EC EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN SUMMER PROGRAMS

Friday, July 15, 2016

June 18, 2016

Today, the rest of the students arrived to the institute and it finally struck me that I don't know most of the people on this trip. There are 16 people on this trip with 16 different personalities and we are supposed to stay with each other for a whole month. I don't believe that it will cause problems, but it does make me excited to see what the month brings. So far, the villagers have been nothing but kind and welcoming and all of the students seem excited to embark on this adventure. I am slightly nervous about the food, but beyond that I am also excited for everything that is coming and I hope to make friendships that last with people from the village. I also hope to gain some form of understanding of what it is like to like in Greece and how everyone is managing and evolving in response to the economic crisis that took place last year and that still lingers today.

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EC Eastern Security Studies Program

In the summer of 2011, as the "Arab Spring" was unfolding and the "Eurozone Crisis" was entering its second year, the Emmanuel College Eastern Mediterranean Security Studies Program was established in Crete, as a way to make the location the classroom. Beyond the grand theoretical, historical and political understanding that can be achieved through reading and classroom discussion and exchange, a more immediate, intimate and truer appreciation of the complexities can only achieved by experiencing the cultures, languages of personal interaction.

Since 2012 students have been able to combine an intensive curricular study, with the experience of immersion and living in a local setting. The geopolitical and geoeconomic forces that have acted in the region for centuries, can be identified in the classroom, but they can only be understood by being there. This year's EC EMSS Program will add a fourth week of study, experience and exploration and will also travel to the islands of Rhodes, and Cyprus. In Rhodes we will be partnering with the Prefecture of Southern Aegean and the Aegean University, while in Cyprus we will be hosted by the University of Nicosia.