By Katherine Wisen

Staff Writer

 

 

B

ethany Parsell

and

Erin Jewell

held their breath

as they anxiously

stared at the computer

screen.

For the first time in a

month, the two women were

going to see their families,

and neither were prepared

for the emotions the online

reunion was about to bring.

“When we saw our parents on

the screen, we both lost it,” Jewell

said. “Studying abroad was something

I always wanted to do, but

when I left I didn’t think it would

that hard to be away from home.”

Parsell said homesickness

snuck up on her as well.

“The first couple of weeks,

you’re still super excited… but

three or four weeks in, you hit

this pit where you just want

to go home – you’re tired and

you’re overwhelmed and you

miss people like crazy,” the

Cornerstone junior said. “It was

hard. It was really, really hard.”

But even though homesickness

proved to be a lingering

companion throughout the

semester,

Jewell spoke for both women

when she said the semester

in Sighisoara, Romania

was “very, very worth it.”

Last fall, the two women traveled

with 12 students from across America

to work with Veritas, a Christian

organization that provides services

to children, teenagers, the elderly

and the disabled in and around

the town of Sighisoara. Their week

was spent developing relationships

with the locals, attending classes

at the Veritas building, hiking

through the Romanian hillside

and working at their internships.

Jewell, who graduated last

December, was given a multi-faceted

internship; her responsibilities

included conducting a community

assessment of the needs of children

in Sighisoara, teaching teens about

domestic violence protection and

developing an English-enrichment

program for children who had

attended an English summer camp.

Overall, Jewell said the internship

was incredibly beneficial

because it was so “hands-on”.

“When you study abroad,

there’s a whole new set of responsibilities

that are put on your shoulders

because you’re working with

people who don’t know you and

don’t know what you know,” she

said. “I think I did twice as much as

I would have done if I had worked

at an agency in Grand Rapids.”

Unlike Jewell, Parsell said

she had never planned on

fulfilling her internship requirement

abroad. But when Gerald

Longjohn, dean of community

life, recommended the trip to the

Bible and intercultural studies

double major, she was hooked.

“I knew almost instantly that

that was what I was going to do

because I wanted something that

would challenge me,” she said.

Parsell spent her internship

running a program for

15-20 children in a village

called Zagar, which was about

one hour outside of Sighisoara.

Although she was taking

Romanian language classes, she

said cultural differences made

it hard to know if she was able

to communicate effectively.

“It was difficult to give them

examples set in their culture when

their culture was something I

didn’t really understand,” she said.

“I had to trust that [God] would use

me with whatever I had to give.”

Although Parsell said she

was disappointed with her

internship’s low level of difficulty,

she said she learned the

most from interacting with

Jewell and Romanian culture.

Both women said one aspect

of Romanian culture challenged

them ethically. During their

15-minute walk to class, Parsell

and Jewell encountered numerous

beggars –many of whom were

children whose parents had placed

on the street to raise money while

they watched from a distance.

“Bethany and I had a really hard

time deciding what to do because

giving the money to children beggars

was rewarding their mothers

for exploiting them,” Jewell said.

Parsell said interactions

with the beggars

often left her frustrated.

“I didn’t know if giving

them would support their

habit but, then, if you do nothing,

how is that Jesus?” she

said. “It was a very raw form

of obvious human need and

I didn’t know how to help.”

Parsell said she was surprised

by the older Romanians’

view of education.

“There’s not a lot of encouragement

toward something

better,” Parsell said. “A lot of

parents think, ‘If the family business

was good enough for me,

it’s good enough for my kid.”

Overall, Jewell said her semester

abroad enhanced her education

so greatly that she hopes an

international experience will one

day be required at Cornerstone.

“If CU wants to have worldview

as one of their pillars, then

people need to be going out

into the world and getting that

experience,” Jewell said. “We’re

called to go out into the world.”

Parsell agreed, saying that

learning about cultures from

one’s computer wasn’t enough.

“You can’t stay confined in

your little bubble with everything

you’ve always known,” she said.