This new initiative offers York students an exciting cultural
and academic experience in the USA. The students will first of all spend three
days exploring the sights of New York, the city that never sleeps! The theme
for this part of the visit is American History. Students will undertake a wide
variety of activities including a visit to The
Tenement Museum in order to better
understand the experiences of early immigrants to the USA, a visit to the
moving 9/11 Memorial and a
harbour cruise taking in the spectacular sights of the Statue of Liberty and
Ellis Island.
They will then travel on to Mount Holyoke College in
Massachusetts to undertake an intensive academic course in Leadership and
Social Action. The course will divide the students into four groups, each group
will concentrate on a specific topic and students will be assigned to a group
according to their own particular interests. The topics are diverse, covering
areas such as using the arts for youth engagement and community activism.
Students will complete group projects and undertake field visits in order to
meet practitioners putting the theory into practice. At the end of their course
students will present their work and mark the 4th of July
celebrations with a BBQ and a baseball game! Somewhere in all this we will also
find time to visit the historic city of Boston!
The overarching aim of the ISC is to offer students an
international experience in order to improve their employability, leadership and advocacy skills. The university
is committed to offering as many students as possible an international
experience, highly valued by employers in today’s globalised and ever
increasingly competitive job market. The overwhelming response from students
has clearly demonstrated the need for a new initiative such as the ISC and we
wish the participating students a highly enjoyable and worthwhile
experience!