English Professor to take multicultural expertise on rotary mission to
Brazil next spring
Jeff Birkenstein, Ph.D., selected as one of four from the Northwest
October 24, 2006
Lacey, Washington – Saint Martin’s University
Assistant Professor of English, Jeff Birkenstein, Ph.D., is one of five
young professionals selected to participate in Rotary International’s
Group Study Exchange (GSE) from the Northwest to Brazil, slated for late
spring 2007. The GSE program offers a unique educational, cultural and
vocational exchange experience and provides travel grants to
participants. Rotary International is a worldwide organization of
business and professional leaders that focuses on humanitarian service
throughout the world.
The Northwest GSE team, comprised of men and women
between the ages of 25 and 40, will spend four weeks in Brazil where
they will study local culture and institutions and observe their
respective vocations as practiced there. The GSE program’s primary
objective is to further international understanding, goodwill and peace.
Prior to departure the team will spend time together planning, preparing
and studying Portuguese. Team members competed for selection by
submitting an application with essay to the local Rotary GSE Committee
for evaluation and then traveled to Victoria, Canada for a round of
interviews.
Birkenstein, who is conversational in Spanish, is
looking forward to visiting Brazil. During the trip he hopes to make
contacts that will enable Saint Martin’s to add Brazil to its growing
list of overseas exchange programs. Birkenstein adds that “the whole
world is always in my classroom, because my students will both affect
and be affected by it. So that phrase about “just wait until you join
the real world….” Well, through discussion and interaction in the
classroom, I try and bring that real world to my students now. This
unique travel opportunity will further my ability to do so.” Birkenstein
teaches African American literature, the short story, ESL, composition
and American literature classes at Saint Martin’s.
The GSE program aims to enrich participants’ lives
and spread Rotary's vision of peace and world understanding. The program
hopes to foster international understanding through person-to-person
contact, friendship, study, service, and cross-cultural exchange.
Foundation program participants serve as goodwill ambassadors not just
when they’re abroad, but also when they return to their home countries
as alumni. Saint Martin’s University prepares students for successful
lives through its 22 majors and six graduate programs spanning the
liberal arts, business, education and engineering. A Catholic,
Benedictine university, Saint Martin’s welcomes 1,100 students from many
ethnic and religious backgrounds to its Lacey, Washington main campus,
and 600 more to three extension campuses.
For additional information:
Anne Kirske
Interim communication director
Saint Martin’s University
360.486.8857
akirske@stmartin.edu
For information on future GSE missions contact:
Larry Poplack
Olympia Rotarian
360.754.7077
poplack@comcast.net