CapAsia X: Travel, Study, and Enjoy Asia in Spring 2019

CapAsia is not only one of the best, genuinely-immersive field semesters in Asia, available to US students, but also has a lower price tag.  It has been participated by students from various schools including MIT and Berkeley and has received three Fulbright-Hays awards. 

The time-tested program is built upon select strengths of traditional field trip, center abroad, exchange, collaborative, field research, and other study-abroad models.  It provides a guided experience of Asian cultures directed at observing and making sense of the social spaces the local people create and use, and why.  The participants truly immerse in the socially, culturally, and historically different Asia and learn by doing collaborative projects with leading universities in the region, with the help of local experts and educators.  Home stays and local field trips are central to CapAsia; We also live in ordinary neighborhoods.

In Spring 2019 (Jan-Mar), the CapAsia group intends to conduct a 7-week project in Sukhothai, Thailand, and 3-week project in newly developing Yangon (Myanmar) (alt. Laos).  These longer projects will be complemented by a brief stopover in Bangkok and a few local field trips in Thailand and Myanmar (Alt Laos).  It is open to all majors from any school, with an interest in the social and cultural aspects of space, urbanism, culture, the natural and/or built environment.

While they experience Asia by doing collaborative projects, home stays, and field trips, the participants learn by transforming the experience into knowledge and reflecting about themselves, i.e., their environments, cultures, and the selves.  As they learn about Asian cultures, make local friends, and help communities to achieve higher quality of life on their own terms, the experience will help them situate themselves in today’s changing world.  The learning is transformative and the program is life-changing.  The directors were nominated for two national awards.

It is one of the low-cost foreign field studies, definitely worth the money, and would do enormous justice to a loan that you may have to take.  The program fee, $7,200, will cover long-distance travel and lodging costs.  The rest, cost of living in Asia, is minimal, a few hundred dollars.  In addition, students pay tuition fees at Ball State's off-campus rate.  You are eligible to use most scholarships and financial aid.

For more information, visit: http:capasia.wixsite.com/capasia

If interested, please contact

the Program Director, Prof. Nihal Perera (nperera@bsu.edu)

Co-Director Prof. Tim Gray (grayarchitecture@gmail.com)

or a Program Assistant: Anton Schauerte (aschauerte@bsu.edu); Zhou Lanyang (zl358@outlook.com)