Student Looks to Build on South Africa Experience
Jameson Coslow among more than 100 students who will venture on Global Partnership trips this year
CHICAGO (April 2, 2015) — Last month, Jameson Coslow, a sophomore nonprofit management major at North Park University, walked through the faded white bars and onto the cold stone floor that was Nelson Mandela’s 7-foot-by-8-foot cell on Robben Island in South Africa. He spent time weaving baskets with women from the Zimele organization, a group whose mission is to confront the root causes of poverty and remove the barriers to economic self-sufficiency for women in South Africa’s rural communities. And he spent time with local political activists who taught him about the historical and current racial and economic struggles in the country.
Jameson experienced all of these things along with seven other North Park students and two faculty advisors, Dr. Boaz Johnson and Dr. Mary Trujillo. It was part of North Park’s University Ministries Global Partnerships program, which provides students opportunities for cross-cultural experiences that expand their faith, their views of the world, and their commitment to a lifestyle of justice. This year, students will go on trips to India, Mexico, Washington D.C., Appalachia, Zambia, the Dominican Republic, and South Africa.
“Our hope is that these trips are an opportunity to open student’s eyes to the vastness of the kingdom of God,” says Jessica Wheelwright, global partnerships coordinator. “It is bigger than what we imagine and what is familiar to us. These experiences challenge students to continue to engage in their faith with whomever they meet.”
Last year, we explored the changing dynamics of Global Partnership opportunities at North Park. Jameson’s trip to South Africa was part of a for-credit course taught by Dr. Johnson titled Truth and Reconciliation. It is a learning experience that includes a classroom component before and after the trip. In preparation, Jameson and his classmates studied and discussed the history and cultural tensions of South Africa. The experience so far has been transformational, Jameson says, but he’s still processing what it means for himself and for the community around him.
“It was great going, but it was one of those things where you come back and only a handful of people get it,” he says. “It was such a powerful experience, and you see all of these important places. You care about these things a lot and you come back and try to figure out how to really get across what it was like and do the entire experience justice. You want to explain and tell the whole story but people only want to hear bits and pieces.”
One story Jameson tells is about the group’s visit to district six in Cape Town. He describes it as the equivalent of New Orleans with its blend of cultures. The apartheid government had made it a white-only area during the 1970s.
“Our tour guide grew up there before it was segregated and told of how her brother got beaten for playing the saxophone on the street, and in the distress of the situation, her mother had a heart attack and died. Our tour guide had hate and anger towards the white government,” Jameson says.
But her story, much like South Africa’s story, didn’t end with hate and anger, but with redemption and reconciliation. Their tour guide told them after a number of years, she walked into an old church, a place she didn’t go very often, and sat down. She prayed and felt her anger disappear and was finally able and willing to forgive those who hurt her family and her community.
“You could sit down and read a book about South Africa and probably have a decent perspective on it, but there’s something about being in South Africa and feeling this racial tension,” Jameson says. “Living in that and then hearing the emotion behind people’s words changes the way you feel toward them and their situation.”
Jameson's experience with the South Africa trip won’t end with his return home. Global Partnerships offers several debriefing opportunities for students.
“This is a crucial part in understanding and fully engaging in the experience,” says Wheelwright. “Learning how to put words to an experience, helping to process emotions, and helping to understand them moving forward. Students need to continue to ask, ‘what does this mean, how do I share these stories, and how do I continue to engage with this ministry if I feel called to do it and continue to engage in the larger kingdom of God?’”
Jameson’s dream is to work in disaster relief for the Red Cross. He has an international outlook, owing in part to the fact that his father served in the Peace Corps and he lived in Finland and Latvia before coming to the United States. But an important piece for him now, and for his Truth and Reconciliation class, is how to relate the experience of South Africa to his current community in the U.S.
“I come back from this trip, recover from the jet lag, and I can’t stop thinking about whether what is happening 9,000 miles away means anything to us here,” Jameson says. “There’s so much racial tension in America, and learning about South Africa helps me think about how we can work through it here so everyone can have healing.”
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