ffe+~ tp~«t~ v4iu4bk ~-iGnJ; gWeJ -ituJmU IU'W t+ pe~p«tweJ The course description includes bartering for food, sleeping on dirt floors, br ick-making and, if you can't do without meat, you might have to kill a small , furry animal. If it doesn 't sound like the typical class, that's because it isn't. Nothing about the Heife r Project International (HPI) is typical, at least not by the standards of most of the participants. Heifer Project International's name symbolizes the importance of domestic animals to the people whom it reaches. When the actual program is implemented, animals are given to the fami li es in need to help them earn income. The families receive the animal wi th the understanding that they will pass along the firs t offspring to another needy family. Another method of HPJ's outreach is to inform people of the conditions faced in those countries. "We thought the experience wou ld be of great va lue to our nursing students," said Cathl een Shultz, dean of the School of Nu rsing. "We want to send prepared students wi th a vari ety of experiences into the workplace." Although the course at HPI headquarters was designed with nursing and Bible students in mind, it hasn't been limited to those majors. Its goal is to inform and aid those studentswho plan to enter the mission field. Any student who fits that description is welcome. The Nursing and Bible departments began offe ring the course in cooperation with the Heifer project almost four years ago. Monte Cox and Jerry Myhan designed th is unique course. Both were veterans of the mission field and remembered feeling ill-prepared for the situations they had to face on a daily basis. Matt Bishop andHeatherMartin chat at the nursing cookout at the beginning of the fall term. Thenursing faculty andstudents gathered with their families to relax for a day before things got underway for the year. • 162 ACADEMICS "We want students to be better prepared to help people not just with their immediate problems, but also to give them something to improve their quality of life," Myhan said. To give students an idea of what they would face, Myhan and Cox developed a kind of mock living arrangement. Students take up residence in an Appa lach ian shack, a Mexican d\velling, a Thai hut or a Guatemalan house, which are all part of the global village.They are given limited resources and have to barterwith each other, using a special dialect, to get the rest of their suppli es. One group is usually given a rabbit, but to eat it you have to kill it. Summer groups actuallywork for wages, making bricks and digging latrines. Despite the hard work, students seem to enjoy or at least learn from their excursion. "It helps you develop a compassion for people," senior nursing student Matt Bishop said. "That's important when you r job is to care for people. Regardless ofwhat you decide to do with your nursing degree, you also learn to appreciatewhat you have. You appreciate beds, vegetables, meat, supermarkets - everything." "It piqued my interest about the medical mission fie ld, "All ison Bailey, a senior nursing major, said. "I was interested before, but this experi ence helped me to know what to expect. Now J'm going to Africa thi s summer." The Hei fer project course seemed to attain its goa ls. The old phrase, "You don 't know a man until you've walked a mile in his shoes," has special meaning now for those students who have taken the Heifer Project class. - Michelle Kitchens
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