Wheaton College Alumni Magazine Spring 2014 | Page 51

WHEATON in

the world

Rubbing Shoulders with Global Leaders
One program has taken students to Europe, Latin America, China, and Africa to witness the
results of government policies and to meet strategic political and business leaders.
by Jeremy Weber ’05

c

arl Larsen ’14 was running on the
treadmill at his gym when the breaking
news flashed across the TV: Nelson
Mandela had died.
“I don’t think there’s been a major
news event other than 9/11 that I felt as
intimately connected to as I did when
I heard Mandela had died,” he says.
Six months earlier, the economics
major had been in South Africa the week
the world leader was first hospitalized. He
visited Mandela’s home and prison cell,
and even spent an hour with F. W.
de Klerk, the last white president of
South Africa, who shared the 1993 Nobel
Peace Prize with Mandela, the nation’s
first black president, for working to end
the apartheid system of racial segregation.
Carl was one of 10 students who
participated in last year’s Iron Sharpens
Iron (ISI) program, sponsored by the
J. Dennis Hastert Center for Economics,
Government, and Public Policy. The
program, conceived and designed by
Dr. Dorothy Chappell, dean of natural
and social sciences, has taken students

to meet political and business leaders in
Europe in 2010, Latin America in 2011,
China in 2012, and Africa in 2013.
“The scope of enterprise was nearly
unimaginable, as was the students’
contact with strategic leaders and historic
figures,” says Dr. Seth Norton, director
of the Hastert Center and professor of
political economy. “This was truly the
opportunity of a lifetime for all students
and faculty involved.”
Initially funded by a foundation, the
ISI program will require new funding in
order to send the next group of students
abroad in 2015.
Last summer’s trip began with three
weeks of on-campus coursework. The
10 students and five faculty members
then spent the month of June traveling
South Africa, Malawi, and Ghana in
order to observe the interaction of
business, economics, and politics in
sub-Saharan Africa and how these forces
impact human well-being.

The group’s 14 business visits ranged
from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange
and multinational corporations such as
Pick n Pay and Damco/Maersk to sellers of
dried fish and cooking oil in rural Ghana
and Malawi, funded by microfinance loans
from Opportunity International. Eight
political visits included South Africa’s
parliament and the Apartheid Museum,
as well as a meeting with Susan Banda,
daughter of Malawi president Joyce Banda,
to discuss her nation’s infrastructure efforts.
The highlight of the trip was a smallgroup discussion in Cape Town with
de Klerk about South Africa’s movement
from apartheid to democracy and the
former president’s personal thoughts
on what Dr. Norton calls “an absolute
marquee moment in world history.”
“He was very generous to spend a
considerable amount of time talking
privately to us about South African politics,
the effects of international policy, and
the role of faith in his work,” says Julia
FAR LEFT: ISI students take

in history at the Freedom
Charter memorial in
Kliptown, South Africa.
LEFT: Rachel (Pepper)

Gross ’15 operates a
pump at a borehole
water project in Ghana
with Dr. Annette Tomal,
associate professor of
business and
economics.
RIGHT: Students spent an

hour with F. W. de Klerk,
former president of
South Africa (front,
center).

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SPRING

2014

W H EATON .EDU / A L U M N I

3/22/14 2:38 AM