Honors in Croatia
Course Details
Syllabus
Instructional Dates
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Travel Dates
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Credits
Honors 106, Honors 237, Honors 337
Total Credits: 7
Prerequisites
Students need to be part of Honors College
Join Dr. Arna Elezovic for a unique opportunity to learn about a small southeastern Europe country through travel.
Traveling from the capital city of Zagreb to the beautiful Dalmatian coast, students will visit the cities of Zadar, Trogir, and Split. Along the way, we will explore the history, art, food, environment, culture, including two national parks, and ecological sites through excursions and guided tours. Students will also have the opportunity to visit the islands off the coast and see firsthand what island life can be like.
This trip fulfills the last class in the first-year sequence (Honors 106) in the Honors College for first year students or a colloquium (Honors 237) for 2nd - 4th year students fulfilling both GUR and Honors College requirements. The program earns you 7 credits.
The Honors 337 portion of the trip, The Balkans and Croatia in Context, which all students take regardless of year, is an opportunity for students in the Honors College to fulfill one of their seminar requirements through global learning. The course focuses on the history of southeastern Europe and Croatia in particular. The learning is experiential but we will use Croatia – its history, art, and culture – as a case study to examine key themes that are embedded in our understanding of the Western Civilization, divisions between East and West, our ideas about nationalism, identity, modernity, and what a nation becomes when born out of war. This course will provide students with ample opportunities to understand the richness and depth of Croatian culture.
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Program Highlights
We will begin the experience in Croatia’s capital city of Zagreb. Time in the city includes walking and museum tours, especially the quirky and wonderful Museum of Broken Relationships. We will have a day excursion to Varaždin and the Medieval Trakošćan Castle in north Croatia. We will travel by private coach and have the same local guide/program coordinator throughout our trip. Then we will travel to a region called Istria, largest peninsula within the Adriatic Sea and known for its natural beauty and food culture. Staying in the town of Lovran, we will take day trips to go truffle hunting and travel to the Island of Cres, visiting a griffin vulture rehabilitation center. Then enroute to mid-coastal region, we will go to the amazing Plitvice National Park, which has 16 waterfalls spending a day and night there. Once we reach Zadar, a small city on the coast, our time includes walking tours, visit to the island of Pag to see cheese and lace making, the modern art installation called Zadar Sea Organ (music created by waves). Our third destination will be the town of Trogir, from which we will take day trips to the biodiverse Kornati National Park. We will also spend a day in Split, the largest coastal city with ancient Roman beginnings. In most locations, we will have a local guide taking us on walking tours, in addition to having our program coordinator with us throughout the trip. This travel experience has a lot of motion, so you will have three free days during our travels to explore Croatia on your own (with fellow participants please!), to rest, swim, or relax. From Trogir, we will travel by private coach to the Split airport, smaller and more manageable, to head home.
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Expectations of Participants
With or without reasonable accommodations, students must be able to walk and/or sit for 8-10 hours. Days we are traveling are punctuated by excursions and stops. The weather can be hot. Students can expect to be on their feet, walking in the cities of Zagreb, Zadar, Trogir, and Split, both on and off concrete, or uneven ground, in very warm weather for extended periods of time, often several hours consecutively. Cities will have museums and restrooms. We visit parks and nature reserves. We will also travel on ferries to the islands along the coast. Ferries often are large and transport cars. The program is reasonably strenuous for students unaccustomed to being physically active continuously throughout the day. When we travel on private coach, our travel will be punctuated by rest stops and excursions. The program does not entail any other physically demanding activities aside from a great deal of walking.
Refrigeration may be available for program duration.
Students must work with the WWU Disability Access Center, Wilson Library 170, (360) 650-3083, drs@wwu.edu. For service eligibility, a complete diagnostic description from a qualified professional is required. Specific accommodations or services are determined on an individual basis and are modified to meet the unique needs of the student and their academic experience. Accommodation policies and procedures are highly individualized and centered on self-advocacy, realistic self-appraisal, and student growth. Each quarter, students need to activate their approved accommodations for each class. Students choose which of their approved accommodations they want to activate for each class.
We strongly recommend that all students traveling on this Global Learning Program are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to maximize the safety of the student cohort. Staying up to date with COVID-19 vaccines remains the most important step to protect yourself and your community.
Participants are expected to abide by all attendance policies of the program, including those for classes and excursions, and to adhere to the program schedule. Since the programs are academic in nature, parents, friends, partners, and families are not permitted on any part of the Global Learning Program. Personal travel must be outside of the course dates and not conflict with coursework or excursion schedules. Travel plans should be vetted by faculty beforehand to ensure personal plans do not interfere with meeting the learning objectives of the course.
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