Spring Attachment Program? Sign me up!
The Cliffs of Moher in Ireland on the last attachment program visit.
Source: Babette Fasolino
From the Netherlands to Ireland, Marist College’s spring attachment programs send students all over the world for experiential learning opportunities in destinations that are pertinent to their studies.
“I love the attachment programs because they provide opportunities for students who can’t take a whole semester off to study abroad,” said Professor Babette Faolino, who leads student research trips to Ireland. “I can't go somewhere for 3 months and a lot of students can't do that either, so this provides an interesting alternative.”
A spring attachment class is tied to a trip, either domestic or abroad. Students take a full semester course on campus and follow it up with professor guided travel that pertains to the course content. The length and destination of the trip varies for each course.
The course offerings change each semester. This spring, the abroad office is offering international tourism promotion in Ireland, the struggle for racial justice in the south, international law and organization in Amsterdam and criminal justice ethics in Amsterdam.
Fasolino’s international tourism promotion course focuses on public relations and how it affects Ireland’s tourism industry. Throughout the semester, students choose one aspect of the industry and various campaigns to research. Through the use of data analytic systems and personal interviews in Ireland, students will compare the success of the industry now to 2019.
This is Fasolino’s third year leading an attachment course. Each year she adjusts the itinerary for the trip based on her students’ interests.
“I always try to switch it up. There are some places that are sort of must-see destinations… I always ask the students at the end of the trip, what did you like best, what would you have skipped? If there’s a common denominator of the skips, I try to leave it out. And I always try to add something else.”
Another popular course is the Struggle for Racial Justice in the South. Dr. Steven Garabedian and Dr. Robyn Rosen created the class four years ago and have led it together ever since.
“Our approach to the African American History survey opens with material on the origins and evolution of "race" as an idea, and then moves chronologically through slavery, the Civil War, Jim Crow, the Civil Rights Movement, Black Power, and Black Lives Matter,” said Garabedian.
Between May 29 and June 5, the class will travel to four U.S.cities, including Birmingham, Jackson, Memphis and Montgomery. Over the course of the week, the students will visit a large number of historical sites that pertain to African American history where they can reflect on what they studied throughout the semester.
“Students are also moved emotionally to be in the spot where Dr. King was assassinated, or Emmett Till's body was found in the Tallahatchie River, or to walk across the Edmund Pettus-Foot Soldiers Bridge in Selma, where they have seen footage of American citizens being brutalized just for demanding the right to vote,” said Rosen.
Two other attachment classes are heading to Amsterdam the last week of May. International Law and Organization in Amsterdam and Criminal Justice Ethics in Amsterdam are collaborating for their trip.
Dr. Julie Raines has taught attachment programs since 2019, however this is her first time visiting Amsterdam with her criminal justice ethics course. It is the same for Dr. Juris Pupcenoks and his international law and organization class.
Both professors teach their course separately throughout the semester, with the exception of three meetings that they co-teach. However, both classes will travel together.
They will divide their trip between Amsterdam and the Hague. There they will visit the International Criminal Court, where they hear war crimes and international human right violations, and the International Court of Justice which is the United Nations Court.
“You have conversations in class but it's just so much more different when you see students experiencing it and you can see how curious they are about all of it… So I think that is what makes it a little bit different than a regular course. Just being able to experience things that you see on TV,” said Raines.
On top of the visits to the courts, students will be expected to participate in discussions and compare what they’ve learned throughout the semester and how it relates to what they’ve experienced in the Netherlands. This will prepare students for the reflection paper they will write once they return.
“Whether it's a full spring attachment trip like this, or a field trip to a site nearby in Poughkeepsie, I do think students are more motivated learners when experiential learning is involved,” said Garabedian, “There are things more powerful than experiential learning.”