NEW WILMINGTON, Pa. -- On September 18, 2011, more than a dozen faculty members from Akko, Israel journeyed to New Wilmington, Pennsylvania for the first ever Bridges Collaboration at Westminster College.
"It's a conference to cement the partnership between Western Galilee College in Akko, Israel and Westminster College. It's a little different than conventional conferences because there will be 14 Israeli faculty coming over. Those 14 faculty will be paired with Westminster faculty and they will be either in the middle of a research project or maybe initiating a joint project between the two or three faculty people. "
Dr. Amy Camardese was one of the faculty members planning the collaboration. She explains how the project came to Westminster.
"It got started because of a research partnership I had with Yehuda Peled. As a result of the research the two of us did, I wrote the grant for the full bright scholar in residence and we were fortunate enough to have that funded. That was like a little step. The two of us got together doing research. And the next step was the full bright scholar in residence. And the next step is this bridges conference. So it's nice to see it evolve. "
Plenary sessions and workshops were held throughout the four-day conference. The Western Galilee faculty members partnering with Westminster faculty members presented their research at these sessions. Discussion sessions and panels for questions were also addressed. All sessions were free and open to the public.
The collaboration kicked off with a signing of an agreement between the two colleges. President Richard Dorman and President Gideon Fishman signed the document together to establish the relationship.
The collaboration and conference was a success. However, many students and faculty may wonder, what's next? What was the point of the collaboration? Where do we go from here?
Dr. Camardese explains what the relationship means for those at Westminster along with Dr. Bryan Rennie, who was another faculty member who assisted Dr. Camardese in organizing the conference.
"I think they're going to be the beneficiaries of a lot of enrichment, as far as curriculum goes, which maybe, that's not something like, ‘Oh wow, I'm really glad I'm really enriched with curriculum. ' But I think further than that there are going to be multiple opportunities for students to travel and to work on their capstone. There were three students this past summer who went with Dr. Pataki there and worked on their various captstones."
"We've had a total of six students who've already gone to Israel to do research in Israel. The most recent being Alyssa Hanna, who is a broadcast communications [major] and peace studies minor. She's creating a documentary film interviewing women of different religious background and cultural backgrounds and how their lives have played out in Israel. And that seems to be working very well. She's being given the opportunity to go back…. And what certainly I'm hoping that in the future we may be able to send groups of faculty and students to Israel. I'm hoping that in future we can do something like that."
President of Westminster College, Richard Dorman, told WCN how this relationship can blossom through the conference.
"The relationships that we are building now among the faculty will translate into new opportunities for our students. As we have mentioned, we have already had six students from Westminster go over to Western Galilee, go over to Israel for a number of different projects. There are travel courses that can be offered, there are study abroad opportunities that can be offered through this. We just think this opens up a brand new and very exciting opportunity for our students in a part of the world, I might add, that's extremely dynamic. "
"How often do you read about it in your textbooks, or see it on a newscast on the TV, but here you get to talk to people who are really involved in it right now. That's got to be a wonderful opportunity. "
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