Pacific Rim trip cancelled

Photo Submitted

 

This year, due to financial reasons and lack of student participation, the life of the Pacific Rim Studies program has changed.

1975 marked the beginning of a close relationship between Oklahoma Christian University and Ibaraki Christian University in Hitachi City, Japan. It started as a short summer program and has since blossomed into what is now known as Pacific Rim Studies, or, more commonly, Pac Rim.

This year, the Pac Rim program was cancelled indefinitely.

Study Abroad Coordinator Mendy Kooi discussed the ins and outs of why this decision was ultimately made.

“The Pac Rim program is built around a financial model of about 20-24 students. It is an expensive program because of all the flights,” Kooi said. “ They will usually take anywhere between 14-17 flights. Airline prices have increased, fuel prices have increased and the currency rates, especially the Japanese Yen, has made it really difficult to make the dollar stretch very far on that program, which made it even harder.”

When the application process began, more than 20 students were planning on participating in Pac Rim; however, due to a multitude of reasons, the number quickly dropped to 10, causing the prices to rise and the program to end.

“We will have to see if anything changes for next year,” Kooi said. “If the currency gets better, if fuel prices increase again, it will make it difficult again. That is something we will have to consider over the summer, and then we will have to make that decision later.”

Students are sad to see this popular trip go.

“It is definitely a trip that should be brought back; it is a very wide travel route,” sophomore and former Pac-Rimmer Evan Loomis said. “Because it is so unique, I think it is a shame to let it die off.”

The school, along with the study abroad coordinator, saw the need to create an alternative for Pac Rim so students could still visit these countires.

“When it was becoming clear that we needed to let the Pac Rim program go this year, we had several concerns,” Kooi said. “One was for the students that had already signed up and really wanted to go. We wanted to offer something for them so they would still have that opportunity.”

A brand new program, known as the Asian Studies Program, was created in lieu of Pac Rim for this year.

“We have had a partnership with Ibaraki Christian University,” Kooi said. “Next year will be our 40th year of sending students over there. We wanted to continue that relationship; we didn’t want that to stop. We didn’t want to go a year without that relationship.”

Besides the relationship Oklahoma Christian holds with Ibaraki Christian, the school has formed new partner schools in Asia. These programs help to hold Oklahoma Christian to Asia.

“We have had a new relationship over the past few years with Xi’an Polytechnic University in Xi’an, China,” Kooi said. “That is where a lot of our Chinese students come from. We wanted to continue those partnerships.”

Loomis, who attended Pac Rim in 2012, commented on the program being cut for 2013.

“I felt very saddened and pretty frustrated because I feel like it was a very meaningful experience for me, and it shaped a lot of things about who I am now,” Loomis said.

Kolby Calhoun, a student who was planning on attending Pac Rim, talked about his experience throughout learning the program would not continue this year.

“Mendy originally said that we would probably have to drop a country, which would most likely be New Zealand, but I didn’t expect them to cancel an entire trip on all of us,” Calhoun said.

However, Calhoun will be attending the upcoming summer European Studies program.

“They did offer us a full withdrawal, including our deposit, which was nice, but they also offered a transfer to the fall Euro or summer Euro, and then they are starting a Summer Asian Studies Program,” Calhoun said. “I took the summer Euro.”

Calhoun said the Asian Studies Program was not ideal for him, as he was looking forward to spending more time in China and Japan, especially doing the month-long home stays (living with a host family in their native country).

“When you go to a place that is so un-westernized like Japan or like China, and you stay there like you would for Pac Rim, which would be for a longer time, you get to take in more of the culture and it is not so rushed,” Calhoun said. “I felt like (the Asian Studies Program) would be very rushed. It left out so much of the trip that I did not want to go anymore.”

These differences are a disappointment to other students.

“With Pac Rim, you get to see China, Japan, New Zealand and Australia, which are four very diverse cultures, although they have grown up next to each other,” Loomis said. “They have very different landscapes and people. It is so vastly different. It definitely shapes your worldview in a way that is very unique to that trip.