Department of Sociology: Visit by Lehigh University

Visit by the students from Lehigh University, Pennsylvania, USA

Lehigh University is a private, research university located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. They run a Global Citizenship Program that draws students from all three of Lehigh’s undergraduate colleges—arts and sciences, engineering and applied science, business and economics—and prepares them to live and work in an increasingly interconnected world.

As part of this Program, 21 students and 3 trip leaders visited the Christ University, Bangalore campus on Monday, January 6, 2014. Volunteers from 1 EPS helped organize their morning on the campus and spent time with the visiting team.

Traditional Welcome

Students greeting the visitors with the traditional diyas and aarti

Shruti Mahadevan, a third year student from PSEco, treated the audience to a wonderful Bharatnatyam piece on the baby Krishna. This piece was part of the invocation to start off the program on an auspicious note.

Our students were then given a brief introduction to Lehigh University and its Global Citizenship program. This helped to set the tone for the program and provide a context for the interaction between the two groups of students and faculty.
The students from I EPS participated in an interactive session to look at society, culture and education in India and in USA. These students spoke about the differences and similarities across both cultures. They examined an average day in the life of a student in both the Universities.

Introduction to the Global Citizenship program

MCs taking over

Interactive session

The interactive session was followed by a tour across the expansive campus followed by lunch in the cafeteria along with other Christites. This provided time and space to observe and learn from each other.
The visit culminated with a group photo and a vote of thanks. This visit and the interaction that it has entailed has helped to establish friendships that cut across cultural and geographic boundaries.