DukeEngage | Duke Center for Civic Engagement

[English translation of article below; original Spanish version is attached]

In addition to their knowledge and their interest in a cultural exchange experience, was the passion for specific activities that motivated 5 North American students from Duke University to know Medellín, leaving aside the bad image that outsiders have of the city, to share with Medellín youth what they know and like to do.

These youth are part of a cultural exchange experience called “DukeEngage” that Duke University has instituted in diverse countries worldwide, this being the first time with a program in Colombia.

“Duke Engage is a program for students to have internship experiences in distinct countries. Through these experiences the students go and live for two months doing projects with the community,” explained José Jaime Samper Escobar.

This program is run by two professors from this university:  Tamera Marko, North American who has spent some years in Medellín, and José Jaime Samper Escobar, an Antioqueñan who works in North America as a professor.  They came together to present a project that could happen in the city. Through persuasive efforts based on their knowledge and experience of the city, they had to convince the parents of the youth that in Medellín they would be safe, contrary to the preconceived notions that they have of the city. Nevetheless, although the program generally counts on the participation of seven students, in this case only five are participating.

Various projects make up this program. The first is called “Culture and Art Project,” in which the foreign students share their knowledge in certain areas with youth from the city. The other is the “Historical Memory Project” that is related to collecting memories from the community in terms of before and after the construction of the Parques Bibliotecas and the impact of them in the communities closest to them. And finally, they are doing the project “Bitácora:  Braided Histories,” through which they seek to collect material, graphics, writing, audio, and others produced by those who are part of this project and who have been involved with the experience of these youth and the professors during these eight weeks.  With this material, they plan to do an exposition and publish a book.

The Parques Bibliotecas are the stage for different workshops in different subjects that the foreigners will give with antioqueños (people from Antioquia, the state in which Medellín is the capital). Among the topics that they will teach are art, music, sports such as basketball and rock climbing, natural science, and Chinese characters. The principal goals of this program are that the students share [their lives] with members of the antioqueña community so they mutually come to know each other and eliminate stereotypes that one might have of the other.  They will have a cultural exchange through the knowledge they impart about their own culture and that of the cultural they acquire in the local context, in addition to involving themselves in diverse social, geographic, and cultural aspects of the city that permit them to be conscious of its history, diversity and culture. In this way, one of the most important aspects of the program will continue when the students have returned to their own country.

The Professors – Tamera y José Jaime

Tamera Marko:  Has a Ph.D. in History of Latin American from the University of California, San Diego (USA).  She has taught history and writing for the last 14 years in universities in the United States and Brazil, most recently as a Professor at the University of Duke in North Carolina. Her historical publications and community work specializes in childhood has social and economic power and the reproduction of power as a fundamental part of Nation building. She worked as a journalist for 5 years.

José Jaime Samper: Has worked as an architect and artist for more than 10 years. He is also a professor of architecture and urban design for the last 3 years. He was born and raised in Medellín. He studied Architecture at the Universidad Nacional de Medellín. Since then he has worked on art and architectural projects in five countries: Colombia, Panamá, the United States, Mexico and France.  His work has won more than 5 international awards. Recently he was awarded a grant for two years in the program of Urban Planning at MIT in Boston. 

To read the article in its original Spanish version, download the PDF below:

uploads/assets/DukeEngageColombiaNewsCoverage.pdf
 

El Colombiano 
Medellín, Tuesday July 8, 2008
Education 5b

Photo Caption:  The five students from the United States have been in Medellín since June 10 adapting to the city. Each one lives with a different [Colombian] family and attends classes in local culture and parlache [a slang spoken  by youth where they are teaching at the Parques Bibliotecas] and other themes. This program, called DukeEngage, came to Medellín thanks to Duke University and Comfama. Photo:  Art class taught by Rachel McGowen. 

Classes With Five Teachers Who Love Spanish
Students from the U.S. are in Medellín and are sharing their knowledge at the  Parque Bibliotecas, through free classes in rock climbing, basketball, art, music and others.
 
By Alejandor Gómez Valencia
Medellín
 
How many states does the United States have?  The teacher Rachel McGowen loves to speak in Spanish and with the questions from the children from Santo Domingo Savio she will have plenty of opportunities to practice it.

At 20 years old, she is one of the five students from Duke University in the United States, who came to Medellín to become a teacher for two months.

The rest of the group is comprised of George Zachary Perret, Gavin Best, Jessica Shuen and Garret Raczek. The classes began last week and now the visitors to the Parques Biblioteca receive lessons in alpinismo, basketball, art, music, Chinese characters, and science experiments.

Jota Samper and Tamera Marko, professors in North America and directors of the project, said that their objective [with this project] is to have a cultural exchange through daily activities, and through these exchanges dismantle stereotypes.

Tamera emphasized that the themes of the classes were selected by the U.S. students themselves, but she also mentioned that what is most important is that the people with whom they interact in the United States recognize that Colombia is more than just a jungle or what appears on the news.  In terms of the children [whom the Duke students are teaching], according to Jota Samper, the idea is that they have a more authentic image of the foreigners and of their country.

Juan David Maldonado, 13, really warmed to this theme. He was the most curious student that teacher Rachel had in her art class in the Parque Biblioteca España. Juan David, who says he is “really bad at speaking English,” spoke favorably of the good Spanish of the teacher.

Rachel decided to get involved in the program because, in addition to the language, she loves the cultural and educational philosophy of the Parques Biblioteca.

The motivation for Jessica Shuen, 20 years old and a student of Biology, was her desire to teach science through simple experiments.

In addition to be enchanted with Medellín, Jessica is moved by the interest of her students to know more about the culture of her parents in her lessons about Chinese characters.

There is still time to sign up and although Evelyn Londoño did not know about the first art class yesterday, she signed up to go tomorrow.

Registration:  38575 31-385 75 30.
Give an opinion about this theme:
ramirove@elcolombiano.com.co 

Download a PDF of the original Spanish version of the article here