EC EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN SUMMER PROGRAMS: Back to Crete

Thursday, June 27, 2019

Back to Crete

After 10 days of intense traveling it is time for our final departure to Crete. These past 10 days have been intense, beautiful, exhausting and full of once in a life time experiences. The days have been long but went by so fast, feeling more like months than weeks. Learning about the history of every country we visited and taking the information we learned in class to real life has made it a lot easier to understand the world around us. Waking up the last few days and walking out the front door, being surrounded by boarders and actually being able to cross the border was something I never would’ve imagined doing. Being able to experience and hear the stories of the people living in Nicosia was inspiring. Hearing how they have been working on emerging the two communities and taking both cultures to educate both communities was very meaningful to me. Everything that happens in the world, whether it’s from your neighboring state or a country around the world, it affects you and I’ve been able to experience that first hand. Spending the last few days in Nicosia was a good way to end the 10 days of traveling. Now it’s time to go back to Crete and enjoy the last few days we have with each other.

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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.