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Students live with local families while enrolled in the program. For
many students, the "homestay" is a high point of the 15-week semester
and the time when they learn the most about day-to-day life in an urban
setting. "It's really amazing how students have bonded with their homestay
families," said Kathy (Martin '99) Rowe, L.A. Term program assistant.
"It's not always 'family life' as they expect, but rather having their
assumptions challenged and seeing a different way of life than the norm." |
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Robert Hueners '03, an APU student majoring in Christian ministry and sociology, interns at the West Angeles Christian Academy where he works with students in grades K-8. He discovered he was "the only white kid in the neighborhood," a fact that, at times, was a "bit intimidating." Amazed by his experiences during the L.A. Term semester, he was enlightened by his overnight stay in a homeless shelter: "I've visited homeless shelters before, but always as an outsider," he said. "This time I was one of them – I saw how they live and what they have to go through." "The strength of the L.A. Term is its immersion in the culture," said O'Quinn. "Students live with families and take public transportation-they see the faces, smell the smells, and hear the languages of the city." As part of their experience, students are given the opportunity to visit various community agencies and network with community and religious leaders. "There is a transformation of life as they begin to understand God's creation as diverse and as they risk to move beyond the textbooks to breathing, sleeping, and eating with the inhabitants of this urban community." |
