New School in India Established

Last week, the College’s Board of Trustees approved the school’s first study abroad program to India.  Starting next year, the school will send eight students, current sophomores in strong academic standings, to New Delhi.  The school will be operated as a C.V. Starr Middlebury School Abroad.

The school will begin accepting applications from students this year, and the first group of students will go abroad during the fall semester of next year.

Classes will be offered through the University of New Delhi’s St. Stephens College and Lady Shri Ram College for Women, two of India’s top institutions. Students who participate in the new school will also take Hindi classes at the American Institute of Indian Studies.   Those who stay in India for a full year will be able to participate in an internship to recieve course credit.

This program pioneers a form of international study with considerable differences from the school’s usual offerings. To begin, it is the school’s first program in South Asia.

While all divisions of the International Studies program have offered programs in their specific region, South Asian studies has been an exception. Their program in Delhi promises to correct this issue.

For Anis Mebarki ’15, who plans to major in either South Asian or General Asian history, this provides an essential opportunity to enrich his class room studies.

“I thought it would make sense for me to go to a place where I can actually live that culture”, said Mebarki, “and not just study it from an outsider’s perspective and objectify and make it this country that’s just in books with these far away people.”

While all South Asian studies majors are encouraged to apply for the program, the college also urges student’s outside the department to apply and is even recruiting qualified candidates outside the College, according to Acting Dean of International Programs Paul Monod.

That the school offers no instruction in a South Asian language has been a major impediment.  Students in this program will attend classes in Hindi through the American Institute of Indian Studies.  No prior knowledge of the language is assumed.

Some, like Stephanie Ovitt ’15.5, who plans to apply for next fall, see learning the language as a valuable asset in today’s era.

“A lot of times in communications between the U.S. and India, things get lost and misunderstood, [and] that damages relationships,” said Evans.

Mebarki believes that using English will enchance students’ experiences, allowing them to approach Indian culture from a more open-minded perspective.

“I feel this will allow student’s to more deeply involve themselves with the material they are studying ... It is going to be in the language that most of us are pretty comfortable in so you can’t really use the excuse ‘Oh I can’t write this paper in [this foreign language],” said Mebarki.

For Professor of History and History Department Chair Ian Barrow, the time for better cultural understanding has became increasingly important.

“I think this program has really dovetailed very nicely with increasing student appetitive and interest in India, and also [the] increasing geopolitical importance of India,” said Barrow.

For Monod, this experience represents a new, open, opportunity for student’s to enrich their understanding of the world.

He mentions the program’s lack of a language prerequisite and acceptance to student’s outside the South Asian Studies programs as ways of opening the opportunity to a wage range of student’s.

“It gives you an experience that combines the  cultural experience of studying abroad — which in India is one that you are aware of everyday when you wake up — but on the other hand the educational experience of studying at such great institution,” said Monod.

The Middlebury C.V. Starr School in India is the lastest addition to the Collge’s now nearly 40 official overseas programs in 17 countries.

The second-newest school, offered in Cameroon for French-speaking students, was approved by the board of trustees last year.