Spring break adventures

LU Send announces dates and information concerning its first flagship trips

“We don’t want to just be going into places and leaving our American footprint,” Student Development Coordinator Weston Martin said. “We want to be sensitive to the cultures around us, but we also want to learn and share different ideas and opinions as well.”

LU Send recently announced its 2016 international flagship trips. There are four flagship trips students have the opportunity to apply for: Israel, London/Paris, Rome, and Tokyo.

Liberty University’s newly created department, known as LU Send, is the centralized department for student travel, which allows students to combine academic components, spiritual components and cultural components into an international experience.

Martin said the idea of the flagship trips is to provide students with a holistic international travel experience.

According to Martin, each flagship trip has a different set of academic options students can take. For example, Israel has nursing options available as well as theology, biblical studies, global studies and Christian and community service.

Students can propose an independent study option, where they fill out an independent study form and modify the syllabus for the specific class they think might coincide with what they will experience overseas. Departments then either approve or deny the independent study.

All flagship trips will take place over spring break. The Israel trip will take place March 10-20, and the London/Paris, Rome and Tokyo trips will take place March 10-19.

According to Martin, these cities were chosen because they are culturally rich and also very diverse in opportunities to learn on a holistic level. None of the itineraries are completely set. LU Send staff recently returned from doing site development overseas.

There is no technical deadline for trip applications. The estimated early bird price for the Israel, London/Paris and Rome trips was $3600. The Japan trip early bird rate was approximately $3900. However, this date has passed, and the new prices have not been announced.

The trip costs include airfare, lodging, different cultural and ministry opportunities overseas, breakfast and dinner. Lunch is yet to be confirmed.

“The most interesting thing … is being able to combine both the Christian’s heart for sharing the gospel with learning about culture and learning just in general through academics,” Martin said.

So far, the most popular flagship trip in terms of applicants is the Israel trip. Anywhere from 50-100 students will travel to Israel. The other three trips are looking to accommodate up to 50 people each.

Students interested in either applying for or learning more about the upcoming flagship trips should visit the LU Send website liberty.edu/lusend or email LUsend@liberty.edu.

Sherril is a news reporter.