August, 2008| volume 7, number 1 Director’s Letter
The spring of 2008 was an especially memorable time for BOSP We celebrated . our 50th Anniversary on May 2-3 with a beautiful dinner for our Council and donors and a day-long conference and reception for our many loyal alums from all over the country (and world). It was Stanford at its best—with faculty, students, administrators, alums, staff, and friends all contributing to an intellectually exciting and personally meaningful program. We owe profound thanks to the Stanford Alumni Association and the Development Office for their hard work in arranging a flawlessly organized conference for the 600 participants. There were too many highlights of the program to name them all. My personal favorites were the plenary session with distinguished Stanford experts on international affairs (Bill Perry, Chip Blacker, John Taylor, Mike McFaul), skillfully moderated by Gerhard Casper, and the afternoon panel of Overseas Studies directors, including directors-emeritus from Florence (Giuseppe Mammarella) and Santiago (Edmundo Fuenzalida). We were immensely gratified to receive an anniversary gift of $20 million dollars from Peter and Helen Bing. In late May, we had a delightful inauguration ceremony in Madrid for the new Stanford program in Spain. Among the attendees was Aron Rodrigue, Chair of the History Department, who gave a brilliant speech (in Spanish!) about the importance of Spain and Spanish culture to the world. Also attending was Elizabeth Bernhardt, Director of Stanford’s Language Center, who has been instrumental in upgrading our language teaching around the world. In fact, our new director in Madrid, Santiago Tejerina-Canal, has instituted an “allSpanish” pledge for our students, which sees them speaking Spanish all the time, where they live—with their host families—and in their classes and with each other at the Stanford center. Meanwhile, the students have learned to engage the intriguing multi-religious and multi-ethnic culture that constitutes contemporary (and historical) Spain. I also traveled to South Africa in May to work on arrangements for an Africa program in Cape Town. Tim Stanton, former director of Stanford’s Haas Center for Public Service, has been leading a series of service-learning programs for us in Cape Town and the townships in its vicinity. The students get an enormous sense of satisfaction learning about and working with South African NGOs. We have run five seminars so far in the country, two of them quarter-long, so we feel sufficiently experienced and confident of student interest to upgrade our involvement in Africa. There is also widespread enthusiasm for a Cape Town program on campus: from African Studies and Afro-American Studies to Human Biology, History, Engineering, Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, International Relations and the Medical School. Though the curriculum is not fully in place, we intend to focus on servicelearning in the Cape Town program. We have moved out of Sweet Hall temporarily to quarters in Terman, formerly the lair of the School of Engineering. When we move back into the newly renovated ground floor of Sweet Hall in the early fall, we expect to assume responsibility for the Overseas Resource Center, presently housed at Bechtel International Center. This means we will try to provide students with informed counseling about studying abroad in other programs outside of our own. We would like to provide “one-stop shopping” for our students to find programs relevant to their academic ambitions and needs. BOSP has accepted the serious challenge of being able to guide our undergraduates to the best places to study Arabic, enroll in a Brazilian university, or find a strong academic program in Vietnam. We will need to vet thousands of existing programs and explore possibilities at Stanford for students to get credit and funding for their studies. This is a big job that will require more staffing and funding than we now have. But, if we want to make the entire world of Overseas Studies open to Stanford students, then we need to begin the process. It goes without saying that nothing we do would be possible without a superb staff, both here on campus and at our ten centers abroad. Their professionalism and commitment to our students have made the programs of BOSP the envy of universities around the country. Thanks again to them, to the Bings, to you—our readers and supporters—and to the entire Stanford community for making Overseas Studies so central to our students’ education.
The Bing Cultural Fund: Broadening Students’ Experiences Overseas
Kelsey Mesher, Cultural and Social Anthropology, ’09, studied at Stanford in Florence last fall and winter quarters. Here she tells us of her and others’ appreciation for the benefits of the Bing Cultural Fund.
The day we visit the tiny hilltop town of Sant’Ana is unusually windy. We board the small buses alongside the Arno in Florence--shivering from the cold, anxious about the long and emotionally heavy trip. For two hours we wind through the Tuscan countryside and eventually up a hidden mountain road. On one bus I sit with my human-rights class and our special visiting guest, Helen Bing, preparing with our professor for our visit to the WWII massacre site. Four days later we are dressed to the nines, sitting in the most famous opera house in the world. We are like restless kids in our fancy box seats, waiting for the lights of Milan’s La Scala to dim. We watch Cyrano de Bergerac with wide eyes, laughing and reading along with subtitles in English and Italian. After the curtains close we are quickly escorted to a small room, tucked away from the crowds. The esteemed tenor, Placido Domingo, emerges from his dressing room to greet us. We give him a Stanford t-shirt. The Bing Cultural Fund was created with events like these in mind—experiences that would be culturally enriching, personally fulfilling, and academically stimulating. It is widely agreed upon by students from all programs abroad that the Bing events are among their most memorable experiences. There are three main types of events sponsored by Helen and Peter Bing each quarter at each center—a cultural event within the city like an opera or play, an academic “field trip” to a city or in some cases a different country, and of course, an authentic meal that presents the cuisine of the country. Students mark their calendars in anticipation of the notorious “Bing Dinner.” Girls make trips to Zara to buy new dresses; boys pull out dress shirts—sometimes even full suits—packed carefully into their suitcases for this one special night. “I really liked the meals,” remembered Paul Ricketts ’09, who spent two quarters in Paris. “I feel like food adds to your cultural appreciation of a place in the most memorable way—and there’s no way I could have afforded all of that fancy French food myself.” For others, the “event” was the most memorable. “My favorite was seeing Macbeth,” explained Oxford alum Mark Kogan ’09, noting that Patrick Stewart played the lead. “I love Shakespeare and the chance to see members of the Royal Shakespeare Society perform was a unique opportunity.” Events, trips, and meals vary greatly from program to program. BOSP alumni all remember exactly where they went and what they did. The locations and experiences are impressive: Corsica, Edinburgh, a private showing of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel
Kelsey Mesher and Helen Bing before attending the opera at La Scala
in Rome, Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last Supper in Milan. “I can say with absolute certainty that I would never have been able to eat inside the opera house, or pick a play like the one we saw without the help of the Bings,” said Haley Minnick ’09, of her experiences at Stanford in Australia. “Their gifts allow students like me—who have never traveled around the world and couldn’t conceive of such a fancy, wonderful night—the chance at an unforgettable experience.”
Norman Naimark The Burke Family Director of the Bing Overseas Studies Program
50Anniversary
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BOSP Announces New Director in Kyoto
Andrew Horvat has been named to succeed Terry MacDougall, who is retiring, as Director of the Stanford Center for Technology and Innovation (SCTI) in Kyoto, Japan. Dr. Horvat’s career has been largely in journalism and non-profit administration. He completed his undergraduate and graduate work at the University of British Columbia and has published academically and been a Fellow at several universities including the Center for East Asian Studies here at Stanford. He brings significant experience in internship placement for the Henry Luce Exchange Program, administered through the Asia Foundation, and has authored a well received volume, Japanese Beyond Words, for students of Japanese.
Visit our website at http://bosp.stanford.edu
BOSP Center Locations
Stanford Program in Australia
Centre for Marine Science University of Queensland St. Lucia, QLD 4072 AUSTRALIA Phone (61) (7) 3365-8857 Fax (61) (7) 3365-4755
Stanford Program in Beijing
Room 309, Shaoyuan Building 7 Peking University Beijing 100871 PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA Phone (86) (10) 6275-7311 Fax (86) (10) 6275-7313
Stanford Program in Berlin
Pacelliallee 18-20 14195 Berlin GERMANY Phone (49) (30) 834-09-6330 Fax (49) (30) 834-09-6340
The Breyer Center for Overseas Studies in Florence
Piazza Santa Maria Sopr’Arno, 1 50125 Firenze ITALY Phone (39) (055) 248-0951 Fax (39) (055) 248-0338
Stanford Program in Kyoto
Doshisha University, 2F Meitokukan Karasuma Higashi-iru, Imadegawa-dori Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto 602-8580 JAPAN Phone (81) (75) 251-4725 Fax (81) (75) 251-4727
Stanford Program in Madrid
Instituto Internacional Miguel Ángel, 8 28010 Madrid SPAIN Phone (34) (91) 308-16-75 Fax (34) (91) 310-09-64
Stanford Program in Moscow
Academy of the National Economy Office 518 (Hotel Building) Prospekt Vernadskogo 82 119571 Moscow RUSSIAN FEDERATION Phone (7) (095) 436-5384 Fax (7) (095) 436-5384
The Thomas & Janet Montag Center for Overseas Studies in Oxford
65 High Street Oxford, England OX1 4EL UNITED KINGDOM Phone (44) (0) 1865-251193 Fax (44) (0) 1865-728782
Stanford Program in Paris
Institut Supérieur d’Électronique de Paris (ISEP) 28, rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs 75006 Paris FRANCE Phone (33) (1) 49-54-65-72 Fax (33) (1) 45-49-00-76
Stanford Center in Santiago
Hernando de Aguirre 162, Of. 202 Providencia, Santiago 751-0026 CHILE Phone (56) (2) 335-6661 Fax: (56) (2) 335-5534
Celebrating Fifty Years of Stanford Overseas
Bob Hamrdla, ’59, and member of Group II at Stanford in Beutelsbach, is Editor of Abroad and writes of the on-campus celebration on May 3, 2008.
On Saturday, May 3, some 600 alums gathered on campus to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of Stanford Overseas Campuses, now the Bing Overseas Studies Program (BOSP). The first group left San Francisco Airport by propeller airplane on June 16, 1958, and inaugurated one of the most storied innovations in undergraduate education that Stanford has ever seen. In these fifty years, some 23,000 students (and almost five hundred faculty) have taken part in what many call the highlight of their undergraduate years. In addition to a full schedule of intellectual activity with an international theme, participants enjoyed a lunch with others who studied in the same country and a reception at the end of the day. But the many conversations were underscored by revisiting experiences overseas and getting reacquainted with classmates,
of whom a few had not seen each other for fifty years. Repeatedly, we all heard how study overseas changed lives, redirected previously planned careers, brought marriages, and otherwise substantially affected alums. Virtually everyone exclaimed appreciation for the opportunity to study overseas and appreciation for that one-time, irreplaceable experience. Even those who had returned only weeks before from their own study overseas somehow understood
the import of what they had just left behind: a quintessentially life-shaping, profound time. During the course of the weekend Peter and Helen Bing announced an additional gift of twenty million dollars to BOSP This . virtual guarantee that Stanford overseas will remain an option for future students is a telling testament to the ways in which study overseas has touched the lives of so many.
First Group in Italy: An Entrancing and Life-Changing Experience
Linda Player DeSimone (A.B. History, ’61; A.M. Education ’62)) spent Fall and Winter Quarters of 1960-61 in Florence and shares her thoughtful recollections about what she saw, and, more importantly, learned.
Looking back on my great good fortune in being part of “Gruppo Uno” at Florence in the fall of 1960, I can only recall that I applied because of a romantic idea of sunny Italy that I had picked up as a child from a very old Bozo the Clown picture book and record set describing countries of the world. While the fall and winter quarters in Florence were generally not sunny, my experience in Italy was definitely entrancing and life-changing. the building. We took the train to Rome the first available weekend and inexplicably (as we certainly did not consider ourselves at all glamorous) found ourselves followed by persistent young men everywhere we went. We survived the bedbugs in our room in Paris and the gropings of strange men on our legs as we tried to catch a nap on the train from Spain. Plus, Bonnie taught me to play bridge, a great diversion on our field trip train rides and a source of enjoyment ever since. I treasure this special friendship, forged in this impressionable place and time, which has endured to the present. Seville while Bill Reppy pranced about singing and dancing the opera. The opportunities for travel beyond Florence provided even more eye-opening experiences—the wonderful mosaics of Ravenna, the canals of Venice, the field trips to Vienna and Sicily and the opportunities for free travel beyond, in particular a trip to Tunisia by six of us to experience a non-European culture. It was there that Olivia and I (blond and redhead) learned after the fact that we probably had narrowly averted being abducted by a friendly local who had gained our trust and gradually separated us from the other four (dark-haired or male or both) for a “special night out” to the theater that went awry. After that, the attempt of a man in Naples to “buy” me from one of the guys in our group seemed only slightly scary. Clearly, my sense of what the world is like was greatly enlarged by my experiences abroad, and my sense of being invulnerable and safe everywhere because of my American passport was diminished. I don’t think there is any way to quantify how greatly my Stanford-in-Italy (and beyond) experience all those years ago has affected my life since. Certainly it has made me deeply aware and concerned about events and trends worldwide, which unfortunately often lead to feelings of distress and sadness. It has made me even more grateful for the privileges and advantages I enjoy thanks to birth as an American and as a Stanford graduate. Perhaps predictably, it has given me the desire to continue to travel, not so much as a tourist but to learn and understand the people and places I visit. As a result, most of my travel is either self-directed and oriented toward action and involvement rather than simply viewing. Maybe less predictably, it was at least a subconscious factor in my marrying a man with Italian heritage, and since we have recently learned that it may be possible for him quickly and easily to acquire Italian citizenship (and me, too), it may be that Stanford-in-Italy 1960 could eventually lead to residence and citizenship in Italy 2010. Now THAT would be a great 50th anniversary!
An Engineering Major at Stanford in Italy?
Jim Eckles, BS ’62, MS ’64, and PhD ’66 (all in Engineering) and a member of the first group in Florence (September, 1960-March, 1961) answers a question that was central to many students then—and is most certainly now.
Sometimes you have to be careful what you wish for. In the fall of 1960 I found myself heading out to New York to board a ship for the trip to Europe with seventynine other Stanford students who like me had no idea what to expect. Over the next two quarters that question would return on more than one occasion. The beginning was a continuation of summer vacation. In addition to the Stanford students the Ascania was transporting mostly European college students returning home after studying in the United States. They spoke English, and that led to new friendships and a very interesting introduction to European life. There was some time in Paris and then the train ride down to our campus in Florence where the academics were to begin. After all we were getting credit for this experience. Once the classes began two things became clear to me: my classmates had skill sets I didn’t and the courses were not going to be anything like I had experienced back at Stanford. A few rounds of “drop the needle” in Music, and I realized that I might be tone deaf. I remember the first reading assignment in Europe Since 1914 that I thought was for the week turned out to be for the next session. Where were the problem sets? I had the misconception that Italian was going to be easy, since I had aced Latin in high school. After several days of Italian classes the English disappeared; we were actually supposed to speak the stuff. This may be OK for some but for introverted engineers it was next to impossible. Then there was the Esame Orale and that question came up again. How I got over these academic hurdles is still somewhat a mystery to me, but I am sure it had a lot to do with the support being in the group provided. Unlike at the home campus we all lived together, and knew each other quite well. The small size of our group and the foreign setting led to a less competitive and even cohesive atmosphere. We were all on the same team. I still remember the pointers my roommate, who later became an English professor at Cornell, gave me on how to deal with essay exams. Group activities like the draping of the Leaning Tower of Pisa with a “Beat Cal” banner that fall quarter were typical. I can honestly say that this was the most diverse group of people I have ever been associated with on an intimate basis—an experience that would pay dividends in the future. Our faculty were also part of the group. We lived in the same building, ate together, and traveled together. We knew their children. Not until later in graduate school did I develop a similarly close relationship with some Stanford faculty, but that was more professional in nature. Our professors knew us as people, and we knew them as friends. Looking back, the classroom was clearly the challenge of my stay in Italy, but the reward was the traveling. Three-day weekends and breaks provided an opportunity to see people and places that I couldn’t even imagine from my perch in California. They are just snapshots in my mind now but each one has a story to tell: turning twenty-one in Sicily; eating roast pig at midnight in Madrid; seeing “My Fair Lady” in London; sloshing around in a ferry across the Mediterranean with seasick soldiers; bicycling to Pisa; visiting a girlfriend in Algiers; nightclubbing in Copenhagen; climbing the rock at Gibraltar; walking through the catacombs in Naples; sneaking into the casbah; having my luggage stolen in Casablanca; and the list goes on. Then there was the long flight from Copenhagen to L.A. and it was over. That spring quarter in 1961 it felt good to be back at Stanford. The course work seemed easier and I was in my element again. Occasionally I would run into a former classmate from my group and we would chat briefly. We didn’t need to say much as all those experiences would come flashing back. We had been through something together.
Somewhere in Florence, 1960: (left to right) Jim Goodrich ‘62, Dan McCall ’61, Stan Crouch ’62, Jim Eckles ‘62,
Current undergraduates, recently returned from study overseas, sample chocolate dip flowing from the spectacular fountain.
Amore all’italiano (“Love Italian Style”)
Hilary Lieberman Link (AB ‘91, Stanford in Florence Fall/Winter 1989-1990) is Assistant Provost and Dean for International Programs at Barnard College in New York City.
As Dean for International Programs at Barnard College, I work daily with students as they get ready to study abroad. I try to prepare them for the life-changing adventures about to come their way, but I know first-hand what an impossible task that is. If someone had told me before I left for Florence in the fall of 1989 that my experience there would lead me to become a scholar of Italian literature and later to oversee a study-abroad office, I never would have believed it. But here I am, having just been named Barnard’s Assistant Provost, and I owe it all to my time at Stanford in Florence. From the moment I entered the home of Marisa, my Italian host mother, I immediately felt at ease, and I have never stopped feeling that way. Through my homestay experience arranged by Stanford, I also gained an amazing Italian sister, Alessandra, and a wonderful nonna. I am immensely proud of my evolving relationship with my extended Italian family. I have learned more about Italy, about other cultures, and about life in general from each of them than they could ever know. And yet, I feel strongly that studying abroad teaches us as much about ourselves as it does about another culture. Living abroad strips us bare of any cultural trappings we might otherwise rely upon to define ourselves. If no one you meet knows anything about your family, your friends, your hometown, your school— then how do you define yourself? For me, being on my own in Italy that year gave me permission to focus more on myself, and to develop my more adventurous and free-spirited side. That in turn gave me the freedom to cultivate my growing passion for all things Italian, a process encouraged by the wonderful faculty and staff at the Stanford center. This passion inspired me, upon my return to Stanford, to declare a double major in Italian and Art History, to pursue a Ph.D. in Italian Language and Literature, and eventually to find a position in the field of international education. My passion has extended to my family, and over the years I have brought each of my parents and siblings to Italy and to Marisa’s home. Sharing my Italian life and family with each of them has helped me share myself with them as well. On my first official date with my husband, Jeff (Stanford ’89), we talked a lot about our experiences with Stanford in Florence. He had been there in spring semester of 1988, and had had the time of his life. Returning to Florence together has become a regular part of our lives, and one that now also includes our children. Last summer, we returned to Italy with our two little boys, Jason and Alex. First stop was Marisa’s house in Florence, where the view of the Duomo from her balcony will always make me feel twenty years old again. But on a hot summer day, as my own little boys ran around her garden, I was struck by the circularity of the scene. I could never have predicted that my experience abroad would lead me to so many amazing places, and then right back to where it started. Whenever I return to Florence, I am struck by the words of Ludovico Ariosto, as he neared the end of writing his epic poem, the Orlando Furioso, first published in 1516. Like Ariosto, I delight each time when, “veggo il lito aperto [I see the welcoming shore (46.I.8)]”; and I rejoice in the fortune of the welcome I receive: “Oh di ch’amici, a chi in eterno deggio/Per la letizia c’han del mio ritorno! [What friends to whom I’ll always be in debt/For the glad welcome shown me as I land!] (46.III.3-4, tr. Barbara Reynolds, 1977).” My time with Stanford in Florence gave me the personal and professional tools I have needed to follow my chosen path, and that path now allows me to offer such possibilities for life-changing experience and adventure to the next generation of students.
For a somewhat naive girl from Utah who had never before been further afield than Yellowstone and the Bay Area, Italy opened up a wildly different and exciting environment. Within a day or two of our The experiences that stand out for me arrival at the Villa San Paolo, a fellow are a mix of the relatively ordinary and student and I decided to try to take the the unusual. Life at the Villa developed bus to downtown Florence and explore. a comfortable rhythm. I grew to love the We happened upon a couple of guys, also ambience of our daily Italian classes, students, from Greece, and since neither the precise enunciation of our Italian we nor they knew the teacher, and the warm others’ native lan“Italy opened up a wildly sunshine in the garden guage, we had our first when the weather different and exciting experience in trying to allowed us to hold our communicate in our classes there. Several environment” halting basic Italian. of us became pingHow exhilarating to find, for the first of pong fiends in the regular games after many satisfying times, that we could actudinner, and the more adventurous males ally share and connect across cultures. of the group had perilous water fights from window to window on the outside I was especially fortunate to have Bonnie ledges. We must have done our share James, whom I previously knew only of sober studying, but what I remember slightly, as a roommate in our wondermost clearly are times like the midnight ful corner room in the Villa. Together we sessions working on our papers for Dr. braved the cold temperatures during the Crosten’s opera class, listening over and weeks before the heat was turned on in over to passages from The Barber of
Françoise Perdoux Laval
The Bing Overseas Studies Program is sad to convey news from her son of the death on March 30, 2008, of Madame Françoise Perdoux Laval, a respected and beloved instructor of French at Stanford in Tours from 1963-1991. Readers of Abroad will recall her writing in the Spring-Summer issue of 2005, where she clearly conveyed her continuing devotion to her students; at the time that article occasioned reciprocal responses of great affection from former students. She was laid to rest in Sauzon, a small fishing harbor located on her father’s native island of Belle-Île-en-Mer, France.
The Very First BOSP Group Celebrates its Fiftieth Anniversary Where it All Happened
Margie Stovall Koldinger’60 and Bob Hamrdla ’59 relate highlights of this amazing event.
For a long weekend (June 26-29, 2008) fourteen intrepid members of Stanford in Germany, Group I, assembled at Landgut Burg near Beutelsbach in southwestern Germany: Carol Conroy Browning ‘60, Nancy Marik Chrisman ‘61, Dan Emmett ‘61, Steve Foster ‘61, Jim Fries ’60, Jim Garrett ‘61, Dee Walker Iltis ’61, Margie Stovall Koldinger ‘60, Doug Lottridge ‘60, Dave Montgomery ‘60, Toby Franks Montgomery ‘61, Frank Morgan ‘60, Gaby Greer Pryor ‘61, and Ken Purcell, ‘61. Joining them were several spouses and your editor, a member of Group II, but nonetheless heartily welcomed and no less moved by the experience. In June, 1958, the original 63 members of the group flew to Stuttgart from San Francisco in propeller aircraft, a distant memory—if not a foreign concept—for most of Abroad’s readers. A short introduction will help with terms: Landgut Burg is an estate of thirty-some acres on top of one of the many hills about twelve miles east of Stuttgart overlooking the Rems River Valley. To students of Groups I through XXXIV, most of whom spent two quarters there, the place was known simply as the Burg. Margie remembers these highlights from the four days: “This time we found the fussweg (foot path to the village) gone and the orchards replaced with more vineyards. We hadn’t remembered that the road up was so long. Our knees had forgotten that some of our rooms were reached by two flights of stairs. Our ears had forgotten the tumult of bird song. We each stumbled
THE ALUMNI NEWSLETTER OF THE
across that one foto-op bend in the road where we could see just a section of the rooftops nestled in a hollow, nostalgically suggesting the smaller town of 1958. Geranium-bedecked Beutelsbach now blends into Endersbach, Strümpfelbach and other towns as an extended community called Weinstadt. “Because Turkey was playing in the semifinals for the European Soccer Cup, Turkish flags were flying from a few windows among the spruced up Fachwerk (half-timber) homes. 50 years ago most of us had no idea how fussball was played. “The mayor (born over a year after we left!) welcomed us at a wine reception. At the Burg barbecue Nancy Chrisman led us in serenading our local guests with German folk songs. Doug Lottridge intoned, auf deutsch, the sheriff’s sad soliloquy to the song popular in 1958, Alles Vorbei Tom Dooley. That took some explaining to our guests who were all younger. The Remstalkellerei (the wine co-op) hosted us to a tour and wine tasting. At the 6th glass, Muskattrollinger trocken, Ken Purcell recited German poetry. “Dinner at the Burg was haute cuisine beautifully presented in the new dining room (Landgut Burg is now a hotel, restaurant, and conference center). We strolled past brilliantly colored roses to the old classroom to hear our honorary first grouper, Bob Hamrdla, unravel the intricacies of the 27- member European Union. Its granddaddy, the Parliamentary
Students of Germany I participate in local festivities in 1958.
Assembly for the six-nation European Economic Community first met in our year, 1958.” Jim Garrett found memories flooding back: “When I stepped out of the car and started walking at the Burg, I knew immediately in my heart and soul that I had returned to what, for the last 50 years, had always been my second home.” Nancy Marik Chrisman (and husband Keith of Group III) recall, “We waited for this event for months and we have not been disappointed. The opportunity to share once again with fellow Stanford-inGermany Group I classmates continues to remind us that the whole purpose of the Overseas Studies Program was the building of relationships.” David and Toby Franks Montgomery summed it all up: “Fifty years ago
Stanford in Germany was a life-changing event for us, beginning the journey of two small-town kids along the road toward marriage, three children, four grandchildren, and a world-citizenship viewpoint. This fiftieth reunion at Landgut Burg confirmed and validated in a very special way the wonderful place and people who will always hold a central spot in our hearts.” “Stanford in Germany changed my life.” More than a few of us made this remark. We were there fifty years ago, and we were surely heartened by returning to that utterly unforgettable place. But we also rejoice in the fact that so many thousands of other Stanford students of both past and future share the irreplaceable benefits of Stanford overseas.
Note: if your group is having a reunion, Abroad will be glad to run an announcement. Just contact the editor, hamrdla@stanford.edu
Why in the world would an engineering major go to Stanford in Italy? You know I don’t ask that question anymore.
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AUGUST, 2008 | VOLUME 7, NUMBER 1
Bing Overseas Studies Program
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AUGUST, 2008 | VOLUME 7, NUMBER 1
THE ALUMNI NEWSLETTER OF THE
Bing Overseas Studies Program
Studying World War II on Site
Heidi Schuman is Program and Administrative Associate at BOSP and attended BOSP’s Fourth World War II Conference in Potsdam near Berlin. Here are her thoughts.
prior generations. The next generations of historians being taught at Stanford are no exception. Katherine Hoffmann, a junior who studied in Moscow in 2007, summed up the tone of the conference when she observed, “The question is not whether we remember. It is what we remember.” The fourth WWII Conference was held this year in Potsdam, Germany, from March 6th-9th. Sixty-five students, faculty and staff attended the four-day conference representing five BOSP European centers: Moscow, Paris, Berlin, Oxford and Florence, where students were completing a local course on World War II. Norman Naimark challenged the students to make this conference their own. The students rose to this challenge and succeeded far beyond the expectations of the faculty and staff. They presented their ideas clearly and proved they understood what WWII meant to their respective host country, diving head first into often controversial content. What could have easily ended up a reiteration of significant dates and battles instead turned, much to the delight of faculty members, into fascinating presentations of some topics that had not been discussed in past conferences. The intellectual discussion continued the next morning when the students were broken into seven study groups led by faculty. The groups were: Memory: Representing the Holocaust (Sylke Tempel); Clashing Armies: Waging the European War (David Holloway); Bombing and Rebuilding of Cities (Geoffrey Tyack); Legacies of the War is Post-War Politics and Diplomacy (Norman Naimark); Intellectuals and WWII (Danilo Breschi); Sexuality in Wartime: Separation, Love, Violence and Power (Fabrice Virgili); and Civilian Resistance in WWII (Bob Hamrdla). After a day and a half of discussion, it was time to get out and see more of the historical sites. The students enjoyed a bus tour of Potsdam and a visit to Haus am Wannsee, where fifteen high-ranking representatives of the SS and Nazi officials discussed the mass deportation and murder of European Jews on January 20, 1942. But possibly the most captivating experience was the visit to the memorial Gleis 17 at the S-Bahn Station Grunewald from which some 50,000 Jews were transported by railway to concentration camps. Students followed the desolate tracks, now commemorated with the names of the deportation destination and the number of Jews deported each day. “Track 17” at Grunewald is very quiet, very remote, and, overall, quite a moving memorial. The conference concluded with Prof. David Holloway’s lecture on postwar decisions. Students then went to Cecilienhof, the location of the Potsdam Conference in the summer of 1945, which decided the fate of postwar Germany. Overall, the conference was an absolute success. Many students commented that they enjoyed the opportunity to witness the skills and talents of their peers and appreciated the chance to learn about the other Stanford Centers. Virtually all evaluations claimed that the conference was rewarding and highly worthwhile. With such great feedback, BOSP hopes to consider more conferences of this nature in the future.
Attendees at the Conference visit the Haus am Wannsee (near Berlin) where the infamous Wannsee Conference took place in January, 1942.
American Football….in Spain?
Patrick Bowe (’08, International Relations) was a student in the first group to attend Stanford’s new center in Madrid this past winter. Here he tells us how playing football in Spain opened doors for him.
My decision to go abroad was largely based on the International Relations requirement [A degree in I.R. requires at least a quarter abroad. Ed.] and an interest to experience something much different from the Farm. Madrid became an easy choice because I wanted to go to Europe and had a desire to continue with Spanish in a real life setting. When BOSP decided to open a center in Madrid for the winter quarter of 2008 the timing could not have been any better as it was the only quarter I could go abroad after completing my football career at Stanford this past fall. I knew Madrid was a large European city rich with culture, history, good food, and fanatical soccer fans. Still, I originally hoped to travel around other cities in Europe during my ten-week stay abroad. After a few weeks getting to know Madrid and its boroughs I found myself spending most of my time with other Americans. Hoping to find some locals to spend time with I stumbled across an American football team (not a futbol, or soccer team) in Madrid called the Osos Rivas, with some help from Stanford’s Director in Madrid, Dr. Santiago Tejerina-Canal. Later that day I went to their practice and that Saturday I traveled with the team to Gizon (Northern Spain) to play their first league game. While fully aware of professional football opportunities in America (NFL and AFL), Canada (CFL), and previously Europe (NFL Europe) I was completely unaware of the semipro leagues in most European countries. Spain has a premier division of eight teams and a lower division as well. The Osos were in the premier division. The team was comprised of only Spaniards, with the average age of 28. No one on the Osos was getting paid; everyone was doing it for the love of the game. While a few other teams in the league had one or two Americans on the team I was the lone Yankee on the Osos. This was the perfect opportunity to spend time practicing my Spanish and hanging out with the locals. Additionally it was a great way to end my football career. After playing tight end in a reserve role and on special teams for the Cardinal I was suddenly the star of the Osos. The talent level for the Spanish premier division was comparable to that in our high school football, which made it a blast to play in. The three games I played we won 40-6, 56-0, and 80-6. After each game we went out
World War II ended over 60 years ago, and yet we are still talking about it. Why? What could possibly be left to say? What topics have historians not covered? How can this material still be interesting? Why does generation after generation continue to study the subject? As Norman Naimark, Burke Family Director of BOSP stated, “It is arguably the most defining event in European history.” However, every generation has a different focus setting itself apart from
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Pat Bowe (number 33) on the football field with the Osos Rivas in Spain.
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as a team, including the coaches, to enjoy some local dishes and the nightlife. The time spent with the football team gave me Spanish friends, a much better experience abroad, and a view of a completely different aspect of life. I could not have imagined anything better than my decision to go to Madrid. I plan on returning for a longer stay in the future, perhaps just a six-month project with work in the next couple years, but possibly a job after grad school for several years. As I keep in touch with the friends I made there I know that Stanford provided me with an opportunity to continue my experience from this past winter quarter into the future.
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