Alumni Newsletter - Spring 2019

Renée Van Vechten ('89): "Then and Now"

  

Renée Van Vechten is a long-time resident of San Diego and has been a professor of Political Science at the University of Redlands for 14 years. She has led American students in a class called "Politics and Art" abroad in Salzburg, Austria three years in a row, and has published a textbook entitled California Politics: A Primer. She lives in La Mesa with her husband, Charlie ("who faithfully wrote letters and called me weekly when I was in Aix"), her 17-year-old daughter Ava, her 14-year-old son Zach, and their cat Zara.

We asked Renee: How did your experience at IAU inform/shape/change/inspire the course of your life after studying in Aix? She answered:

   "Living and learning in Aix shaped my habits of thinking and communicating in both obvious and subtle ways, cultivated in me an abiding appreciation for cultural difference, and gave me a lifelong craving for calissons. Next year it will be 30 years since I studied in Aix, but perhaps because I established familiar routines and friendships yet also tried to explore something new every day by confronting unfamiliar spaces and interacting with the people who inhabited them, the most poignant memories still seem fresh. Knowing the transformative effects of study abroad, I'm a more convincing advisor when I tell my students that "getting out of Dodge" and exploring a new country is "a must."
    "IAU's enduring influence is most evident in the long-lasting friendship between [my French friend] Samia and me. In 1989 IAU had a "French Friend" program whereby French college students would be matched with American (IAU) students for the purposes of acclimating us to the town. They showed us where to grab coffee like a local, where the best nightclubs were, and some graciously invited us to dinner at their homes. Samia had been "assigned" to a classmate but we started hanging out with mutual friends. Later, in November 1989 as revolutionaries triumphed in East Berlin, I hastily organized a trip to witness the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, and Samia and her sister were part of our group of seven who quickly assembled. It took 24 hours to get there and we got the last hostel beds in the city, but it was worth it. We reveled in the joy of liberation, and cheered on those who were chipping and smashing the towering barrier. We really were witnesses to history in the making.
    "Our bonds sealed through this adventure, Samia and I promised to stay connected when I departed in December, but this was the pre-social-media era when letter writing was the main mode of long-distance communication. We lost touch. 
     "About 7 or 8 years ago Samia and I reconnected through Facebook. We both have kids about the same age, and maybe six years ago she asked if I knew where her daughter could study English. We invited her daughter to stay with us, and we spent a couple of thrilling weeks showing Lana around Southern California. For Samia and me, it was as if our friendship had come full circle--I had a few "wow" moments as I reminisced with Lana about my time in Aix. Two years later Samia and I were reunited after a quarter century; we welcomed her and both of her kids to San Diego (they all stayed with us)! We just hosted Lana a third time this summer, and over the years she has learned to speak English fluently and has become our French daughter and re-supplier of calissons. It's only a matter of time before our families are all reunited in Aix."

Thank you so much for sharing your story, Renée!

Lisa Abia Smith ('88): "Then and Now"

     

(Left: Lisa as a student at the School of Art in 1988; Right: Lisa and one of her students in the landscape at the base of Mt. St. Victoire, Summer 2018)

Lisa Abia-Smith attended IAU and the School of Art in 1988. Now, she is the Director of Education at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art and a Senior Instructor in the College of Design, School of Planning, Public Policy and Management at the University of Oregon. She teaches courses in art education and arts management, including museum studies and access and inclusion in the arts for diverse audiences. Her scholarship, teaching and professional practice centers around providing art education for students who have been marginalized, are from diverse backgrounds, and who have had limited resources or background in the arts.

Last Summer 2018, Lisa led a group of student athletes from the University of Oregon in a program entitled, "Exploring Identity, Place, and Representation through the Arts in Aix-en-Provence." She spent a week with her students at her French alma mater working with School of Art professor Pauline Betrancourt. IAU asked Lisa to reflect on her experiences as an IAU student and subsequently as an IAU partner professor. The interview is below:

How did your experience at IAU in 1988 influence your life path since then? 

"Being a student at IAU was instrumental in my professional and personal development. I had never traveled abroad until my junior year and today it remains one of the most pivotal points of my life because it introduced me to a world of beauty, global relations, history, and museums and the arts for social change. It was because of this experience that I returned to campus my senior year and was hired as an ESL tutor. Being an IAU student opened up a new passion for me to teach others about the world around us and use art as a way to not only acquire language skills, but also learn about the world around us. My students were peers from Mexico, Ethiopia, Japan, Iran and Spain. I knew that whatever career I chose, I wanted to learn more about other cultures and forge connections with citizens through art and language. I finished my undergraduate degree in art and 3 years of French language and then pursued a graduate degree in Museum Studies. Living in Aix and studying with the IAU faculty provided the confidence and clarity I needed to pursue my professional path. I also developed friendships with fellow IAU students and French students studying in Aix and am in close contact with them still today after 30 years."

How did your experience of IAU inform your decision to bring a group of your students abroad?

"That seed was planted 30 years ago when I was taught by my amazing professors. I don't think faculty realize the impact they make on their students. I knew that my experience at IAU had provided me with the gifts I have today to be the professor I am and I wanted to give that same opportunity to my students. My time broad was so powerful for me and my development and I had always hoped to provide that same experience for my own students one day. I hadn't been able to return to Aix since I was a student there so when I returned in 2017 to research a study abroad for my students, I felt like I had come home. I knew the magic of Aix, Marchutz and the IAU campus would be an experience my students would embrace."

Why do you think it was especially important to bring a group of athletes abroad to study art specifically?

"Many of the students I teach have never been able to leave their hometown or travel because of financial constraints. Now in college, they have financial and time restraints because of their schedules playing a sport at the D1 level or working full time to support themselves. I became aware of the national statistics of the demographic of students in the U.S. who study abroad and the GEO program at UO has made it a priority to provide more opportunity to students of color.

"As an art educator, I have been fortunate to see the value that the arts provide, particularly to students who have had limited exposure and need an outlet for self-expression. Student-athletes have such rigorous schedules and are unable to participate in traditional study abroad programs so creating an immersive and compressed schedule between spring term and summer school made it accessible and doable for them.

"Art is the vehicle for me as a professor to forge connections with my students and an instrument that gives students a forum to process ideas, feelings, trauma, hardships, and stress. It is also a window to understanding the world around us. So much about my teaching and this program is about misinterpretation and misperception. As a society we tend to live in places where labeling and classifying one another is commonplace. It is easy to judge and make assumptions about someone based on appearance or their interest. For student-athletes, many are seeking opportunities where they can educate the public about their real and true identities.

How did the program turn out? Would you consider bringing more students abroad to IAU and the School of Art in the future?

"The program exceeded my expectations as well as the students'. We created a group text while we are over there and although the program is over, we all continue to dialogue about it. It is powerful for me to read their messages about what they took with them and the impact IAU and study abroad made on them.

"Art is one of the few instruments that levels the playing field with students. There is such a misperception that you have to be a formally trained artist to reap the benefits or to understand and make meaning out of works of art. As a museum professional, I see the myth that museums are only for the elite and scholarly. It is my passion and charge to correct that misperception" 

Lisa will be bringing another group of students from the University of Oregon this Summer 2019 to continue her program entitled, "Exploring Identity, Place, and Representation through the Arts in Aix-en-Provence." The University of Oregon created a video for last year's program, which you may watch by clicking here.

Thank you for sharing your story, Lisa!

Nancy Reyering ('93): Then and Now

 

(from left to right: Nancy with Marty Walker in Les Baux de Provence, 1993; Nancy today, in California)

IAU recently caught up with Nancy Reyering, a student who attended IAU in 1993. For IAU "Then and Now" features, we generally ask two questions: 1. Please tell us about yourself; and 2. How did your experience at IAU shape/influence/inspire/change/inform the course of your life after studying in Aix? Nancy answers below:

"I was a nontraditional student when I attended IAU, having moved with my little family to Aix-en-Provence to do the year abroad I’d always dreamed of. Unlike most of the students in my program, I was in my 30’s and had a husband and a ten-year-old daughter.

"We all loved our experience living in Aix. We made a decision when we arrived not to stay cloistered with the expat community, but rather to make French friends and begin a real French life, which we did. This was especially important as we were living just outside of town in a little house on Chemin de Bibemus and not with a host family.

"Our daughter attended CIPEC and became easily comfortable in French after just a few months: such is youth! And her accent was perfect. Her French life was quite different than life in California, too. Attending “Booms” for birthdays was something unheard of in her age group at home, and she loved making friends from all over the world.

"After living in Aix and attending IAU we returned to California and I completed two degrees at Stanford University: AB Linguistics and AB French. I taught AP French at Woodside High School for 3 years and worked as a French Language web editor for a big company in Silicon Valley.

"These days I am an environmental advocate in counties south of San Francisco in the Bay Area and I have been an active volunteer for over a decade.

"My experience at IAU changed my life irrevocably. I routinely speak French with friends here and abroad, read French, write French, and watch French television. Knowing a second language caused a wonderful new world to open for me, and for our family."

Since sending us the above story, Nancy was elected as county commissioner in the Harbor District of California with 112,000 votes. Congratulations and thanks for sharing about your experience, Nancy!

From September 28 - 30, 2018, David and Rosemary Glatzel returned to Aix to visit their French alma mater, where they were both students in 1960 - 1961. They met with Vice President Philip Breeden and checked in to see how the IAU was doing. David and Rosemary shared stories and memories of their time with IAU during their visit, and shared with the IAU team that they now have four grandchildren. They remarked: "They are her because of the IAU!" David and Rosemary now live in Charleston, South Carolina. Thank you so much for stopping by!