Wingate, N.C.----Hi! My name is
Stormi Gale and I am a rising senior on the Wingate University volleyball team. I am writing the third installment of the volleyball team's Chile blog. For the last part of our trip, we travelled down to Chiloe, an island in the very Southern portion of Chile. We had to take a ferry to even get there, which we spent most of the time trying to look for seals and penguins (there are some there at certain times of the year!).
Our tour guide took us to his parents’ house. It was really neat to see the home of a Chilean family. We even went to a special type of Chilean luau, with another family at their house. They cooked various meats and potatoes in a hole in the ground. We all gathered around their dinner table to eat the meal with them. This was interesting, considering some of the people we were sitting with spoke NO English. We definitely honed up our Spanish skills. I’m pretty sure all of us at least know hola, si, bano and papas fritas.
After the meal, they all asked us to join them in the cueca, their country’s national dance. We in turn, taught them the dance to “Jump Around.” We ended the trip by heading back to Santiago for one last night in the city, before returning back to the USA the next day.
This experience was an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. A group of people we may have otherwise never have gotten to know, now has a special bond, with 10 days of memories and tons of inside jokes. We got a chance to go to a place and see a culture we would most likely never have experienced. I would say this is definitely a great way to end the school year.
WINGATE UNIVERSITY’S W’INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM
Each year, eligible students in their junior year of study are offered an opportunity to spend 10 days abroad with a Wingate faculty member after a semester of study related to the relevant destination. The W’International program, created in 1978, makes a study-abroad experience available to students at little extra expense beyond the semester’s tuition charge.
Since the program’s inception, students have traveled to more than 30 countries in virtually every corner of the globe. Typically, eligible students may choose one of six different destinations. Three W’International trips leave right after Christmas each year, while the other three leave right after Commencement in May.
WINGATE UNIVERSITY
Founded in 1896, Wingate University is a private four-year co-educational institution of 2,159 students offering active learning opportunities through personalized instruction, world travel, career discovery and community service.
Wingate offers 34 undergraduate majors in arts and sciences, business, communication, education, fine arts, music and sport sciences. It also offers graduate degrees in business, education, physician assistant studies and sport administration. In addition, the school awards the doctor of pharmacy and the doctor of education degrees.
Bulldog student-athletes compete in 19 NCAA Division II sports. Wingate University has won the South Atlantic Conference Echols Athletic Excellence Award for the past four years.
Wingate University is ranked number three among NCAA Division II Academic All-America® producing schools in the 2000’s with 34 honorees during this millennium. Only Pittsburg State (Kan.) University and Truman State (Mo.) University have produced more Academic All-America® honorees during this time period. Wingate’s 43 Academic All-America® honorees (lifetime) is tops among all SAC schools.