newsJanuary 22, 2013
Southeast students travel over winter break
Four students tell their story of where they traveled over winter break.
Italy
Whitney Law ~ Arts & Entertainment Editor
Twenty-two Southeast Missouri State University students and faculty traveled to Italy during winter break and visited six Italian cities in 10 days. Public relations major Jill Irvin had the opportunity to cross off the No. 1 thing on her bucket list: visit the Vatican City.
Irvin said that group members, which included students from different majors receiving different class credits for the trip, had structured sightseeing in the morning and then were free to do whatever they wanted to do in the afternoons and evenings.
"It was really good experience," Irvin said. "We got to go to Venice and then Pisa, and then Florence and Sienna and Tuscany and then Rome. It was just kind of a culture shock, but at the same time it was nice to learn about different cultures and to see how they do things -- a lot of really cool things to see and do. Everyone always thinks America is so old, but then you realize that some of the buildings that we walked in are 2,000 years older. It was crazy to think about, but it was really cool."
Irvin said it was neat to get to see places that she has always learned about, like the Colosseum, and that Rome was her favorite city that they visited. The group members liked the Leaning Tower of Pisa because they were able to take funny photos in front of it. They also did a pub crawl, which Irvin said was one of the most fun nights of the trip.
"We traveled by bus between the cities and then we walked everywhere, probably five miles a day in some places," Irvin said. "In Venice you're not allowed to have any transportation, so all we did was walk or you could go by ferry. In Florence we just walked everywhere. When we got to Rome, since it is such a big city, we did bus or tram or trolley. We mostly went by the subway. It was pretty cool. I had never been on a subway before."
Irvin had to complete assignments before the trip and while she was there to get credit for a university studies course.
"It varied between the different classes, but my university studies class had to write five papers before I left and then we had on-site assignments while we were there, which included comparing a department store in Italy to a department store in the United States, like a supermarket, what they wore, and how the restaurants were different. Then we have a final exam to do, too," Irvin said.
Irvin is a junior at Southeast, and this was her first time studying abroad. Mexico is the only other other country she had been to. She said she had always wanted to have an opportunity like this.
"I've always wanted to study abroad, so it didn't really matter where we got to go if I would've went anywhere it would have been cool, but I've always wanted to go to Italy, too," Irvin said. "The Vatican City is the number one thing on my bucket list, so it was really neat to get to check that off."
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Italy
Savanna Maue ~ Online Editor
Venice is a city rich in heritage, comprised of many separate islands connected by bridges and several only reachable by water taxi.
"The best part about Venice was getting to ride a gondola," junior Chris Dzruick said. "The ride took us through the canals of Venice and, even though he wasn't singing, our driver did tell us about the history of the buildings we saw along the way."
This was just the first stop on Dzruick's trip through Italy over winter break. Dzruick, a marketing management major, took a study abroad trip with Southeast Missouri State University's international business program from Jan. 2 through Jan. 12.
The trip included visiting three major cities as well as day trips to several others. Dzruick received international marketing credit and UI 343 Transcult Experience credit for the trip.
Dzruick and the other Southeast students with the international business program began in Venice.
They also took tours of the islands of Murano, famous for blown glass made there, and Burano, famous for its brightly colored houses.
The next city the group visited was Florence where Dzruick saw the beautiful churches that grace the city. He said there were a mix of Roman and Gothic architecture. They also saw the Ponte Vechio, a bridge that spans the river in Florence and includes many expensive jewelry shops.
Along with the stunning sights throughout Florence Dzruick also showed a great deal of excitement about the food he was able to experience, in particular, the steak.
"Florence is also famous for steak --extremely large and tender steak soaked in vinegar, mustard and tomato," Dzruick said. "I have never had a better steak in my life and will crave it until I'm there again."
The Southeast students' trip ended in Rome. Dzruick said that even though he knew about Rome's famous structures, he never really grasped the beauty until standing in them.
"The Colosseum was absolutely amazing. You can see the scars on it from years of wear, but the way it stands today is extremely impressive," Dzruick said.
"The Trevi Fountain was by far my favorite aspect of Rome," Dzruick said. "The gorgeous fountain marked the end of the Roman aqueduct. Each statue tells a story, interacting with the others in different ways. Many piazzas can be found by simply wandering -- holding fountains, churches and their own stories."
Vatican City was also part of their trip. The country is tiny, but the magnitude of religious power that came from that small space amazed Dzruick.
Walking through St. Peter's Basilica, Dzruick said he realized that he was stepping where history had been made.
The Southeast students walked to the top of St. Peter's, and Dzruick said the view was his favorite part of the entire trip.
"It really put everything into perspective," Dzruick said.
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Florida
Erin Neier ~ Editor
When most people think about Orlando, Fla., they picture Disney World or Universal Studios, but for about 60 students from Southeast Missouri State University it was the site of SEEK2013, a Catholic conference.
After the conference, the group stayed an extra half day so that they could go to Disney World, Downtown Disney or the Boardwalk at Disney, but that was not how they spent the majority of their trip.
The conference was associated with FOCUS, the Fellowship of Catholic University Students. It took place from Jan. 2-6 and hosted students from universities across the country.
"Things FOCUS does, for instance, is they have a digital campus for schools that don't have FOCUS, they have FOCUS Greek for sororities and fraternities and different sites that provide bible study information to get those started," Southeast student Samantha Doherty said.
Each morning a mass was held with the nearly 6,000 conference attendees, which Southeast student Alex Heeb said was neat because, "most cathedrals on Sunday won't even have that many people in them."
"When you have mass at a conference like that you have so many priests available. Like normally at a usual mass you'll just have the priest, maybe a deacon up front, some servers," Doherty said. "When you have a conference like that where all these priests come with their different groups, they all partake in the mass. There were probably 40 to 50 priests. They were all [in the procession], they're all there the entire thing up front, partaking in the mass."
Each day there were two breakout sessions. Students could choose to attend sessions on different topics such as prayer, theology of the body and spirituality vs. religion.
There were also speakers each day, including emcee Chris Stefanick, with whom many Southeast students were familiar.
"He came to our university last year to speak to our students on relativism, so it was really cool to have him as the emcee because he was someone that students had the opportunity to see before, and a lot of the students that went on the trip had seen him before," Doherty said. "We already knew him and had a chance to talk to him so that was kind of cool."
Other speakers were FOCUS co-founders Ted Sri and Curtis Martin and former "America's Next Top Model" contestant Leah Darrow.
"They had some of the top Catholic speakers in the country, I guess really the English-speaking world, at the conference, and they really challenged you to grow in Christ and to just be the best person that you can be and truly live out a holy and fulfilling life," Heeb said. "So it was just really cool to hear them speak, and it was pretty inspirational."
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Texas
Savanna Maue ~ Online Editor
Nick Maddock's mother was not very happy that her son couldn't be home for Christmas. But, that issue was resolved after Maddock's boss was able to fly him home from his internship in Dallas, Texas, to see his family.
Over winter break senior Nick Maddock a finance, economics and entrepreneurial management major completed an internship with PSAV, an audiovisual services company.
Maddock worked as a financial analyst while at PSAV. He said it was a fantastic experience and a desperately needed break from life in Cape Girardeau.
Maddock was given the opportunity by an alumnus of his fraternity Lambda Chi Alpha. Mark Lee, a Southeast Missouri State University alumnus and founding father of Lambda Chi Alpha offered him the position while at their fraternity's founder's day last April. Lee is the director of sales for the Dallas branch of PSAV.
"On top of that I received a well-rounded internship experience with great pay, a three-credit hour elective for my academic program, and a place to live for free," Maddock said.
One day on the job Maddock and Lee visited the Texas Rangers' stadium to plan out an event that was contracted through PSAV.
"During that visit we were able to take a tour of the stadium, which was a neat experience for me because I had never been to Dallas or the Rangers stadium before," Maddock said via email. "I made it a point not to mention that I was a Cardinals fan. Game 6 probably still holds some hard feelings."
One of the last things Maddock was able to do was attend "Ice! Merry Madagascar," which was a walkthrough of hundreds of detailed ice sculptures depicting the characters of "Madagascar" the movie. They did this by closing off a section of the Gaylord Texan hotel and chilling it down to 18 degrees, Maddock said.
Maddock had lunch with Scott Crowell, the first member of Lambda Chi Alpha at Southeast, on his last day in Texas. Maddock said he developed a lot of great insight on how to move his fraternity forward and that it was a privilege to be able to meet Crowell in person.
"Overall it was a fantastic experience and I would do it again in a heartbeat," Maddock said.
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