Bhim Thapaliya, an Elizabethtown College senior who is originally from Nepal, has begun to develop a study abroad program that will enable his fellow Blue Jays to study in his home country.
Thapaliya said that one of his main goals is to “help the College to have other experiences of understanding different cultures, not just from the textbook.”
Any students who are enrolled in a religious studies class, such as one with Dr. Jeffery Long, professor of religion and Asian studies, would be able to have “the experience of understanding religion and Hinduism in Nepal,” Thapaliya said.
“I want them to feel the real experience — real life. I can’t say everything is different, but you know the people there are different — the culture is different.”
In order to effectively immerse each participating student in the Nepali culture, not to mention the College’s “Educate for Service” mission, Thapaliya’s program emphasizes service learning. “They might end up teaching English to the students [or] the monks,” Thapaliya said.
As of right now, the program is scheduled to be a short-term trip, though it may expand to a semester-long trip in the future.
According to Thapaliya, the plan is to either have the Nepal service learning experience in action by May 2015 or by spring break of next year.
“If we do it for spring break, it would only be for seven or eight days, and if we do it in the May Term, it’s going to be about three weeks,” Thapaliya said.
“We’re organizing it with BCA,” Thapaliya said.
According to Thapaliya, Brethren Colleges Abroad (BCA) will decide how much the trip ultimately will cost per student, “how much goes to the program and how much they need to pay for the airfare,” Thapaliya said.
In addition to collaborating with BCA, Thapaliya said that he has started coordinating with a travel company based in Nepal.
But that is not the only Nepali-Etown program he organizes for campus. He also formed the “Act for Humanity” club, which allows the College’s students to connect with and assist Nepali refugee families in the Lancaster area.
“Act for Humanity Foundation (AHF) helps underprivileged children and their families within America, but we specialize with programs only in Lancaster County at this time, and we’re only focusing on programming with refugees,” Thapaliya said.
“We [the AHF chapter on campus] partner with them. This year we have plans for four different projects,” he continued.
For instance, around the beginning of October, one of those projects includes having members of the Etown chapter of AHF assist adult refugees in their citizenship classes.
Additionally, as donations for refugee children, the club collects “stationery, textbook, notebook, pencils, papers … anything that helps for educational purposes,” Thapaliya said.
