{"id":2523,"date":"2019-03-19T12:43:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-19T16:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.stetson.edu\/world\/?p=2523"},"modified":"2023-02-14T12:44:08","modified_gmt":"2023-02-14T17:44:08","slug":"bishkek-and-beyond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.stetson.edu\/world\/bishkek-and-beyond\/","title":{"rendered":"Bishkek and Beyond"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Rebecca Shaffer \u201918 spent her final semester before graduation as the first Stetson student to participate in an exchange program with the American University of Central Asia in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Shaffer is shown on the Tian Shan Mountains that border China.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Rebecca Shaffer graduated from Stetson in 2018 with a degree in Russian, Eastern European and Eurasian Studies. A rewarding college experience, assuredly. Yet not your typical course of study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then there was spring 2018. A student-exchange program, one that few other universities offer, gave her a semester of a lifetime \u2014 at the American University of Central Asia in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI took a course on Central Asian politics [with Professor Gene Huskey, Ph.D.] and found out about the Bishkek student-exchange program in 2017,\u201d Shaffer said. \u201cI needed a senior research project, and I wanted to take advantage of my last semester. But nobody from Stetson had gone to Bishkek [on the program] yet, and I was a little nervous about it because I had never been anywhere like Kyrgyzstan before. But I decided to go for it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Little-known Kyrgyzstan (Kyrgyz Republic) is a landlocked country with mountainous terrain bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west and southwest, Tajikistan to the southwest, and China to the east. Its recorded history spans more than 2,000 years, encompassing a variety of cultures and empires. Kyrgyzstan has been at the crossroads of several great civilizations, as part of the Silk Road and other commercial and cultural routes. It attained sovereignty as a nation-state after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. Often referred to as one of the world\u2019s \u201ccoolest unknown cities,\u201d Bishkek is the capital and largest city of Kyrgyzstan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Upon arrival on the other side of the world, initial trepidation turned into education triumph. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I got there, I was really nervous,\u201d Shaffer continued. \u201cIt just seemed so remote. But once I saw the mountains, which are breathtaking and really close to the city, and realized how nice the people were, I knew I was in for a wonderful adventure.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shaffer, who rented a bedroom from a local Kyrgyz family, was able to immerse herself in the culture, especially because, outside of the classroom, she had to speak Russian and Kyrgyz (a Turkic language that uses the Cyrillic alphabet). As part of the exchange program, she attended the American University of Central Asia (AUCA) in Bishkek, working on her Russian language skills, taking classes in its program in Central Asian studies and pursuing her senior research project, which entailed comparing the use of social media in the 2014 Ukrainian revolution and the 2010 Kyrgyzstan revolution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI looked at movement-building, the \u2018movement as the leader\u2019 concept and effective communication strategies in this kind of environment,\u201d Shaffer explained. \u201cI took a comparative politics approach on how social media affected each of these revolutions.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Last summer, Stetson traveled to share ideas about education with the American University of Central Asia. Stetson participants, from left: Paula Hentz; Michael Denner, Ph.D.; and Mayhill Fowler, Ph.D. To the right of Fowler is Asel Umetalieva, head of the International Students Office at AUCA. The building behind them is the AUCA dormitory. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

MUTUAL ADMIRATION <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

A few years ago, Michael Denner, Ph.D., professor of Russian Studies at Stetson and director of the University Honors Program, began talking about the possibility of an exchange program with his former adviser in graduate school, Andrew Wachtel, Ph.D., who just so happened to be the president of AUCA at the time. Typically, AUCA has partnered with Bard College in New York, but Stetson steadily has forged a relationship with AUCA by virtue of its School of Business Administration; many of AUCA\u2019s students are business majors. A reciprocal agreement now has been in place for two years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTwo Bishkek students came here in the fall, and two others were here last year, but Rebecca was the first Stetson student to go there,\u201d Denner said. \u201cWe have a lot of opportunities for study abroad, and Bishkek isn\u2019t a place people are usually familiar with, but more and more students are finding out about it, and we expect more of them to take advantage of the program in the coming years.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Paula Hentz, director of international learning at WORLD: The David and Leighan Rinker Center for International Learning at Stetson, the exchange program represents budding mutual admiration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe want to ensure every student is having an international experience in one way or another,\u201d Hentz said. \u201cWe have a strong Russian, Eastern European and Eurasian Studies program here and wanted to start a proper student-exchange program in that part of the world. Also, it\u2019s great to have foreign students come to us because it helps internationalize our campus. The Bishkek students have really fun, great attitudes when they come here. They\u2019re outgoing and friendly, and our students are learning about their culture.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The American University of Central Asia in Bishkek. Few universities offer such a student-exchange similar to the Stetson\/AUCA program. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Denner and Hentz spent last summer in Bishkek, along with Mayhill Fowler, Ph.D., assistant professor of history and director of Stetson\u2019s Program in Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies (known on campus as SPREES). There were four days of meeting with AUCA faculty, administrators and students. AUCA is known as the best institution of higher learning in Central Asia, with a diverse faculty and students, complemented by top-notch facilities and a faculty well-respected for research. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t know what to expect, and we were blown away,\u201d Denner commented. \u201cPlus, the city is beautiful with these majestic mountains towering in the background, communities are really nice, and people are friendly and happy-go-lucky. Few Westerners go there, so they totally embraced us.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fowler, a veteran traveler to these parts, points to Bishkek\u2019s globally important location, near both China and Russia. \u201cThis was part of the Silk Road, the crossroads of empires,\u201d Fowler said. \u201cThey have a non-Western-centered understanding of the world, and for Stetson students, it\u2019s about getting out of their comfort zone and becoming global citizens.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018THESE INCREDIBLE PLACES\u2019 <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

While acknowledging the difficulty of study abroad in such an unknown place, Fowler believes the experience can set students apart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ala-Too, Kyrgyzstan\u2019s main square in Bishkek<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe want to position Stetson for the future as having student-exchange programs in places not necessarily well-known in study-abroad circles. We have students in Warsaw in Poland, Kyiv in Ukraine, etc., and this entire region is an important part of the world. So, we want to be able to offer different but key places like Bishkek as study-abroad locations,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe world is a complex place, and I want Stetson students to learn about and experience this world in all its complexity.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Denner agrees that for students, it is all about broadening horizons, both figuratively and literally. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn life, you\u2019re limited by your network, so you broaden this network by studying abroad,\u201d he explained. \u201cYou simply meet more people, and it\u2019s because of the people you know that makes life interesting.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A marketplace shop in Bishkek <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The main goal now is to expand the program. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCan we attract students to Stetson from these incredible places?\u201d Denner asked, rhetorically. \u201cThey need to be daring and intrepid to come here, and the same goes for our students going there. Think about what two students from Bishkek can teach students just by meeting and talking to them.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about your ability to see other points of view,\u201d Hentz said. \u201cThis creates a better understanding of the world around us, our place in the world and how we can make it better.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shaffer, currently living in Pittsburgh and working for the nonprofit PennEnvironment, a citizen-based environmental advocacy organization, is interested in going back to Bishkek to do policy development, specifically as it applies to infrastructure and transportation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her first trip there, fittingly, helped to provide a bridge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGoing to Bishkek was such a rewarding experience for me; it opened me up to another part of the world,\u201d Shaffer concluded. \u201cI met amazing people whom I\u2019m still in contact with and who have changed my perspective on the rest of the world. I\u2019m better for the experience and wouldn\u2019t trade it for anything.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

DID YOU KNOW? <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Stetson Professor Eugene Huskey, Ph.D., began visiting Kyrgyzstan right after the collapse of the Soviet Union and now is widely considered an expert on the region, knowing many of the movers and shakers in Kyrgyz politics personally. His new book, \u201cEncounters at the Edge of the Muslim World,\u201d published in September 2018, not only is a political science exploration of democratic transition, but also a thoughtful narrative about what it means to learn a new culture, language and place in a time of change, according to reviews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The book even includes a personal note of support written by the former Kyrgyzstan President Roza Otunbayeva, whom Huskey knew before she was president, and includes the story of famous Kyrgyz writer Chingiz Aitmatov\u2019s visit to Stetson University in 1991.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

March 29, 2019
Editor\u2019s note:\u00a0<\/strong>This article appears in the Spring issue of\u00a0Stetson University Magazine<\/em>, now available\u00a0online<\/a>.\u00a0
-Jack Roth<\/em> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rebecca Shaffer graduated from Stetson in 2018 with a degree in Russian, Eastern European and Eurasian Studies. A rewarding college experience, assuredly. Yet not your typical course of study. Then there was spring 2018. A student-exchange program, one that few other universities offer, gave her a semester of a lifetime \u2014 at the American University … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Bishkek and Beyond”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.stetson.edu\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.stetson.edu\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.stetson.edu\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.stetson.edu\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.stetson.edu\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2523"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.stetson.edu\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4241,"href":"https:\/\/blog.stetson.edu\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2523\/revisions\/4241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.stetson.edu\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.stetson.edu\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.stetson.edu\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}