday – November 16 – for a reunion concert to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the founding of the group. It will take place in the Performing Arts Center at 7:00pm].

Other groups, such as choirs, have also traveled abroad and shared the gift of music while learning about the world.

Individual Student Opportunities

Many people from West Virginia Wesleyan have been inspired, encouraged and supported in their desire to interact with the world. One of them, I know very well! And, as this is the 30 year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, I would like to share this experience.

My younger sister, Sarah, was inspired by a novel she read in her early years. From there, she was encouraged by parents and teachers. At Wesleyan, she had a Chemistry Teacher (Allen Hamner) who taught German, and she was further encouraged by such people as Herb Coston, Arthur Holmes, Larry Parsons, and Volkmar Lauber. Wanting to spend her  Jr. year in Germany, she was supported by administrators who helped make the connections and to figure out all of the red tape to make it possible for her to study in Heidelberg. Following her graduation in 1984 with a degree in International Studies, she was able to return to Germany to study for and receive her masters degree.

A few years later, in 1989, she returned to Germany once again to work with Radio Deutsche Welle, and found herself in Berlin 30 years ago this week (November 9, 1989) when the Berlin Wall came down. As she experienced and reported this incredible news, she met many people whose stories have impacted her to this day.

This photo was taken in the days just after the Fall of the Berlin Wall (30th anniversary of that event was November 9, 2019.) I was reporting from Berlin for Radio Deutsche Welle – armed with my Marantz cassette recorder and microphone. Of course MANY people were reporting from Berlin at that time, including the American TV networks. At one point I happened to be working the same street as Peter Jennings. The sharply dressed woman next to him was his translator. The fellow with earphones was his sound guy. I watched them work for a bit and then moved along to gather my own interviews. It was a crazy, exciting, wonder-filled experience.

And…this story was the main result of my Fall-of-the-Wall reporting adventure in Berlin. (I took this photo the morning they opened the new crossing at Potsdamer Platz. We heard them jack-hammering from the other side the night before.)

Click here and close your eyes to be transported to Berlin in November 1989….30 years ago. To a different time and a different place.

Sarah’s story is but one of the many stories that could be told by alumni of West Virginia Wesleyan College.

Wesleyan’s Intentional Interactions With the World

Whether it is bringing world experiences to Buckhannon or going to faraway places to experience new cultures, Wesleyan is so committed to encouraging students to learn about the world, and to offer service, that it is even one of the major missions of the college: