Miss Becky's Blog

BYU Students Returning to Jerusalem Center

Brigham Young University (BYU) is very close to our hearts. My father was a student there and later in his life worked for the BYU Alumni Association. It was at BYU that Ken and I meet as undergraduate students, fell in love, married, graduated and began careers in areas that we loved. Both our daughters have earned degrees from BYU. It was the BYU China Teachers Program that brought Ken and I to China. Brigham Young University is a private university owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The BYU motto is: "The World is Our Campus" and "Enter to Learn, Go Forth to Serve".

BYU has developed one of the BEST language training programs of any university and attracts many foreign students because of it. One of the unique features of their program is requiring the students majoring in a language, to live in that language house ... for example the GERMAN HOUSE. There would be a native speaker of German living there to help the others and all the students living in the house are required to speak GERMAN totally in the house, where they live, prepare meals, eat all together. There are houses for Spanish, French, Chinese, Japanese, etc.

There are many students on this campus with great language skills because they have served missions for the Church. These young men and women have learned the language by living and serving the people in different countries all over the world for 18 to 20 months. In that length of time most of them become fluent in the language because they HAVE to use the language as they live and serve the people. It's hard at first but most do really well if they continue to study and work hard. Three of our five children had this experience ... one served in Norway, one in Portual and one in Germany and each became very fluent in those languages. One son served here in the USA, but was assigned to work with Spanish speaking people. He did not become as fluent as the others, mostly because he lived with English speakers and did NOT have to use Spanish as much.

This is why we encouraged the "Give Me Five" program in our teaching of English is China ... the more you use a language (listen, speak, read, write and think) the more fluent you will become.

BYU also has established several "study abroad" programs. Our daughter, Kara, was able to spend a semester studying in London, England and had a great experience studying English literature there.

One of the most unique BYU "study abroad" programs takes place in Jerusalem, where the University and Church built a very beautiful facility on the Mount of Olives facing the old Jerusalem city. My daughter, Amy and I visited Jerusalem in 1993 and had a wonderful experience there. Classes cover ancient and modern Near Eastern history, Near Eastern languages and cultures, and the Gospels in the New Testament. Students live at the Jerusalem Center, study and travel to historic sites.

BYU sent students home a month early from a semester at the center in 2000 after violence in Jerusalem's streets made it unsafe to remain in the area. Here is the article announcing that BYU will start up the program again this fall. I'm happy to see this....

BYU STUDENTS RETURNING TO JERUSALEM CENTER

By Autumn Linford

Deseret Morning News

PROVO — Brigham Young University announced Friday that students will return this fall to the school's Jerusalem Center for the first time since 2000, since the program was interrupted due to violence in Jerusalem.

Brigham Young University will resume student programs at its Jerusalem Center this fall.

The decision to hold fall semester classes at the center, located in east Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives, was made after consulting with government and leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which operates BYU.

Administrators had hoped to provide the study abroad program at the center since the program was interrupted in 2000 due to violence in Jerusalem, said Jim Kearl, BYU assistant to the president for the Jerusalem Center. "We always wanted to return, of course," he said. "Having it closed denied a whole generation of students a marvelous opportunity to study in the area. For young LDS members of the church, the Old and New Testaments just come alive when you study them in their historic and geographic setting. Now looked like a good time to go back."

The announcement to reopen student programs this fall came somewhat as a surprise because Israel remains on the U.S. State Department's travel advisory list, which cautions U.S. citizens to carefully consider the necessity of traveling to the area.

Kearl said that despite the advisory, BYU feels it is safe to bring students back to the Holy Land. The advisory applies more to the West Bank and Gaza, rather than to Israel proper, he said, and the BYU program will limit its travel to the safest areas. The program might include visits to Jordan or Egypt, but BYU has not yet made a decision.

Kearl said the program will also be more tightly structured this year than in the past. Students accepted for the fall 2006 program will live at the Jerusalem Center and travel to historic sites but will have less free time to wander the streets and will spend more time under direct supervision of center personnel, he said. Classes will cover ancient and modern Near Eastern history, Near Eastern languages and cultures, and the Gospels in the New Testament.

The center will be staffed this fall by two BYU faculty members, the executive director of the center, an Israeli and the associate director, a Palestinian.

The structure of the program will also be slightly different than in the past. Only about 40 students will be allowed in this fall, whereas more than 150 were selected before the closure, and only BYU juniors and seniors will qualify to apply.

Kearl said BYU set the limitations mainly for safety and staffing reasons. By limiting the numbers to 40, the center can take all the students in one bus.

"Part of it is the logistics of getting a program together by fall, and part of it is about being cautious," Kearl said. "Things have changed a lot in the Holy Land in the past 5 1/2 years. We need to relearn how to do this."

The program will expand if there is interest.

BYU sent home 174 students a month early from a semester at the center in 2000 after violence in Jerusalem's streets made it unsafe to remain in the area.

The students had been kept inside the center for more than a month before being sent home.

Kristy Bott, who was a BYU student in Jerusalem that semester, said even though she saw a bus explode and violence, she never worried about her own safety while in the Holy Land.

"There's always trouble over there, and I don't know if anyone would ever think it's a perfectly safe thing to be there (in Jerusalem), but I was never scared," she said. "When we were there, it got worse and worse, but I felt completely safe. I knew they (BYU professors and Jerusalem Center administrators) would take care of us. Maybe I was completely oblivious, but I was never scared. I was just so excited to be there." Student programs have remained suspended since Bott's group was flown back to the United States in November 2000.

It was the second time the program shut down since its opening in 1987. It was closed once before in 1991 during the Gulf War.

Despite the closure of the student program, the Jerusalem Center stayed open, hosting concerts, workshops, tours and visitors. Bott said she had no doubt students who applied to this year's program would be kept far from harm's way. "Honestly, as long as they follow the rules and only go to the places where they're supposed to go, they'll be fine," she said. "It's never going to be completely safe, but if they trust the faculty and people with them, they'll be kept safe. I think the more people who get to go and experience it, the better. I'm jealous. I want to go back."

BYU officials expect the announcement will create some excitement around campus. This summer is the first time applications have been accepted since 2001, when BYU stopped taking names for future enrollment at the center after the 9/11 attacks. "I just have to figure out a way of going without my girlfriend getting mad," said Jonah Barnes, a junior at BYU. "Of course it's not going to be as safe as the United States — nowhere is. But to experience the Holy Land, to really see the place you talk about so much in church—that would be awesome."

The future of the student program will depend on the political climate and events in the Middle East, Kearl said. If things go well, it is possible the program will again expand to its previous size.