The Sandspur

Issue date: 3/25/05 Section: Life & Times

Media Credit: COURTESY OF GORDIE HOWELL ALL SMILES: The group takes a time-out from their busy day of activities to pose atop the majestic mountain.

Media Credit: COURTESY OF GORDIE HOWELL

Media Credit: COURTESY OF GORDIE HOWELL GAZING IN AWE: The group admires the ruins of the ancient Parthenon that stands on the Acropolis in Athens, Greece.

Media Credit: COURTESY OF GORDIE HOWELL MONKEYING AROUND: Unique bonds of friendship are formed through traveling experiences.

Over Christmas break, a group of students took advantage of a unique study abroad opportunity: Athletes of the Ancient World. The students were able to travel with Associate Professor of Physical Education Gordie Howell and experience the splendors of historical Greece.

Even if you do not have time in your academic schedule to travel abroad for a semester; short study abroad opportunities, such as this, are an effective means of expanding one's cultural horizons.

Two students explain how this trip affected their lives:

"...The trip was the best thing I ever did for myself. I left Rollins not knowing anyone I was going with and came back with a group of friends. It opened a door for me that I had only thought of. Traveling abroad was something I've wanted to do for a long time but I just didn't see it actually happening. Gordie is so wonderful and kind to take a group of young adults and deal with us for over two weeks. It was the most wonderful experience I have ever had and I will always be grateful to Gordie for that, I don't think there are enough words to describe the fond memories I have and the wonderful time spent. If anyone ever gets this opportunity they should go regardless, nothing should stand in their way because if I had not gone that would be the biggest regret of my life."
~ Amanda Shewmaker, Holt-Undergraduate

"Field trips beat any classroom experience you can ever have. Looking at pictures of the Parthenon and ancient Olympia were one thing, visiting them and crawling all over them is another. To visit Mycenae, where King Agamemnon lived, or Sparta were Helen was stolen from, is more...I can't even describe it. It just makes reading the stories and myths even more amazing when you read about Herakles visiting Nemea when you were there too. I'm a Classics major so a lot of this was even more amazing because I'd read about so many of these places so many times."
~ Alex Theodore-Gajraj, '07

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