Author: CMU

Discussion event puts restorative justice under the microscope

Post author By CMU
Post date October 28, 2014

Community invited to ‘grapple with some challenging and necessary conversations’

A Winnipeg police officer, an advocate for victims, and a restorative justice specialist from South Korea are the special guests at an upcoming Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) event focusing on restorative justice.

Clock-wise from top left: Bob Chrismas, Jae-Young Lee, and Lisa Phommarath

Bob Chrismas, Lisa Phommarath, and Jae-Young Lee are the panel members at CMU’s second Face2Face discussion of 2014-15. Titled, “Restorative Justice: Soft on Crime or Building Community Security?” the event takes place on Thursday, November 13 at 7:00 PM in CMU’s Great Hall (500 Shaftesbury Blvd.).

Admission is free, and everyone is welcome to attend. Face2Face is a series of conversations with CMU faculty and special guests designed to engage the community on a wide variety of current events and issues at the intersection of faith and life.

David Balzer, Assistant Professor of Communications and Media at CMU and one of the event’s organizers, says CMU wanted to host a conversation about restorative justice because educating for peace and justice is one of the university’s institutional commitments.

Recent political decisions around tough-on-crime policy were also on the organizers’ minds.

“There’s a seeming move to incarceration as an answer for how we make things right in the community when a wrong is committed,” Balzer says. “This event will put restorative justice under the microscope and ask: What does it have to say to us?”

The November 13 event will explore questions such as: What roles do incarceration, punishment, and restorative justice play in building security? Is restorative justice effective in ensuring accountability for wrongdoing or violence? Are punishment and incarceration helping us to build more secure communities? How does our cultural context—whether Winnipeg or Korea—impact how we imagine responses to crime and wrongdoing? And, how does civil society connect with these concerns?

Lee, who is from Seoul, South Korea, works as a restorative justice specialist in schools, police stations, and regional conferences; Chrismas is a 25-year veteran of the Winnipeg Police Service who, in addition to his work as a staff sergeant, is currently working on a PhD in Peace and Conflict Studies; and Phommarath is a victim of violent crime who has worked for several years with an inmate visitation program, as well as with Voices of Resilience, a support group for victims.

“I can’t wait to hear all three of these people present, because they are taking their ideas about restorative justice and putting them into action,” Balzer says. “They want to help bring people together in very broken places in the world.”

Wendy Kroeker, Instructor in Peace and Conflict Transformation Studies at CMU, will also serve as a contributor in this conversation, offering key definitions and frameworks.

After the panelists present, people in attendance are invited to join in the discussion by asking questions and sharing their own reflections.

“Our hope for this event is to create an open and authentic space for community members and invited presenters to grapple with some challenging and necessary conversations,” Balzer says.

“Restorative Justice: Soft on Crime or Building Community Security?” is the second of four Face2Face events CMU will host during the 2014-15 school year. For details, please visit www.cmu.ca/face2face.

About CMU
A Christian university in the Anabaptist tradition, CMU’s Shaftesbury campus offers undergraduate degrees in arts, business, humanities, music, sciences and social sciences, and graduate degrees in Theology and Ministry. CMU has over 1,600 students, including those enrolled in degree programs at the Shaftesbury Campus and in its Menno Simons College and Outtatown programs.

For information about CMU, visit: www.cmu.ca.

For additional information, please contact:

Kevin Kilbrei, Director of Communications & Marketing
kkilbrei@cmu.ca; 204.487.3300 Ext. 621
Canadian Mennonite University
500 Shaftesbury Blvd., Winnipeg, MB R3P 2N2

Tags Bob Christmas, conflict resolution, Face2Face, Jae-Young Lee, justice, Lisa Phommarath, peacebuilding, Restorative Justice

Events Lectures News Releases

Menno Simons College Presents Dr. Anil Gupta on Learning From Grassroots Innovators

Post author By CMU
Post date October 16, 2014

2014 David Hopper Lecture sponsored by the International Development Research Centre

The topic “Empathetic Innovations for Inclusive Development: Can we learn from Grassroots Innovators?” will be addressed by Dr. Anil Gupta, senior professor at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad.

The lecture is scheduled for October 30, 2014 at 7:30 PM in the University of Winnipeg’s Convocation Hall. Light refreshments will be served beginning at 7:00 PM.

Dr. Anil Gupta is a professor at IIM, the top management and policy research institute in Asia and the Pacific region.
He is the founder of SRISTI, an internationally know NGO working for farmers’ innovation and creativity. Gupta’s development work led to the creation of the National Innovation Foundation, which he currently leads as Executive Vice President. He serves on numerous high-ranking advisory committees and policy groups in India and abroad on development, environment, science and education, ethics, and governance.

Dr. Gupta is an engaging public speaker and his work as an academic and activist is recognized by the Padma-shree Award, the highest civil honour conferred by the President of India.

About the Hopper Lecture

The Hopper Lecture Series is sponsored by the International Development Research Centre, in honour of its first president, David Hopper. The David Hopper Lecture 2014 is coordinated by Menno Simons College and the University of Guelph.

About Menno Simons College

Menno Simons College (MSC), a part of Canadian Mennonite University and affiliated with the University of Winnipeg, has been offering programs in International Development Studies (IDS) and Conflict Resolution Studies (CRS) since 1989. MSC fosters a vibrant undergraduate learning community in its newly renovated facility at 520 Portage Avenue. It offers 3-year and 4-year majors and a minor in IDS and CRS, an honours program in IDS, and an extensive practicum program. MSC has over 1,000 students and hundreds of alumni working in the development and conflict resolution sectors in Manitoba, Canada, and internationally.

For additional information, please contact:

Joel Marion
Menno Simons College
204.953.3844
jo.marion@uwinnipeg.ca

Tags David Hopper, IDS, International Development Studies, Lecture, Menno Simons Col, MSC

Events Lectures News Releases

CMU welcomes John Swinton for 2014 J.J. Thiessen Lectures

Post author By CMU
Post date October 8, 2014

Scottish author and professor to speak on ‘Disability, Timefulness, and Gentle Discipleship’

How might the experience of profoundly disabled people impact our understandings of God, creation, and the meaning of humanness?

Dr. John Swinton will explore that question at this year’s J.J. Thiessen Lectures at Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) on October 14-15. Titled “Becoming Friends of Time: Disability, Timefulness and Gentle Discipleship,” the three-part lecture series take place in the CMU Chapel (600 Shaftesbury Blvd.) on Tuesday, October 14 at 11:00 AM and 7:30 PM, and concludes Wednesday, October 15 at 11:00 AM.

Dr. John Swinton, Professor and Chair in Divinity and Religious Studies at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland

Swinton, Professor and Chair in Divinity and Religious Studies at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, will discuss the nature and purpose of time, and the ways in which certain forms of disability draw attention to forgotten aspects of time and timefulness.

The lectures will focus particularly on people with profound intellectual disabilities and people with cognitive disabilities such as advanced dementia. People with such life experiences perceive and live out time in ways that are quite different from the expectations of our speed driven culture.

“If we can conceptualize time differently, we begin to look at the gospel quite differently,” Swinton says.

People with profound disabilities draw attention to the significance of time and point towards the fact that true knowledge of God and faithful discipleship is slow and gentle; not bound by the assumptions of speed, worldly success, and the quickness of one’s intellect.

“One of the primary things that we learn is that by living in God’s time as opposed to the time created by our own clocks, we begin to encounter our daily practices quite differently,” Swinton says.

He adds that Christians today are “always walking ahead of Jesus.” The average Westerner walks at a pace of six miles per hour, whereas Jesus would have walked at half that speed—partly because of the heat, but partly because he understood the meaning of time. He had all the time in the world to do what God wanted him to do.

“By taking time to slow down and think about the experiences of people with dementia, we begin to discover things about God and being human that simply aren’t available (to us) when we’re walking ahead of Jesus,” Swinton says.

2014 JJT Poster Swinton is Professor in Practical Theology and Pastoral Care in the School of Divinity, Religious Studies and Philosophy at the University of Aberdeen. He has a background in nursing and healthcare chaplaincy, and has researched and published extensively within the areas of practical theology, mental health, spirituality and human well-being, and the theology of disability.

Swinton says his lectures at CMU are for everyone. Through the lectures, he aims to call Christians together to engage in a more faithful discipleship.

He hopes that people who attend will walk away with an understanding that people with profound intellectual disabilities and people with advanced dementia are disciples with a God-given vocation.

“The lectures appear to be about disability, but they’re really about humanness and faithfulness,” Swinton says. “They’re actually about all of us.”

For information about CMU, visit: www.cmu.ca.

For additional information, please contact:

Kevin Kilbrei, Director of Communications & Marketing
kkilbrei@cmu.ca; 204.487.3300 Ext. 621
Canadian Mennonite University
500 Shaftesbury Blvd., Winnipeg, MB R3P 2N2

Tags J.J. Thiessen Lectures, JJ Thiessen Lecture Series, John Swinton, Lectures

Video

Canadian Mennonite University Fall Festival 2014 (video)

Post author By CMU
Post date October 1, 2014

Canadian Mennonite University’s Fall Festival is a time for students, staff, alumni and supporters to get together and celebrate the start of a new school year.

Tags Fall Festival

Events News Releases

CMU Community Celebrates at Fall Festival 2014

Post author By CMU
Post date October 1, 2014

Reunions, Concerts, and Discussion Highlight of Annual Community-Building Event

When Brent Durksen and his wife, Kari Enns Durksen, found out that their graduating class would reunite at Canadian Mennonite University’s Fall Festival, they made plans to attend.

Brent Durksen and Kari Enns Durksen flew in from Calgary to reconnect with their Class of 2004 peers and the rest of the CMU community at Fall Festival.

The couple travelled from their home in Calgary to participate in their 10-year Class of 2004 reunion and visit friends, professors, and staff from the CMU community.

“It was a good opportunity to indulge in some nostalgia, stay connected to CMU, see the work being done on the new library, and visit our friends,” Durksen said. “We still have a lot of good friends from CMU that we’re connected with.”

Brent and Kari were two of the more than 500 people who came to CMU this past weekend, Sept. 27-28, for Fall Festival.

Celebrated annually, Fall Festival features opportunities for students, alumni, friends, donors, and community members to connect, learn, play, and celebrate with the CMU community.

In addition to class reunions, the weekend included a bicycle race, folk music festival, a farmers market with more than 25 vendors, and CMU Blazers basketball games.

The weekend opened on Friday, Sept. 26 with a Face2Face community discussion exploring shifting cultural sentiments and the complexity of end-of-life issues, euthanasia, and physician-assisted suicide.

Titled, “A Time to Die: Cultural and Faith Perspectives in the Face of Death,” the event featured Justin Neufeld, Lecturer in Philosophy at CMU; Dr. Cornelius Woelk, Medical Director of Palliative Care at Southern Health-Santé Sud, and the Honourable Steven Fletcher, Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament for Charleswood-St. James-Assiniboia.

Activities on Saturday, Sept. 27 culminated in CMU’s annual opening program, a time of worship to celebrate the start of a new school year.

Dr. Gordon Zerbe, who was appointed Vice President Academic this past June, delivered a message, titled “Citizenship and CMU.

President Academic Gordon Zerbe delivered the message at CMU’s opening program on Sept. 27, which capped off an exciting weekend of events at the university.

Drawing from Jeremiah, Matthew and Philippians, Zerbe spoke of the ways being a Christian is itself a kind of citizenship, and how the mission of Christian citizenship—and of CMU—is multidimensional.

“Christian citizenship practice… is about being on the move, along the ‘way,’ never quite knowing what is one’s true and only home, just as Jesus had nowhere to lay his head,” Zerbe said.

“Similarly, the practice of CMU as a Christian university in its multiple dimensions and multiple subjectives, will always be on the move—crossing boundaries, and not building walls. Resisting barriers, it will instead be building bridges.”

The opening program also included the presentation of the 2014 Blazer Distinguished Alumni Awards, which annually recognize alumni who, through their lives, embody CMU’s values and mission of service, leadership, and reconciliation in church and society.

Kathy Bergen (from left), Lorlie Barkman, John Neufeld, and Odette Mukole received the 2014 Blazer Distinguished Alumni Awards, which annually recognize alumni who, through their lives, embody CMU’s values and mission of service, leadership, and reconciliation in church and society.

President Cheryl Pauls presented the awards to Kathy Bergen, who has spent more than 30 years working for justice in Israel-Palestine; Lorlie Barkman, a pastor-turned-TV producer; John Neufeld, the executive director of an organization that serves low-income people in need or support; and Odette Mukole, a Congolese immigrant who helps newcomers to Canada adjust to life in a new country.

During a short speech, Abram Bergen, Director of Church and Alumni Relations, noted how far CMU has come in the 14 years since becoming a university. A residence has been built, a new science lab has been completed, and the new library, learning commons, and bridge will open on November 29.

Meanwhile, 1,000 students have graduated from CMU and 1,200 have completed its Outtatown Discipleship School.

“These graduates are impacting their workplaces, their communities, and their families,” Bergen said.

For Paul Dueck, a graduate of Canadian Mennonite Bible College, one of CMU’s predecessor institutions, the chance to reconnect with faculty is what drew him to Fall Festival. An avid musician, Dueck was impressed by the music performed at opening program.

CMU’s Class of 2004 reunited for its 10-year reunion at Fall Festival on Sept. 27.

“To hear the choir sing with this quality this early in the year is incredible,” Dueck said.

Daniel Friesen, a fourth-year Music student who participated in the MennoCross bike race and sung in the choir, was happy he attended Fall Festival.

“It’s cool to see the wider community of CMU supporters that you don’t necessarily think of when you’re a student,” Friesen said. “It’s cool to think you’re part of a larger group than just the student body.”

Vice President External Terry Schellenberg said Fall Festival is a marquee event on CMU’s calendar because it is a great community builder.

“Once again we brought together cyclocross racers—old and young—hundreds of community members for our Farmers Market, and a packed house for an important Face2Face community conversation,” Schellenberg said.

“We celebrated the impact of four of our alumni who have made an incredible difference in church and society, and we opened another school year with great energy. It was a wonderful weekend of fun and celebration.”

For information about CMU, visit: www.cmu.ca.

For additional information, please contact:

Kevin Kilbrei, Director of Communications & Marketing
kkilbrei@cmu.ca; 204.487.3300 Ext. 621
Canadian Mennonite University
500 Shaftesbury Blvd., Winnipeg, MB R3P 2N2

Tags Alumni Reunions, Blazer Awards, Cornelius Woelk, Face2Face, Fall Festival, Farmers Market, Justin Neufeld, MennoCross, Opening Program, Steven Fletcher

General News News Releases

CMU announces recipient of first Dr. Robert Janzen Memorial Scholarship

Post author By CMU
Post date September 24, 2014

Canadian Mennonite University is pleased to announce that Jonah Langelotz has been awarded the first Dr. Robert Janzen Memorial Scholarship.

Dr. Robert Janzen was particularly interested in the environmental aspects and impacts of agriculture. Janzen pursued his interests through studies at Canadian Mennonite Bible College, University of Manitoba, and University of Alberta, where he received his doctorate in soil science. A hard working farmer and steward of the land, Janzen supported agricultural communities around the world by sharing his expertise with farmers.

Students qualifying for this $1,000 scholarship demonstrate inter-disciplinary interest in courses in Geography, Environmental Studies, International Development, Biology, Biblical/Theological Studies and are involved with CMU’s market garden/farm and in connecting this experience with their studies.

The annual scholarship is awarded to a student entering their 3^rd or 4^th year of studies and who is exploring some combination of: land use and ethics, rural-urban land issues, agricultural capacity building, soil biodiversity and nutrient cycles, environmental sustainability, and urban agriculture.

Jonah Langelotz, the first recipient of the Dr. Robert Janzen Memorial Scholarship

Recipient Jonah Langelotz is entering the 4th year of his International Development Studies (IDS) degree and completed his practicum this summer by working at a small-scale organic farm in southern Manitoba. He says he’s “very interested in exploring the hands-on aspects of farming” and how the topics of agriculture and the environment connect with international development.

Kenton Lobe, a member of the selection committee and an instructor of International Development at CMU, says that Langelotz wrestles with the broad questions of food justice, and at the same time, reflects on the application of those questions in the local context.

“Jonah reflects a kind of student who is wrestling with the ‘out there-ness’ of IDS,” says Lobe. “It’s not simply ‘out there’ that we ask questions of justice but also in our own lives.”

Lobe says Langelotz’s practicum choice was one way for him to reflect on the question of “how agriculture and food systems connect into questions of sustainability.”

Langelotz is interested in learning more about the impacts of agricultural policy for small-scale farmers, a topic which he explored in his scholarship application essay. In Seeking Justice on the Land and in Local Markets, Langelotz asks questions about the food system, agricultural policies and structures, and connects his interest in these areas to his faith, which he says includes caring for creation.

For information about CMU, visit: www.cmu.ca.

For additional information, please contact:

Kevin Kilbrei, Director of Communications & Marketing
kkilbrei@cmu.ca; 204.487.3300 Ext. 621
Canadian Mennonite University
500 Shaftesbury Blvd., Winnipeg, MB R3P 2N2

Tags Janzen Memorial Scholarship, Jonah Langelotz, Scholarships

Alumni Profiles Articles

Alumni Profile: Danika Epp (CMU ’14)

Post author By CMU
Post date September 22, 2014

Alumna Danika Epp draws on her faith and examples set by role models she’s found at CMU and in her personal life to develop her own teaching style.

Currently studying education at the University of Manitoba, Epp credits the strong community aspect of CMU with enabling teachers to be close to and available for their students.

“The professors put a lot of effort into making sure that each student has a relationship with them,” she says.

Graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in spring 2014, Epp’s major in History and double minor in English and Biblical Studies enabled her to study a wide range of subjects taught by a variety of professors. She says this broad knowledge base will help her as a teacher.

Growing up, Epp was taught by a number of family members, including her mother and father. Inspired by the way her parents taught, she appreciates it when her parents’ former students tell her how helpful they were as teachers.

Sharing her parents’ love of teaching, Epp hopes to help students in a similar way. “I want to help people find where they want to go and share my joy and knowledge with them,” she says.

Epp also draws on her faith when envisioning the type of teacher she would like to be. She says that being a teacher requires loving one’s neighbour, withholding judgment, and being patient.

“My faith helps me be the Jesus-like teacher,” she says. “I try and remember to be a servant.”

Events News Releases

Event focusing on end-of-life issues kicks off 2014-15 discussion series at CMU

Post author By CMU
Post date September 17, 2014

Physician and politician join philosophy lecturer on panel

WINNIPEG – End-of-life issues are the focus at Canadian Mennonite University’s (CMU) first Face2Face discussion of 2014-15.

Dr. Cornelius Woelk, the Medical Director of Palliative Care at Southern Health-Santé Sud, and the Honourable Steven Fletcher, Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament for Charleswood-St. James-Assiniboia will join Justin Neufeld, Lecturer in Philosophy at CMU, at the discussion, titled, “A Time to Die: Cultural and Faith Perspectives in the Face of Death.”

The event happens Friday, September 26 at 7:00 PM in CMU’s Great Hall (500 Shaftesbury Blvd.). Admission is free, and everyone is welcome to attend. Face2Face is a series of conversations with CMU faculty, designed to engage the community on a wide variety of current events and issues at the intersection of faith and life.

Fletcher has initiated two private members’ bills in the House Commons to prod MPs into a national debate on the right to die. Woelk, Fletcher, and Neufeld will present a conversation exploring shifting cultural sentiments and the complexity of end-of-life issues, euthanasia, and physician-assisted suicide.

f2fbanner

Fletcher recently said that physician-assisted suicide will be a reality in Canada, the Winnipeg Free Press reported (link). He called it, “inevitable.”

“The momentum is unstoppable,” Fletcher said. “The only question is how long will it take?”

The discussion at CMU will ask: “In a world that increasingly offers up promises of personal autonomy and control, how do we face our mortality?”

Neufeld says asking that question is interesting because one does not arrive at the answer using a mathematical or scientific formula. Rather, it is a question that involves a discussion about meaning and purpose.

He hopes to get attendees thinking theologically about death.

“Any time you talk about the sanctity of life you are in theological territory, whether you want to be or not,” Neufeld says.

He adds that he is looking forward to the discussion because of the diverse background and experience each presenter brings.

“These topics are what the heart of democracy is about,” Neufeld says. “Democracy at its best should be the bringing together of these ideas to discern what the good life is.”

“A Time to Die: Cultural and Faith Perspectives in the Face of Death” is the first of four Face2Face events CMU will host during the 2014-15 school year. For details, please visit www.cmu.ca/face2face.

The discussion will be followed at 8:30 PM by a President’s Reception, during which attendees can connect with one another and chat with the presenters.

The evening marks the start of CMU’s Fall Festival, a high energy weekend that features opportunities to connect, learn, play, and celebrate with the CMU Community. For more information about the weekend, visit www.cmu.ca/fallfest.

About CMU
A Christian university in the Anabaptist tradition, CMU’s Shaftesbury campus offers undergraduate degrees in arts, business, humanities, music, sciences, and social sciences, and graduate degrees in Theology and Ministry. CMU has over 1,600 students, including those enrolled in degree programs at the Shaftesbury Campus and its Menno Simons College and programs.

For information about CMU, visit: www.cmu.ca.

For additional information, please contact:
Kevin Kilbrei, Director of Communications & Marketing
kkilbrei@cmu.ca; 204.487.3300 Ext. 621
Canadian Mennonite University
500 Shaftesbury Blvd., Winnipeg, MB R3P 2N2

Tags Cornelius Woelk, end-of-life, Face2Face, Justin Neufeld, Steven Fletcher

General News News Releases

New book explores the portrayal of clergy in literature and film

Post author By CMU
Post date September 8, 2014

Professor hopes book will reach a wide audience, serve the church

Winnipeg – How does the portrayal of clergy in secular culture affect the church? What are the cultural factors that might make the ministry a hard sell? And have literary and cinematic works been misrepresentative, misleading or even harmful?

These are some of the questions at the heart of The Collar: Reading Christian Ministry in Fiction, Television, and Film, a new book by Sue Sorensen, Associate Professor of English at Canadian Mennonite University (CMU).

The Collar combines thematic analysis and close readings to create what publisher Cascade Books describes as, “a wide-ranging study of the many ways—heroic or comic, shrewd or dastardly—Christian ministers have been represented in literature and film.”

Sorensen adds that The Collar is a good intersection of her interests in church, literature, and film.

“These are all things that profoundly affect me,” she says.

Concentrating on works from Canada, the United States and England, Sorensen explores a variety of novels, plays, TV, and movies—from The Scarlet Letter to Footloose—to make inquiries about “pastoral passion, frustration, and fallibility.”

Sorensen says that one of her personal incentives for working through the clerical references in literature and film is that many people she knows, including her husband, are members of the clergy.

She notes that ministers are often portrayed as conservative, out of touch and repressed—a description that does not fit the church leaders she knows.

When she began work on the book, Sorensen could think of many negative portrayals of Christian ministers in literature and film, and hoped she would find more positive portrayals in her research.

However, some of the books she found most heartening included portrayals of pastors who were failures, but good failures—characters who were deeply flawed human beings but trying their best to serve God and the church.

“I did not find heroic, positive role models, but I think I found something better,” Sorensen says.

While it may seem contradictory, Sorenson’s style in The Collar is both scholarly and accessible. She hopes the book reaches a wide audience, so that the average person in the pew can pick it up and read it.

Ultimately, Sorensen wants The Collar to be of service to the church. As she notes in the book, all Christians are ministers.

“Most of us do not think of ourselves in this manner from day to day, but unconsciously we must be studying pastoral actions and attitudes for models of what we should be doing or not be doing.”

An active member of First Lutheran Church in Winnipeg, Sorensen is the author of a novel, A Large Harmonium, and the editor of West of Eden: Essays on Canadian Prairie Literature. She has written about contemporary British literature, detective fiction, film, popular music, children’s writing, and is also a published poet.

The Collar is available in stores now. A Winnipeg book launch event is planned for Sunday, October 5 at 2:00 PM at McNally Robinson (1120 Grant Ave.).

Visit www.suesorensen.net.

For information about CMU, visit: www.cmu.ca.

Tags Book, Sue Sorensen, The Collar

Articles

European study tour complements classroom learning for CMU business students

Post author By CMU
Post date September 4, 2014

A two-week study tour to Europe provided Redekop School of Business (RSB) students with an opportunity to experience what they have studied in class.

Spending one week each in Western and Eastern Europe, participants learned about Europe’s economic, political, and social integration; met with various business, government and academic institutions; learned about Canada’s role in the global economy; and discovered ways the European Union (E.U.) utilizes its role to foster peace and development across the continent.

Tour participants stand in front of the Eurotower, home of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, Germany.

“The purpose of the tour was to see firsthand the significant changes taking place in Europe, that we discussed in class, and the challenges of integrating 28 countries within the E.U.,” says Jeff Huebner, Associate Professor of International Business. “On a tour like this, students see that the themes, issues, and topics we talk about in class are highly relevant,” he says.

RSB, a program of Canadian Mennonite University (CMU), develops the potential of future business leaders to bring together sound business practice with commitments of faith, generosity, and service.

Tour participants included a group of Canadian and international students and a member from the business community in Manitoba. The tour began with a week in Western Europe—visiting Belgium, Germany, and France—founding members of the E.U. The group visited various European institutions including the E.U. Council, Commission, and Parliament in Brussels; met with Canadian trade officials negotiating a new Canada-E.U. trade pact; visited the Frankfurt stock exchange and the European Central Bank; and participated in cultural activities in Paris.

The group also met with Titus Horsch, MEDA Europe Director and his wife Anita, who is a Canadian Mennonite Bible College alumna. Huebner has partnered with MEDA in various areas including on previous study tours to Latin America.

The week in Eastern Europe was spent visiting the Baltic countries of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia that have undergone significant changes in transitioning from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) to joining the E.U. a decade ago.

Highlights of this portion of the tour included meetings at the Lithuania parliament to discuss the country’s role in recently leading the E.U. Council presidency; briefings on Latvia’s transition to adopting the Euro currency this year; observing NATO fighter jets flying overhead and pro-Russian protests over the annexation of Crimea; and spending a day with students and faculty at LCC International University, an academic partner institution of CMU.

LCC University was the first English-speaking Christian university established in the FSU. Participants heard about LCC students’ perspectives on life in Eastern Europe and shared about Canadian life and culture.

LCC Group — Tour participants gather with students from LCC University in Klaipėda, Lithuania.

For investor Norm Klippenstein, the visits to LCC University and with Canadian diplomats in Eastern Europe were highlights. Visiting LCC around the time of Russia’s annexation of the Crimea, Klippenstein says the conversations with Ukrainian and Russian students at LCC were priceless.

“LCC, with some 600 students, of which 60 and 80 are Ukrainian and Russian students respectively, provides a natural place for dialogue on these important peace issues,” he says. “The Canadian Ambassador’s candid reflections on the region’s history added to our understanding of the challenges the countries face.”

Huebner is working to enhance the international study tours offered by RSB and integrate them into the wider community, including the business community. Tours are offered each year, alternating in focus from business in Europe to economic development and microfinance in Latin America. Financial assistance is available for students through RSB travel grants.

Huebner is passionate about connecting students with real world experiences.

“What I enjoy most is opening the eyes of our students to the wider world that’s out there that has a lot of different needs,” he says. “We can use business in a lot of non-traditional ways such as combining it with development and missions, to make a positive difference in the world.”

The next RSB study tour, looking at microfinance in Central America, is being planned for spring 2015. If you are interested in participating, contact Jeff Huebner for more information.

Tags EU Study Tour, Jeff Huebner, microfinance, Redekop School of Business, RSB, Study Tour