Go Global with Kate Yapp: Katies Escape to Warmer Locations for J-Term!

By Kate Yapp

January is one of the coldest months of the year in Minnesota. True. Also true: Part of the St. Kate’s academic calendar includes a “J-term”: a month-long break between winter vacation and spring semester during which students can work, spend time at home, take classes, travel or travel and take classes during one of the many faculty-led class trips offered during this time period. I spoke with a few students who took advantage of this opportunity recently. (This was the first year since the COVID-19 pandemic started that St. Kate’s was able to offer faculty-led J-term trips again, of which there were six.)

KaZong Vue ‘23 (Biology and Critical Studies of Race and Ethnicity) recently got back from the Global Search for Justice (GSJ) senior seminar trip to Thailand. GSJ is required for all St. Kate’s students to take as a junior or senior before graduating and is seen as a conclusion to the required introduction seminar for first-year Katies, The Reflective Woman.

The theme of Vue’s GSJ course, Immigrant and Refugee Experience, was particularly meaningful for Vue and her sense of self as a first-generation Hmong-American woman living in St. Paul, Minn. (St. Paul has the highest population of Hmong people in the United States.) Thailand and Laos are considered to be “the motherland” for Hmong people.

Although many Hmong people immigrated to the United States during the “secret war” that lasted from the 1950s to the 1970s in Laos, many Hmong people also stayed in the region and live there still today. Many students at St. Kate’s, like Vue, identify as Hmong, and this course acknowledges how important this particular cultural heritage is for members of the St. Kate’s community.

The trip was led and instructed by Dr. Pa Der Vang and Jewelly Lee, who were joined by 18 students, including Vue, as they traveled to Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai.

In Chiang Rai, they stayed in the dorms at the University of Chiang Rai — one of the largest universities in Thailand – and met with a professor of Indigenous and ethnic studies. Vue remarked that the students on this trip were also immersed in the culture during homestays and speaking with Hmong people in the villages and markets they visited. Vue speaks Hmong and enjoyed being able to directly interact with Hmong women and exchange questions about each other’s lifestyles and what it is like to live in America or Thailand. There were some other students who spoke Hmong and one Katie who spoke Thai. Those without regional language proficiency were paired up with someone who did have regional language knowledge.

Vue appreciated the tour guides on this trip, who made sure that the students had ample opportunity to learn about all of the different aspects of Hmong and Thai culture, “including learning how to use a squat toilet.”

A lot of the learning during the trip was experiential, on the go and student-led. Vue told me that the trip had a packed schedule but also some free time to explore, and while they came back to Minnesota incredibly tired, Vue recognized that she probably would not have experienced as much if she would have traveled to Thailand on her own. In the end, she was grateful for how much she and other students were pushed to learn and experience, as well as how the environment made it easier to build connections with the other students on the trip compared to a regular class on campus. Vue started her last semester feeling a lot closer to the St. Kate’s community and empowered to do more international travel after graduation.

As a senior with a double major and double minor, I appreciated the ability to knock out a senior requirement while also getting to travel away from the cold. I went on the GSJ trip Women and Work in India, led by Dr. Deep Shikha and Dr. Kristine West of the economics department. We traveled to several large cities and small towns in northern India to visit women’s self-help and entrepreneurial groups, see different projects and initiatives being worked on by nonprofits and meet other young people at schools and universities.

When my parents asked why I decided to fulfill my GSJ requirement with this trip, I responded, “It will be hard to get the time off of work required for a trip this extensive, and it would be harder to engage as much with the culture and learning opportunities due to the language barrier if I were to travel to India on my own.” I also hate driving in the snow.

There are also non-GSJ classes offered during J-term.

Kiara Gomes ‘25 (Fashion Design and International Studies, Sustainability Studies minor) went on the St. Kate’s fashion department J-term trip to Italy. The students visited Rome, Milan and Florence, where they studied trend forecasting with a focus on fashion trends globally. It was important to do this while abroad, rather than on campus, because Gomes noted that they were “able to observe the way trend cycles in one country are ahead of another in real time. Being immersed in the culture helped provide reasoning as to why and how cultures impact fashion.”

Gomes had done some travel on their own before but never to Europe. Going with a group was an aspect of the trip that made Gomes’s experience much easier because it “provided a sense of normalcy in a completely new environment while I was still able to experience new things.” Gomes remarked that “a lot of us [students on this trip] were able to relate to each other in our reactions to Italian culture.” Gomes felt empowered and excited to return to Italy in the future and keep traveling.

Another benefit of doing a J-term trip was summed up well by Gomes: “The time length of a J-term class was nice because you do not have to worry about the practical needs you would have to think about if you were living somewhere else for a longer period of time, like a semester.”

During the class, Gomes spent a lot of time with her classmates and said it “definitely feels weird to not see everyone everyday anymore, even though the trip was only a couple weeks long.”

The Italy trip was not without its stressors, and while Gomes could not recommend study abroad enough, they also suggested that students interested in going abroad should do some research on the places they want to visit so they feel more comfortable once they go and can alleviate some of the anxiety that comes with being in a place with different norms and lifestyles that you need to adjust to while traveling.

Hannah Olson ‘23 (Master of Public Health, Global Health concentration) recently returned from another non-GSJ J-term trip. As part of her master’s program, Olson was required to do an experience abroad. She chose to go to Oaxaca, Mexico, this J-term with nine other students from both the MPH program and Master of Science, Nursing Entry-Level (MNSEL) program to study global health communities. (This year was the first time that the Oaxaca trip was also offered to MPH students, not just MNSEL students.)

The goal of the Studying Global Health Communities trip was for students to create an evidence-based intervention for the targeted health population. There were cohorts that stayed in Minnesota during J-term and did the same kind of work but in Latino, Amish and Somali communities in the Twin Cities. The Oaxaca group focused on obesity, diabetes and hypertension.

Like Vue, Olson also did a homestay. She appreciated the opportunity it gave her to both learn more intimately about Mexican — and specifically Oaxacan — culture and get closer with another MPH student staying with the same family. This peer was a few years older than Olson in a different stage of life with a partner and kids, and they probably would not have formed a close connection with Olson without the opportunity of this trip.

When Olson was not observing everyday occurrences in hospitals and medical centers in Oaxaca, she and her classmates tried local cuisine and explored the area. Olson described Oaxaca as big enough to explore in smaller groups but small enough that she and her peers were able to get around the city to clinicals and activities.

It is important in the environment of a class trip to not visit these locations like a tourist ready to consume but rather a student ready to take in, be challenged and learn. Especially in a field like global public health, Olson appreciated being able to see firsthand what the lived realities of the people in Oaxaca look and feel like. She and her group were then able to reflect on the challenges of the audiences they work with in their own careers and how different approaches will have to adapt to the values of these communities to be effective solutions.

For example, Olson mentioned the much more communal, collectivist attitude she observed of residents in Oaxaca compared to the more individualistic mindset of communities in the United States, including those that are made up of Mexican-Americans and immigrants from Mexico. This particular Oaxacan mindset can be illustrated through the principle of “guelaguetza” that Olson learned about during her trip. “Guelaguetza” means to give gifts and offer help but not expect repayment immediately because everyone works together to make a community successful, and eventually that goodwill and support will help you in your own time of need.

Olson’s trip is unique compared to the other experiences discussed in this article because it was for a master’s program. (There was also a trip for MPH students to Cuba this past J-term, but none of the participants could be reached for comment before publication.) But as a senior whose college experience had been upended by COVID-19 in several ways — including study abroad plans — it was a nice opportunity for Olson to still go abroad with St. Kate’s, and J-term is an option to keep in mind for students in a similar position who are currently dual-enrolled in a master’s program at St. Kate’s or considering it.

As I know from my own study abroad experience, price can definitely be a barrier for students wanting to go abroad, especially considering that most people are unable to work while abroad. Not only is the trip an expense to save up for, it is also a period during which you are unable to make money. For the undergraduate J-term GSJ trips, two deposits of $250 each were required on top of the tuition price for a regular J-term class. Gomes expressed frustration in not being made aware of the final price of her fashion J-term class until she was already halfway through the trip. In the case of MPH students, Olson mentioned that the St. Kate’s MPH department recently received a grant from Global Health Research that provides all students in the program with a $3,000 grant to whichever abroad experience they choose, whether it be for practicum, a summer trip or a J-term like Olson’s.

Olson and Vue both mentioned that they appreciated how St. Kate’s offered J-term trips in places “a bit off the beaten path” to give students an opportunity to see a part of the world they may not have had the language skills or security to visit on their own. However, there was a desire to see future offerings to Africa, especially considering how Black students of color at St. Kate’s might appreciate being able to have a similar cultural heritage experience like the one Vue was able to have on the Thailand trip. Gomes thought it was important that St. Kate’s continues to offer trips to the global south but says that, “as an international studies major, anywhere would provide a valuable learning experience.”

In short, J-term trips are a good way to fit studying abroad into your time at St. Kate’s. It is also a great way to escape the cold for a bit, too!You can learn more about opportunities like this and other study abroad programs at the study abroad fair on Monday, Feb. 13, in the CdC second floor atrium from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.