Program Information Academic Staff Academic Information 2010 Program Schedule (Tentative) Partners Other Program Information Program Management Apply Now Costs

Learn & Serve in Tunisia is a unique summer education abroad opportunity for undergraduate students to study in the Middle East/North Africa region and engage in an intense service learning experience with Tunisian university students. The program, which is run with support from the Public Affairs Section of the American Embassy in Tunis, includes a study component on Tunisian culture and society, a service learning component as native speaker resource persons in an English immersion program for Tunisian university students, and intense and sustained interaction with Tunisian university students.

In response to a request from the Tunisian Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research & Technology, AMIDEAST/Tunisia, with assistance from the Public Affairs Section of the American Embassy in Tunis, began the Learn & Serve Program in 2007 to provide American university students for the English Language Village (Language Village - Nabeul – LVN). At LVN, English majors from Tunisian universities develop their speaking abilities in an intensive two-week program. During the two LVN sessions Tunisian English professors work with their students together with former Fulbright Language Teaching Assistants (Language Guides) and native English-speaking students from the U.S. and the U.K., who are known as Language & Cultural Fellows.

Program Information

Participants in the six and a half-week Learn & Serve 2010 program will learn about the Arab and Islamic cultures of Tunisia and serve as Language & Cultural Fellows at the Language Village. This project is a cooperative effort of AMIDEAST/Tunisia and the Tunisian Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research & Technology, with the support of the American Embassy in Tunis.

Learn: The first two weeks in Tunisia consist of classes, seminars, and travel focused on Tunisia’s ancient and modern history and its cultures, societies, and pathways to economic development. During the Learn segment, participants stay in a hotel near AMIDEAST in the city of Tunis and have classes at AMIDEAST/Tunis. During the classes English-speaking Tunisian specialists give lectures on their areas of expertise. A four-day travel-study tour to the Tunisian Sahara and other points south of Tunis is a high point of Learn. Participants enroll in a three-credit course, Tunisian Cultural Anthropology in Context, and are required to write regular reports during both the Learn and Serve portions of the program. Arabic language lessons also are a focal point of study. Approximately 15 hours of Tunisian Arabic classes take place during Learn.

Serve: Early in the third week, participants move to the English Language Village located near the Mediterranean seaside town of Nabeul to serve as Language & Cultural Fellows. Participants serve as Fellows for two fourteen-day sessions at the Language Village. A three-day Enrichment Seminar between the two sessions provides a break to assess the experience of LVN I and explore ways to develop participants’ teaching and mentoring strategies in anticipation of LVN II. The Enrichment Seminar is held in the town of Mahdia, an historic small city down the Tunisian coast.
2010 is the fourth year of the English Language Village. In this innovative project, each summer nearly 400 Tunisian second-year English majors practice intensive spoken English and experience English through classes and in cultural events with the assistance of the Language & Cultural Fellows plus American and Tunisian English language and cultural specialists. Every day is a working day during Serve. Participants become employees of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research and receive a small stipend for their work in Serve.

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Academic Staff

Dr. Sabra J. Webber, Academic Director/Program Coordinator
Dr. Sabra J. Webber is an associate professor at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, which – with over 55,000 students – is the largest single university campus in the United States. Webber is an anthropologist and folklorist (M.A., University of California, Berkeley, and Ph.D., University of Texas, Austin) with a focus on North Africa, and especially Tunisia, where she has spent many years. She first lived there for three years as a Peace Corps volunteer starting in 1967. Her work on Tunisia and North Africa has been supported over the years by Fulbright, Rockefeller, National Endowment for the Humanities, Social Science Research Council and other fellowships, including a current fellowship from the American Institute of Maghribi Studies. Her publications pertaining to Tunisia include a children’s book in Tunisian Arabic, Lisagharina (“For Our Children”), and Romancing the Real: Folklore and Ethnographic Representation in North Africa, as well as an edited volume, Fantasy or Ethnography: Irony and Collusion in Subaltern Representation, and numerous articles.

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Academic Information

Students enrolled in Learn & Serve take two academic courses:
Tunisian Cultural Anthropology in Context and either Tunisian Arabic I or Tunisian Arabic II (depending on previous background in Arabic)

Tunisian Cultural Anthropology in Context (Anthropology 320; 3 credits)
This course focuses on the social history and contemporary culture, in particular the expressive culture, of Tunisia as representative of both a unique Tunisian identity and of Tunisia’s various cultural connections past and present: Muslim, African, Middle Eastern, Arab and Mediterranean.

Tunisian I (Arabic 161; 3 credits)
Students are introduced to words, expressions, and structures used frequently in everyday life. Students practice them in class before they are given assignments to carry out with native speakers in real situations. Evaluation combines performance in class and successful interaction with Tunisians. By the end of the course, students are able to ask essential questions and understand the responses, express basic facts and opinions in simple sentences, and engage in basic conversations in Tunisian Arabic with native speakers.

Tunisian Arabic II (Arabic 261; 3 credits)
Students who have already studied Modern Standard Arabic are introduced to words, expressions, and structures used frequently in everyday life in Tunisia. Students practice them in class before they are given assignments to carry out with native speakers in real situations. Evaluation combines performance in class and successful interaction with Tunisians. By the end of the course, students are able to ask essential questions and understand the responses, express facts and opinions in simple as well as complex sentences, and engage in conversations in Tunisian Arabic with native speakers about non-academic topics.

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2010 Program Schedule (Tentative)

Please note that these dates are subject to change.

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Partners

AMIDEAST’s partners for the Learn & Serve Program in Tunisia are the Tunisian Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research & Technology and the Public Affairs Section of the American Embassy in Tunis. The Ministry organizes and operates the Language Village.

The Public Affairs Section of the American Embassy assists the program in the form of a grant to support certain program expenses and the presence of an American English as a Second Language specialist at the Language Village.

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Other Program Information

Orientation

Upon arrival in Tunis, Learn & Serve program students participate in a one-and- a half day orientation designed as an introduction to Tunisian culture and daily life and the logistics of the program. The orientation combines structured informational sessions with organized activities. Topics such as safety and health, family life in Tunisia, cultural adjustment, program regulations, participant responsibilities and other essential information are all discussed during orientation. An essential part of the orientation is the beginning of Tunisian Arabic classes.

Accommodation and Meals

Learn: Students stay in Tunis at a hotel with all modern conveniences, including internet access for a small fee. Breakfast at the hotel is included. A modest per diem is provided to participants to cover lunch, dinner, and laundry. While on the road during the four-day trip to the Tunisian South, participants are lodged in hotels and spend one night in a desert camp in the Saharan sands. All meals are covered during travel days.

Serve: Students live and eat with Tunisian students in a dormitory setting at the Tunisian Preparatory Institute for Engineering Studies at Nabeul, 90 km south of Tunis. The Institute is completely re-fashioned as the Language Village during the program. Students take their meals at the Institute’s student restaurant, where three meals a day are served cafeteria-style. A nurse and stock of basic drugs is available on site and the regional hospital is located directly adjacent to the Institute. Personal laundry is done free of charge twice a week for participants; sheets and pillows are provided.

Excursions

Learn: Students visit major points of interest in day trips from their hotel in the Lafayette district of Tunis. These include the site of ancient Carthage; the village of Sidi Bou Said overlooking the Gulf of Tunis; the old city of Tunis, known simply as the Medina; the Bardo Museum, famous for its Punic objects and Roman mosaics; and the American World War II War Cemetery. Evenings are mostly free and students can spend time on their own exploring downtown Tunis, the medina, and the seaside suburbs.

A major event during Learn is a four-day road trip to the Sahara Desert, reaching as far as the oasis of Ksar el Ghilaine, where students spend the night in tents and ride camels to a small Roman fort. The trip includes stops at Kairouan, the capital of early Islam in North Africa; Sbeitla, a large Roman site at the edge of the Empire and location of important battles between Byzantine and Arab forces in the 600s; the big oasis at Tozeur, known for its dates; Douz, a small town where the Sahara begins; the hilltop and troglodyte villages in the southern Berber-speaking region which inspired the Star Wars films; and Djerba, where an age-old Jewish community lives side by side with Tunisia’s outpost of the Islamic Ibadi sect.

Serve: Nightly excursions to the adjacent towns of Nabeul and Hammamet are an integral part of the Serve experience. Participants accompany Tunisian students as they explore the resort villages of Yasmine Hammamet and Hammamet itself. On Saturdays and Sundays, day trips to the Cap Bon Peninsula are featured as Village participants visit the site of Punic Kerkouane at the tip of the Cape and return to Kelibia for swimming. Excursions to events at the summer music festival inside the Roman coliseum at El Djem, two hours’ bus trip from LVN, are also planned. At LVN, the beach is a quick 10-minute walk away and many participants take advantage of the Mediterranean Sea for a swim or game of beach volleyball after lunch.

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Program Management

The program is managed by AMIDEAST/Tunisia in conjunction with AMIDEAST headquarters in Washington, D.C. AMIDEAST works collaboratively with the Tunisian Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research & Technology to oversee implementation of the program. It also manages all logistical elements of the program, including the on-site orientation during the Learn portion of the program, arrangements for excursions, and the planning of special events and extra-curricular activities. Finally, AMIDEAST provides comprehensive support to both participants and administrators in the event of any problems or unusual circumstances.

America-Mideast Educational and Training Services, Inc. (AMIDEAST) was founded in 1951. It has field and project offices in 23 cities in 13 countries in the region, giving it a well-developed infrastructure, capacity, and institutional record of successful exchange programs rooted in more than five decades of in-region experience administering scholarships and exchanges on behalf of U.S. and Arab governments, private companies, and individuals.

Since 1976, AMIDEAST has been providing quality educational services in Tunisia. With offices in Tunis and Sousse, AMIDEAST reaches thousands of students and professionals annually through English language courses, academic advising, standardized testing, an American library and cultural center (“American Corner”) and cultural exchange programs. AMIDEAST/Tunisia has designed and administered numerous programs for youth, undergraduates, and educators, and has arranged homestays, transportation, excursions, community service, language training, professional meetings, and lectures for many groups of American students and educators.

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Apply Now

Eligible applicants:

• Are enrolled at an accredited college or university and have completed at least one year of post-secondary study
• Have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 (on a 4.0 scale); however, applications will be considered holistically
• Are physically and emotionally prepared to spend six weeks in Tunisia
• Are willing to adapt to a new, potentially challenging environment
  

Application Deadline: Applications are accepted and considered on a rolling basis until the program is filled.

• December 28, 2009 – Application cycle opens for summer 2010
• May 14, 2010 – Application deadline for summer 2010
  

for the AMIDEAST Education Abroad Programs in the
Arab World on-line application.

For more information contact:

AMIDEAST Education Abroad Program in Tunisia
1730 M Street, NW, Suite 1100
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: (202) 776-9640
Fax: (202) 776-7040
Email: LearnServe@amideast.org

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Costs

The Program Fee for Learn & Serve in 2010 is US$2,700, including the following:

• Pre-departure preparation
• On-site orientation
• Tuition for Tunisian Cultural Anthropology in Context (Anthropology 320)
• Costs of hotel, Arabic classes, lectures, transport and excursions during Learn
• Costs of transport and Arabic lessons during the two sessions of Serve at LVN
• Costs of hotel and transport to and from the Enrichment Seminar
• Airport transfers on arrival and departure
• Medical insurance, including medical evacuation and repatriation, and political and security evacuation coverage

Tuition and Fees do NOT cover:

• International airfare
• Local personal transportation
• Communication and other personal expenses

Tuition and fees are subject to change.

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