{"id":16140,"date":"2016-09-01T14:30:37","date_gmt":"2016-09-01T18:30:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/?p=16140"},"modified":"2016-09-01T14:30:37","modified_gmt":"2016-09-01T18:30:37","slug":"students-from-two-cultures-find-common-ground-understanding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/students-from-two-cultures-find-common-ground-understanding\/","title":{"rendered":"Students from two cultures find common ground, understanding"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s note: Jess Collins \u201914 currently is serving as a Fulbright English teaching assistant in\u00a0Ni\u0161, Serbia. She wrote this article for us about a recent experience with Clemson students studying abroad in Serbia.\u00a0<\/em>
\n\"InTheseHills_StudyAbroad-Nis\"<\/a>January of 2016 marked the first semester-long Clemson study abroad trip to Belgrade, Serbia. Seven students from Clemson spent three and a half months studying at the\u00a0University of Belgrade. As an alumna of the summer 2012 Balkan study abroad program and a current Fulbright ETA in Ni\u0161, Serbia (about three hours south of Belgrade), I was thrilled for the opportunity to initiate an academic exchange between my alma mater and students at the University of Ni\u0161.\u00a0A grant from the U.S. Embassy in Serbia funded the exchange.
\nThe first meeting between the students took place in Belgrade, and the task was for each Serbian student to write on the American perspective and vice versa, with the papers to be presented a few weeks later in\u00a0Ni\u0161.\u00a0The students were eager to meet, and together they chose topics of LGBT rights, women\u2019s rights, sex education, millennial mentality, cultural-specific traditions, religion and nationalism\/racism.
\nSerbian student Petar Milenkovic\u00b4 enjoyed both the interchange of ideas and the experience of sharing his own culture: \u201cI found out how different problems that are existent in Serbia, in a greater degree, are tackled in America,\u201d he said. \u201cI also had the joy of being a teacher. I believe I brought my American partner some insight into our society and its problems, and that I gave her something to think about during her stay here.\u201d
\nA few weeks later the Clemson students went to visit the Ni\u0161 students. We were joined by U.S. Embassy staff\u00a0and professors from the faculty. Students gave their presentations, which were followed by lively discussions on the presented topics.\u00a0The Clemson students then had the opportunity to share coffee and kafana, a traditional Serbian dinner, with the Ni\u0161 students, deepening their relationships through discussions about the two cultures.
\n\u201cIt was an amazing experience getting to meet such a smart group of like-minded individuals and building friendships that I am confident will last long into the future,\u201d said Clemson student Ryan Bartley. [pullquote]\u201cWe were able to use each other as\u00a0sounding boards\u00a0to create a mutual understanding of each other\u2019s perspectives and paradigms.\u201d[\/pullquote]
\nSerbian student Milan Krstic\u00b4 offered a similar response: \u201cThe experience with the Clemson students was refreshing, both intellectually and when spending some free time we had together. The students were very keen to participate in the project and strove to learn about Serbian culture, and even the language. I\u2019ve enjoyed hearing their comments about the politics in Serbia, given the fact they are \u2018outside observers\u2019 and political science majors.\u201d
\n\u201cFor the students, both ours and Serbian, it was a great experience to try to understand each other\u2019s culture,\u201d said Vladimir Matic, one of the Clemson professors in charge of the program. \u201cIt is something that helped them open up their minds, and it will influence the rest of their lives. Our students came back enriched. Study Abroad exposes students to new experiences and different cultures. They understand better the world, but maybe more importantly themselves and what they want to do in their lives.\u201d
\nClemson\u2019s political science department has an ongoing study abroad program in Serbia and the Balkans.
\nFor more information, contact Jeff Peake at jpeake@clemson.edu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s note: Jess Collins \u201914 currently is serving as a Fulbright English teaching assistant in\u00a0Ni\u0161, Serbia. She wrote this article for us about a recent experience with Clemson students studying abroad in Serbia.\u00a0 January of 2016 marked the first semester-long Clemson study abroad trip to Belgrade, Serbia. Seven students from Clemson spent three and a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":15811,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[1574,2089,2579,2759,2851,2855],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-16140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-these-hills","tag-in-these-hills","tag-nis","tag-serbia","tag-study-abroad","tag-summer-fall-2016","tag-summer-fall-2016-in-these-hills"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/08\/InTheseHills_StudyAbroad-Nis.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16140"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=16140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}