He recounted the experience with a smile. “You can’t go wrong in a country that has so many Chinese restaurants,” said Dr. Henry Antkiewicz, history professor. In particular Antkiewicz enjoyed a Buddhist restaurant.
“All the dishes were made vegetarian, but they looked like pork dishes or beef dishes. It was just a real work of art, I thought. The food was spectacular.”
Last summer Antkiewicz and Dr. Weixing Chen, of the political science department, took nine students and nine community members to China for a summer study abroad program. Participants traveled to Beijing, Xi’an, Hangzhou, Suzhou and Shanghai.
They visited the Great Wall of China, the terra cotta soldiers and numerous other locations. The group experienced everything from a lecture on Chinese dragons to a nighttime river tour of Shanghai’s city lights.
“So far, most of them say it’s a life-changing experience,” Chen said.
Antkiewicz and Chen will facilitate a panel discussion as part of International Education Week at ETSU. The event, “ETSU China Summer Study Abroad: Academic Adventure and Life-Changing Experience” is featured with two other lectures.
The three lectures focus on global interest and education. However, the similarities in the events stop there.
Details and personal accounts will be available at the panel discussion. Information about the next trip to China, in the summer of 2007, will also be provided.
The discussion on China will take place Nov. 13 at 7 p.m. in Brown Hall Auditorium. Admission is free and open to all ETSU students.
The next event features Dr. Randy Wykoff, dean and professor of the College of Public and Allied Health. He will discuss “The Greatest Challenge for Global Health in 2006.” He did not say what the challenge was but, he did give some hints.
On the back of his business card Wykoff has a chart of the National Health Ranking of Tennessee in 2005 and 1990. Tennessee’s overall rank in 2005 is 48th. Since 1990 the state’s ranking has dropped in areas such as smoking prevalence, obesity, high school graduation and premature death.
“These are issues that span geographic lines,” Wykoff said. He cited that every year 10 million to 12 million children under the age of 5 die, two-thirds of which could be saved by existing low-cost interventions. Many deaths are caused by diarrhea and pneumonia, which could be cured by drugs that cost less than $1.
“There is no fine line between where infant mortality is important and where it’s not,” he stated. “Tennessee ranks 48th in the United States for infant mortality, so it is a problem here. These are real issues, they are issues for us.”
Sheena Kersey, a nursing major, was surprised to hear about Tennessee’s low rankings. “I didn’t think it was that bad in Tennessee,” she stated. “I did an internship with my high school in labor and delivery with my local hospital and I never saw one baby die.”
Wykoff wants to do more than prove a point.
“I’m hoping to help people who want to think about global health in a new way,” he said. “We need public health. We need prevention. We need a sense of obligation.”
“The Greatest Challenge” will also be held in Brown Hall Auditorium, on Nov. 14, at 7p.m.
The last speaker, Karin Muller, lives a life with enough adventure for three people. She is a noted author, filmmaker and traveler who produced three books and three documentaries about her travels.
Her speech is “Japanland: A Year In Search of Wa,” a title that is shared by her latest book. Muller spent a year in Japan living with a host family and trying to fit in with Japan’s disciplined society.
For someone who speaks at least four languages, holds a black belt in both judo and jujitsu and flies hang gliders competitively. Muller’s writing has a surprisingly humble and humorous voice. In her book readers experience Muller’s frustrations and joys as she travels in search of Wa – effortless harmony.
Muller’s visit is co-sponsored by the Honor’s College and the Women’s Resource Center. Her speech will take place Nov. 15, at 7 p.m. in Brown Hall Auditorium. A reception and book signing at the Reece Museum will follow the lecture.
For more information contact Linda Wyatt of the Honors College at 439-6075 or visit the IEW Web site at http://www.etsu.edu/honors/iew.asp.

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