October 19, 2005
Next Student Study Trip Planned for
July
Globalization of the Pacific Rim countries is affecting Vietnam
30 years after the end of the Vietnam War, with the country
reporting an annual growth rate of 8.9 percent, Associate Professor
of History
Robert R. Tomes, St. John’s College of Professional Studies,
told his audience at the recent Vincentian Chair of Social
Justice-sponsored lecture on campus. As Professor Tomes--
Vincentian Center Fellow--showed slides from the trip he took there
with 12 St. John’s University students last spring, he shared the
insights the group gained from their two-and-a-half week experience
traveling through the country.
The undergraduates who traveled there were enrolled in the
Professor’s History 1018A course on the Vietnam War. The trip is
also planned for next July. “It’ll be the fourth year in a row that
students travel to Vietnam as part of their coursework,” says
Professor Tomes. Assistant Dean Hung Le, Graduate Division of Arts
and Sciences, Rev. James J. Maher, Campus Ministry, and Rosanna
Sanders, associate director of the Study Abroad and International
Programs office, also accompanied the students. Born in Vietnam,
Dean Le is also the Director of the Vietnam Initiative, which
encourages St. John’s students to study in
Vietnam, and Vietnamese students to study in the United States.
Currently, there are 21 students from Vietnam on St. John’s
campus.
Modernization exists in Vietnam, says Professor Tomes, and although
the population of 80 million people is growing quickly, life
expectancy is still only 60 to 65 years. Half of the population is
under 25 years of age. “Factories exist next to rice patties,” he
says. “We don’t know what growth will mean to the health of the
people or their environment.”
“With 54 different ethnic groups, and the prevalence of both
Buddhism and Catholicism, ethnic and linguistic divisions exist,”
he says. “People are friendly and love Americans. Many people,
especially young people, speak English, as it has supplanted French
as the major foreign language taught in schools.”
“The U.S. has become the top investor in Vietnam,” says
Professor Tomes, with Germany, China and Japan close behind.
Students commented that southern Vietnam appeared to be more
westernized than the northern part, noting that more people spoke
English in the South than in the North. “The country has changed a
lot since the communist government starting allowing foreign
investment in 1988. It remains to be seen whether market capitalism
will bring democratic reforms.”
The students visited Nike factory headquarters, toured the
underground tunnels of Cu Chi, and did community service work in a
Hanoi orphanage, and, in Ho Chi Minh City, under the auspices of
the Daughters of Charity, at a school for “street” children, at a
nursing home and at an HIV/AIDS Clinic. They toured Hanoi in the
North and Ho Chi Minh City in the South, and took study trips to Da
Nang and the Me Kong River Delta.
Professor Tomes is the author of the highly-regarded book on
Vietnam, Apocalypse Then: American Intellectuals and the
Vietnam War (1954-1975), and co-author of an American history
textbook now in its fifth edition,
American Issues.
St. John’s Men’s Soccer Team will be traveling to Vietnam in
late Spring play matches and perform community service work, also
under the auspices of the Daughters of Charity. “This is the first
time an American soccer team will play officially in Vietnam,” says
Dean Le. (A delegation from Vietnam’s Sports Ministry recently
visited St. John’s, and in January Dean Le and Rev. Maher will sign
a formal agreement in Vietnam.)
Applications for the History Department’s study trip to Vietnam
will be accepted starting in November in a rolling admissions
process. Qualified individuals will be admitted as long as space is
available. The Vietnam trip costs from $2,600 to $2,800, depending
on the number of students who go. “When more students sign up,
we’re able to get better discounts on air fares and hotel room,
which keeps the cost of the trips down,” says Rosanna Sanders of
the Study Abroad office. Tuition for the course is additional;
students may take three or six credits and should contact the
Bursar’s office for tuition rates.
Students will be able to choose from eight or nine courses
involving travel abroad next summer, says Sanders. They’ll need to
get their applications in by the start of second semester.