For students in the Glynn Family Honors Program, classes meet in O’Shaughnessy Hall — and, on occasion, in Ireland, England, Mexico, and Italy.
Last year, first-year University of Notre Dame students in four Glynn Family Honors Program seminars combined their academic coursework with international experience, spending spring break on international trips with their peers and professors, bringing the curriculum to life.
The trips gave students the invaluable opportunity to explore history, literature, and culture in a new light.
“It’s very rare when a course can change your worldview, can change how you think and perceive the world, can change the broader sense of your thinking and your academic interests,” said Philip Latorre, a biological sciences and political science major who traveled to Mexico City with his class. “I have learned to look at issues in a whole new way now.”
An Irish immersion
In their seminar, Calvin Bacall and his classmates explored Ireland’s immigration, migration, and exile. The country’s social and political history made for a rich destination for the freshmen.
“People have a strong passion for the culture, and they like to talk about how Irish people are basically everywhere in the world, and they make an impact everywhere, not only in Ireland,” Bacall said.
The class and trip were led by Notre Dame Global Vice President and Associate Provost for Internationalization Michael Pippenger, and students were able to experience Irish culture in hands-on ways.
In partnership with the Notre Dame Kylemore program, students stayed in the historic Kylemore Abbey and were able to meet with Irish playwright Marina Carr and Caitríona McLaughlin, the associate director of the Abbey Theatre, for a discussion of how migration and exile influence Irish theatre.
When the group later visited Dublin, they attended a play in the Abbey Theatre and learned more about Irish culture at EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum, the National Gallery of Ireland, and the National Library of Ireland.
Though Bacall had never traveled to another continent before this trip, he enjoyed the experience so much that he planned to spend his summer abroad as well, thanks to Pippinger’s mentorship.
“Because he knows so much about international travel in general, we were able to do things that tourists might not normally do,” Bacall said.
In addition to visiting libraries and museums, the class went fly fishing, saw bogs, learned about the Great Famine, visited a sheep farm, and even participated in Irish céilí dancing with the locals.
For Bacall, one of the most enlightening experiences was simply speaking with the Irish people they encountered.
“You can gain so much and learn so much, like so many diverse and varying perspectives from your own, just by going to a new place to talk to the people there,” he said. “You never know who you’ll talk to, what you’ll find, what you’ll learn.”
Learning the ‘good life’ in London
When examining the definition of “the good life,” Ana Leyendecker found it to be abundant in London, from modern-day innovations like the Tube to the Magna Carta housed in The British Library.
Leyendecker was a part of Evan Ragland’s seminar which examined the cosmos and different constructions of the good life across London. The associate professor of history and his students explored places like The British Museum, The British Library, and the Tower of London.
A classics major, Leyendecker enjoyed seeing influences from the city’s Roman rule, including remnants of the London Wall built by Romans. This opened her horizons to new areas and regions of interest within her major.
“I realized I don't have to just study Latin in the Roman time period,” she said. “I can study Latin and Greek and their influence to the far reaches of the globe.”
Leyendecker completed a course research paper on coffeehouses and was able to visit the oldest coffeehouse in the United Kingdom. She was also able to explore high tea and coffee shops on her own in the city and found how “third places” — social settings other than work or home — can offer a sense of community. These experiences were a welcome aspect of “the good life” learning.
“We felt like we kinda belong here because we can just go to cafes, or we can go to the library and you don't have to pay,” Leyendecker said.
The students also took trips to Oxford and Cambridge, where they heard from fellows on the history of science, the importance of academic pursuits, and the intentionality of university spaces. By visiting these storied institutions, Leyendecker and her classmates saw that international research and study were within their reach, especially given their preparation for the course and the trip.
“Things are much more connected than you realize,” Leyendecker said. “You can always dig deeper in your research.”
More than just meals in Mexico City
For students in the Food and Foodways in the Americas seminar, a four-day trip to Mexico City allowed them to see — and taste — the role of food in Mexican culture.
“Part of being in the city and walking around was you got to see what daily life is like in Mexico,” said student Philip Latorre. “We got to see firsthand how hardworking the people are, and how food is so ingrained in the culture.”
Led by Vanesa Miseres, an associate professor of Spanish, along with Africana studies assistant professor Scott Alves Barton, students visited a bustling wholesale market called Central de Abasto and went on a taquería walking tour across Mexico City with food journalist David Santa Cruz. Latorre said he enjoyed trying new flavors throughout the trip, including cactus, chile-lime crickets, and a Mexican rice-based drink called horchata.
The students also participated in Mexican and Mesoamerican culinary traditions, such as learning how to make tortillas and tamales in a guided cooking class with Mexican chefs Mane Rivera and Lupe Reyes.
“From the perspective of the course, a lot of times, the kitchen isn’t always a place that's held of high esteem,” Latorre said. “But we have a lot more respect for its role in society.”
During the trip coordinated by food writer and editor Vanessa Villegas, the class traveled in Xochimilco, an agricultural region of Mexico City, and met with anthropologist Dulce Espinoza and members of the Olintlalli cooperative who taught them about Aztec influences on the food system. They learned about small artificial islands known as chinampas, which eliminate the need for manual watering of crops, as the islands allow the water to enter naturally from the surroundings.
“It was just really neat to learn a way of agriculture that isn't seen in most of the rest of the world but that seemed to work really well,” Latorre said. “There’s a lot of untapped potential there.”
Classic texts and the Colosseum
The saying “all roads lead to Rome” turned out to be true for freshman Maya Tuviera.
In a seminar led by English associate professor Susannah Monta, Tuviera and her classmates went on a journey through Western literature, art, and history and coupled their education with travels to Rome, Florence, and Vatican City.
“There would just be moments during the trip where we would look to each other and say, ‘Is this real? How is this possible?’” Tuviera said.
In South Bend, the class read and discussed Dante’s The Divine Comedy and were then able to see where the poet lived in southern Florence. As a political science major, Tuviera enjoyed that the trip allowed her to further explore the political circumstances that inspired exiles of famous Italian intellectuals like Dante and Niccolò Machiavelli.
“You think of these figures as having belonged to a completely different world and a completely different life,” she said. “But you realize — they lived in this one.”
The group also visited famous Roman locales, such as St. Peter’s Basilica, the Trevi Fountain, the Vatican, and the Colosseum.
Each student relied on their unique academic interests to enhance the group’s understanding of the places and sites they visited. Tuviera, who is also a theology major, said she enjoyed exploring the many basilicas and Catacombs of San Callisto, which is an important cemetery in early Christian Rome.
“I made a promise to myself that we would never lose sight of the great books and the great lessons that had been imparted in this class,” Tuviera said. “We learned so much about just how much there is to learn."
Originally published by at al.nd.edu on September 27, 2024.