# data[].attributes.body
Check out past years maps
2021: https://padlet.com/lakemichigancollege/interactiveinternationalmap_2021
2020: https://padlet.com/lakemichigancollege/internationalinteractivemap_2020

# data[].attributes.headline
Speaker Spotlight: Abdi Nor Iftin, Mogadishu, Somalia

# data[].attributes.subject
Speaker Spotlight: Abdi Nor Iftin, Mogadishu, Somalia

# data[].attributes.body
Author of Call Me American, Abdi Nor Iftin was born in Mogadishu to nomadic parents and grew up facing famine and violence. Every day was a struggle to find something to eat while avoiding the violent soldiers of warlord clans. He taught himself English by watching American action films in a primitive video club, itself the target of fundamentalist terrorists. By repeating and imitating Hollywood actors, he earned himself the nickname “Abdi American.” Thanks to his language skills and perseverance, he landed a dangerous job as a “guerrilla journalist,” dispatching stories about life in an African war zone for a series titled Messages from Mogadishu on American public media. His stories were short-listed for Peabody awards in 2016 and were later picked by NPR and the BBC.

After surviving a bombing at his house in 2009, Abdi finally said goodbye to his home country and escaped to Kenya, where he and his brother lived as refugees. In an amazing stroke of luck, he won entrance to the U.S. in august 2014 through the annual visa lottery. But even with that “golden ticket,” his route to America—ending in a harrowing sequence of events that nearly stranded him in Nairobi—did not come easily. That story, as first told on “This American Life,” became one of the radio show’s most popular broadcasts and has been re-broadcast several times.

Now a successful, award-winning author and American citizen based in Maine, Abdi has appeared on CNN and NPR, and has been featured in the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe and many other publications. He is an advocate for refugee and immigrant rights and is dedicated to bringing people together through his stories of survival and resilience.

In 2022 Iftin graduated from Boston college with a degree in political science. He is a regular newspaper columnist for the Portland Press Herald, and he also works as a Somali news presenter with Maine public radio and as a communications specialist with church world service.

# data[].attributes.headline
Speaker: Dr. N'jai from Kabala, Sierra Leone

# data[].attributes.subject
Speaker: Dr. N'jai from Kabala, Sierra Leone

# data[].attributes.body
Dr. Njai is a published author, worked on the Ebola virus vaccine and is listed as one of the 1,000 black, inspiring scientists in America.

Education: PhD in Biology, Western Michigan University, Bachelors of Science, Kalamazoo College

Career: Assoc. Professor at University of Wisconsin, Madison, Senior Scientist at Proctor and Gamble, Lecturer, College of Medicine and Fourah Bay College at University of Sierra Leone, and the Head of Koinadugu College

Interests: Music, soccer, news, travel, research, nature, radio presentation, and philanthropy.

Family: Neneh N'jai, Mother

# data[].attributes.location_name
University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain

# data[].attributes.headline
University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain

# data[].attributes.subject
University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain

# data[].attributes.body
Click on the links below to...

Learn about LMC's study abroad program

Read LMC's Study Abroad Policy

Learn about the University of Salamanca

Learn about Salamanca, Spain

Inquire further

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Lake Michigan College, in direct partnership with the University of Salamanca, is offering students an opportunity to study abroad through an immersive month-long program in Salamanca, Spain. Read the press release from last years' program.

Contact the advisor to express your interest in earning college credit while living in Spain!
CONTACT THE ADVISOR >> When
May 4-29 or June 1-29, 2020 (between Spring and Summer semesters)
About The Program
The program, open to all LMC students, offers three hours of Spanish language instruction Monday-Friday in both writing and conversation with an optional one or two additional hours in courses such as history, culture and business at the University of Salamanca, the top-ranked university in Spain and the third oldest university in the world still in operation, celebrating its eighth centennial in 2018. Through this direct partnership, these courses transfer back to LMC as Spanish language credit.

In addition to its Spanish courses for non-native speakers, which attracts more than 2,000 foreign students each year, students also will learn about the language and culture from host families and from exploring Salamanca and the rich cultural region of western Spain.

Students interested in finding out more information about the study abroad program should contact Amy Scrima at (269) 927-8777, ascrima@lakemichigancollege.edu.

Read the press release.
Join the Club...Or Not
The Study Abroad Club helps students who are interested in traveling to Spain in May, but you can sign up whether you're part of the club or not. The club helps participants raise money and prepare to go on the trip.
Cost
Base cost = 1347 euros (currently $1475.00)

The total price is approximately $2500, depending on the optional additions you select, which is less than half the cost of the same trip through most university and study abroad programs.

Base credit plan - 3 hours of instruction, Monday to Friday

2 Spanish language instruction and 1 writing/conversation

Optional add on of 1 or 2 additional hours of instruction (additional $200-300) in history, culture, business, etc.

Total: 3 hrs = 60 contact hours, 4=80, 5=100

Transfers back to LMC as Spanish language course credit

Room and board with host family - single room or Dorm stay (additional)

Three meals a day (laundry is an additional $18/week)

Medical insurance included

One day-trip excursion of choice (several options to choose from) and more trips may be added at an additional cost of 40-50 euros each.

No visa required under 90 days abroad

Not included:

Airfare (approximately $800)

Passport ($150)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Lake Michigan College, in direct partnership with the University of Salamanca, is offering students an opportunity to study abroad through an immersive month-long program in Salamanca, Spain. Read the press release from last years' program. Contact the advisor to express your interest in earning college credit while living in Spain!

# data[].attributes.body
Spanish artist Jaume Plensa creates sculpture that speaks to the capacity and beauty of humanity. He uses materials like glass, steel, and bronze blend with unconventional media such as water, light, and sound to create works of  symbolic richness. Plensa finds inspiration in the human figure as a universal symbol. In celebrating the similarities and shared humanity of the world’s seemingly divergent cultures, the artist seeks to connect with his viewers on an intuitive level.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Jaume Plensa: In small places, close to home at Yorkshire Sculpture Park

# data[].attributes.body
Interview: Olafur Eliasson
Olafur Eliasson is an Icelandic-Danish artist known for sculptured and large-scale installation art employing elemental materials such as light, water, and air temperature to enhance the viewer's experience.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Olafur Eliasson Interview: The Shape of an Idea

# data[].attributes.body
Island Reflections – Curacao
Curaçao is a small southern Caribbean island just off the coast of Venezuela that is an independent nation within the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
"Everything about the island is unique, including its widely used language, Papiamentu, which is one of the last remaining Creole languages in use in the world today,"   "Its music, dominated by the ancient rhythm called Tumba, was a fore runner of rap beats.  Its architecture, heavily influenced by the Dutch colonists, is unique to this island."
This video highlights 10 artists living and working on Curaçao who represent a wide range of styles, medium, material and subject matter, and present a rich, complex, multi-vision of Curaçao using the inspiration the island has provided them. These artists' reflections are a result of the diversity of the history of the island:  Dutch influences, multi-cultural influences, slavery, politics, religion, trade, industry, natural environment and island life itself."

Featured artists are Herman Van Bergen, Carlos Blaaker, Hortence Brouwn, Ariadne Faries, Ria Houwen, Yubi Kirindongo, Midzy Longuevergne, Tony Monsanto, Ellen Spijkstra and Philippe Zanolino.  Several of the artists were born on Curaçao, but some have also found their way there from places such as the Netherlands, France and Surinam.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Curacao - Island Reflections - 10 artists

# data[].attributes.location_name
Lake Michigan College, East Napier Avenue, Benton Harbor, MI

# data[].attributes.headline
Lake Michigan College, East Napier Avenue, Benton Harbor, MI

# data[].attributes.subject
Lake Michigan College, East Napier Avenue, Benton Harbor, MI

# data[].attributes.body
Thank you for joining up as we celebrated International Education Week, 2022!

Monday Nov. 14th: Opening Celebration

Tuesday, Nov. 15th: Cooking Demonstration

Wednesday, Nov. 16th: Fab Lab Collab

Wednesday, Nov. 16th: International Movie Night

Thursday, Nov 17th: International Speaker Series - Guest speakers from Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Mogadishu, and Sierra Leone shared their unique stories (click through to watch a recording, passcode: 8d*.m$E7) (please note there were technical difficulties; expect delays and temporary sound loss). Click the green pins on this map to learn more about each of our speakers!

Please provide your feedback for the 2022 events HERE

# data[].attributes.body
Shonibare, a self-proclaimed "postcolonial hybrid" of British-Nigerian heritage, has emerged as one of the leading artistic voices in the global art world. He is best known for his playful combination of colorful Dutch wax-fabric patterns popular in West Africa with the fashion of upper-class Victorian culture.

Born in London to Nigerian parents and raised in Lagos, Nigeria, where he spoke Yoruba at home and English at the private school he attended, Shonibare has a bicultural heritage. His identity is shaped by the postcolonial experience of being in two places at once; of growing up located between center and margin of the British Empire. Postcolonialism and hybridity define his artistic and political identity and are major themes in his prodigious artistic output. While Shonibare embraces cross-cultural mixing and exchange in his work, he never shies from alluding to the postcolonial scars of cultural imperialism and exploitation.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
In Conversation with Yinka Shonibare CBE

# data[].attributes.body
Shonibare, a self-proclaimed "postcolonial hybrid" of British-Nigerian heritage, has emerged as one of the leading artistic voices in the global art world. He is best known for his playful combination of colorful Dutch wax-fabric patterns popular in West Africa with the fashion of upper-class Victorian culture.

Born in London to Nigerian parents and raised in Lagos, Nigeria, where he spoke Yoruba at home and English at the private school he attended, Shonibare has a bicultural heritage. His identity is shaped by the postcolonial experience of being in two places at once; of growing up located between center and margin of the British Empire. Postcolonialism and hybridity define his artistic and political identity and are major themes in his prodigious artistic output. While Shonibare embraces cross-cultural mixing and exchange in his work, he never shies from alluding to the postcolonial scars of cultural imperialism and exploitation.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
In Conversation with Yinka Shonibare CBE