Professors Pen Stories Of Studying Abroad

Five Westmont professors have contributed to “Transformations at the Edge of the World: Forming Global Christians through the Study Abroad Experience,” a book released this month by Abilene Christian Press that explores what colleges and universities are doing to form globally engaged Christians through cultural immersion experiences.

Karen Andrews ’83, associate professor of urban studies, Brad Berky, professor of urban practicum, and Scott McClelland, director of the San Francisco Urban Program, have written a chapter about Westmont’s San Francisco Urban Program. Laura Montgomery, professor of anthropology, and Mary Docter, professor or modern languages, have a chapter in the book about Westmont in Mexico.

The San Francisco program began in 1971 and operates in an 1898 Victorian home opposite the Panhandle of Golden Gate Park. Although San Francisco is less than 47 square miles, McClelland says the city by the bay offers the best kind of experience students can have to enhance their Westmont education.

“The diversity of people and perspectives available in San Francisco provide an unsurpassed learning experience for students to integrate their faith and their classroom education,” he says.

Docter and Montgomery have developed and led Westmont in Mexico, a semester-long academic program in Querétaro. “Westmont in Mexico opens students’ eyes to a more authentic vision of Mexico, a more complete picture of its rich history, culture, and peoples,” Docter says.

“Transformations at the Edge of the World” is edited by Ronald J. Morgan and Cynthia Toms Smedley.