GO! Center Offers Worldwide Opportunities to Students 

by Abigail Wisniewski 

The Concordia Global Opportunities Center provides long and short-term opportunities for students to experience cultures around the world. It also provides information about opportunities for short study tours, internships, semesters studying abroad, mission trips and more.

“Really any international experience has the opportunity to open people’s eyes,” GO! Center director, Julie Johnston Hermann said.

During the 2015-16 school year, Concordia students took part in 27 different international experiences, traveling to nine different countries across six different continents.

“Our mission really is to prepare people to be going out into the church and world,” Hermann said. “We really can’t prepare people to do either if we just stay here.”

One opportunity for students to experience different cultures is through mission trips. Mission Minded Students is a campus organization that provides students interested in mission work with opportunities to serve both abroad and in the area. The GO! Center also helps students find mission organizations to travel through.

In May, a group of students traveled to Guatemala to serve and participate in worship within the local community.

“Being able to share one’s faith in the context of a mission trip can not only speak to those whom you are interacting with in another country but sharing your faith can also speak to you,” senior Cassie Boeka said. “I think it also helped the confidence and desire I have in my field of study in becoming a Director of Christian Education.”

Students can also travel by taking a semester or summer study abroad tour.

Senior Kenzie Woltemath spent four months studying in Australia during the 2015 school year.

“I opened my mind to new and exciting worldviews,” Woltemath said. “Whether I agree with all of them or not, I was able to put myself in the shoes of all these beautiful strangers I was meeting abroad. That alone is so precious to me.”

Johnston noted that students interested in going abroad should begin planning early in their college career in order to make sure there are still classes available for them to take.

Boeka and Woltemath encouraged other students to consider traveling and taking in the experience of a new culture.

“Immersion in a culture in another country is an unfiltered opportunity to learn about different cultures first hand,” Boeka said.

Information about travel opportunities is available by appointment in the GO! Center.