47 HIZ Former HIZ students reminisce on their time in Zambia while international programs are canceled. As with the other Harding University International Programs, Harding University in Zambia (HIZ) canceled its annual study abroad program for fall 2020. This decision was made in June of 2020 to maintain the safety of HIZ participants and staff during the pandemic, HIZ Program Co-Director Jessica Gardner explained. “There were many disappointed students across the University who had planned for and dreamed of studying abroad who had to delay that dream due to the world’s circumstances,” Gardner said. When HIZ began, Janice Bingham, the program’s first director, took about 20 students each year on a 12 week semester in the fall that allowed the students to see different worldviews. When Bingham retired in 2016, Assistant Professor of Nursing Jessica Gardner and her husband, adjunct professor David Gardner, because the program’s directors. Students who attended HIZ prior to 2020 felt disappointed for those who did not get to go. “It broke my heart that there were students that weren’t able to go on the HIZ trip this year,” Emily Baker, junior HIZ participant in fall 2019, said. “I want so badly for others to experience what I have. I want them to get to meet the people I met and learn what I learned.” Junior Lily Beth Ayers also attended HIZ in 2019 and said she learned a lesson in humility there. She was convinced that though the Zambians missed seeing Harding students and faculty, the students missed out as well. “I went into HIZ thinking I was going on a mission trip, and boy, was I wrong,” Ayers said. “I was humbled, deeply humbled, learning that they didn’t need me, but I needed them, and that’s not just a cliché phrase.” Ayers said the lessons she learned from the people in Zambia were unmatched. She saw the world in a different way, and hoped that COVID-19 subsided so that more Harding students could experience HIZ. “I didn’t know how to go into a culture and be respectful,” Ayers said. “I didn’t know how to talk to someone about Jesus in the right way. HIZ gave me these tools that I will forever use.” story by Britty Gist MAKING HIZtory Mountains tower over the landscape of Zambia. Mountains were captured in the photo as one of many in the Mafinga Mountain Range. | photo courtesy of Grace Tandy
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