#oberlinwt

Only two weeks into Winter and Obies are fully immersed in Winter Term projects around the world!

Bonner Scholars visiting the Gaia School in Hong Kong.

Photo Credit: Mark McGinley, from Facebook

Ashby Business Scholars in Cleveland

The purpose of winter term is to enable students to pursue academic interests outside of Oberlin's regular course offerings. During the month of January, students complete individual or group projects of their choice, either on or off campus. Projects may be proposed by faculty, students, and occasionally by members of the administrative and professional staff and alumni.

For the student, winter term is an opportunity to spend full time on one intensive project or, alternatively, on two half-time projects. During winter term, a student might:

Pursue a subject related to a first-semester course

Work with a particular faculty member

Study a musical instrument

Take an intensive foreign language course

Explore a potential career field through an internship

Volunteer with a community group

Participate in a theatrical or musical production

Explore a field of inquiry that is new to the student

Pursue a hobby or physical skill

Below are a couple videos of students participating in the Yarn to Garment and Papermaking Winter Term classes on campus.

Every year in January, Oberlin pauses. While most Obies leave to pursue projects, about 1/3 of our students stay on campus for Winter Term, exploring their interests in a variety of ways! Follow along for one day.

Today we started the day quite early. For the next two days we will be visiting The Hague and Rotterdam so we packed up an overnight bag and departed by around 8:15. 

The first stop once we arrived in The Hague was The Humanity House, an interesting interactive experience where one goes on a “journey” as if one is a refugee. Starting with getting photographed and receiving your “papers,” one then went through the place, where many photographs and videos were displayed and got to hear stories of refugees as well as go through a little mini interview.

 After going through and reaching the other side, I had many mixed feelings about the experience. On the one hand, the interactive elements made things more real and forced me to stop and think about just how scary and difficult this process can be to seek refuge in a foreign country. On the other hand, it was hard not to also feel that this seemed to almost trivialize the whole experience. Of course, this exhibit is tailored for a wide-ranging audience, including children, so obviously the types of information, displays etc. must be adjusted accordingly so its hard to judge it too harshly but I definitely left with some mixed feelings (and am certainly planning on going to seek out more information when I have a few free moments). 

We then walked through the city to a nice place where we had lunch. SO many options! 

The food was all made fresh and there were salads and fresh fruit and pastries, and smoothies…you name it! I ended up getting this fresh grilled tuna flatbread with pickled onions, cucumbers, lettuce and some kind of mayo sauce, and a yummy mango pastry.

After lunch, we went to see the Peace Palace (didn’t actually get to go inside. It’s only open to visitors once a month unfortunately). Sometimes called the “seat of international law,” this is where the International Court of Justice and Permanent Court of Arbitration are housed. Although we were not able to go into the actual peace palace, there was a nice information center that had a pretty fancy schmancy audio guided tour (I’m talking laser pointers and everything—see photo), and we at least got to snap a few pics from in front of the palace. 

We also stopped and got to see the World Peace Flame, which is a beautiful installation that marks the moment in history back in April 2004 where every single country in the world came together and signed a Statement for Peace.

Surrounding this “eternal” flame, there is a stone garden where each country contributed one stone to be placed there. Quite a powerful symbol and for a second, my mind imagined what it would mean if we all came together and actually worked towards a world free from violence and one in which everyone knows peace. 

Then onwards to ROTTERDAM!! When we arrived it was clear pretty quickly that this was quite a contrast to the old, quaint city of Amsterdam. We were immediately met with gleaming, modern architecture and tall skyscrapers. 

Much of this city was forced to rebuild after the bombings by the Germans in WWII and they came back with some very unique architecture. We are staying in these crazy awesome Cube Houses. They are so cool looking and no one room is the same as the other. 

After checking in, we had a few hours before dark so I went right back out to try and explore while there was still light. I generally am not a fan of most modern architecture I see these days, but the architecture in Rotterdam is something special. Each building has character, and I found myself really enjoying every new crazy building I came across. One of the coolest (well, besides the cube houses we are staying in), is this giant indoor market place that is housed in their giant dome-like building that is painted with the coolest picture. Absolutely stunning!

After dinner at the hostel, I went back out to explore a bit more before returning back and am now getting ready to get some zzzZZZ’s. I’m excited for what tomorrow will bring. I hope all of you back in the USA are staying warm and cozy! Ok Goodnight from Rotterdam!!

We started out the day with another yummy breakfast at the hostel before heading back by tram to “the office” (aka SIT) for a morning debrief of yesterday. After going over the events of yesterday while sipping on tea and coffee, we transitioned into a presentation by Tobias on Dutch approaches to HIV/AIDS. We learned how the Netherlands confronted and dealt with the AIDS crises in their country and got to compare and contrast this with the way the USA reacted.  In the Netherlands, organizations and campaigns came together to help research drugs to help combat this disease, educate the public and, most importantly, the issue was treated as a public heath issue rather than a moral hazard.

After breaking for lunch, we walked through Amsterdam on our way to the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. We got to see some new parts of the city as well as walk over the iconic Magere (“Skinny”) Bridge. 

Upon our arrival, the first thing we saw was one of the AHF’s Mobile HIV testing trucks painted in bright orange. As we learned later on, this mobile testing truck goes around to festivals and other events where high risk groups of the population are and offers free HIV testing.

Its an interesting system when it comes to HIV testing in the Netherlands. If you are part of the four identified high-risk groups (men who have sex with men, intravenous drug users, sex workers and “youngsters” under the age of 25), you can get the proper testing for free and completely confidentially but everyone else must not only pay but they cannot take the test anonymously.

At the AHF, we were met by a lovely woman and gentleman (totally forgetting their names!) who explained a little bit about what the Foundation does as well as show us how the rapid HIV test is administered. In just over a minute you can know your HIV status with 99.6% accuracy. I had never realized how quick and straightforward it was.

For the next couple of hours we helped create little packets of condoms, lube, and information about the center that would be handed out, as well as separate condoms into their individual packets. So many condoms! Literally hundreds and hundreds of them.

At around 4:00 we wrapped up our work, learned a few dutch words and phrases and then departed. The rest of the evening was ours to do as we wanted to. A few of us went to the Rembrandt museum (his house) and then had dinner at a nice, small Italian place. 

After stuffing our face with lasagna, we walked around the section of Amsterdam we were in, got some amazing frozen yoghurt with so many new and interesting toppings that you don’t find back in the USA, and then parted ways. 

I stayed in Amsterdam for a little while longer just walking around and taking everything in. I had some time to just relax and reflect, and also just explore more of the city before I finally headed back to the hostel and eventually to bed (well, that is after I post this).

The Black heritage of Amsterdam unit we discovered on Tuesday was nothing short of intriguing. We began our day with a lecture from Nancy Jouwe from SIT where we went through the complete colonial history of the Netherlands to see what is often left out in the historical narrative and usually goes underrepresented or untold completely.

Our boat and walking tour led by Ms. Jennifer Tosch was another way that I was able to reflect on how big of a role race has played in the formation of Amsterdam. She pointed out many examples of Moors heads being used as symbols of power and money and the ways in which Black presence was usually used to serve the same purpose in art.

In my experiences here in Amsterdam so far I have been feeling what it’s like to be Black a woman and American in the Netherlands, and I have seen that these issues surrounding race do not go away even with the implementation of progressive policies such as those here.