Olin Storvick, classicist-in-residence, bounds up the Acropolis like a traveler seeing the sites for the first time.

The octogenarian has taken students overseas more than 30 times, but still enjoys the thrill of teaching about these beautiful historic places.

"This is a chance for me to see it through new eyes," Storvick says. "The curiosity in their eyes I can see and understand. It was the same 52 years ago when I saw it for the first time."

Storvick assisted Stewart Herman, assistant professor of religion, and Linda Johnson, professor of history, during second semester as they took Credo honor students on a historical journey throughout Greece.

The Concordia group lived on the island of Crete and traveled to many important historical sites, including the island of Aegina, the shrine of Delphi, the Acropolis and Olympia: the first Olympic center.

"We toured the Acropolis, particularly the Parthenon, extensively," Herman says. "Having read information-packed histories of how the Parthenon was built and how it declined, it was especially interesting to climb up the nearby mountain from which the Pentelic marble was taken to build the Parthenon."

Storvick says one of the strengths of Concordia travel programs is the preparation students put into the seminars.

"They have preseminar courses and they have read enough history, or whatever they need, to interpret the site," Storvick says. "Chances are one of them is responsible for a report on each location."

Storvick says there are many moments where he sees history or literature come alive for students as they seei places they had previously only read about. One such location in Greece is the spot in the road between Delphi and Thebes where Oedipus killed his father in Sophocles' tragedy "Oedipus the King."

"We can be driving along and I'll say look around you," Storvick says. "Oedipus was walking and Laius was riding in his carriage and this is where that happened. Or when you drive around the corner and POW there is the Acropolis. Actually seeing it and walking up some of those stones – that's when the aha comes."

Storvick's first extended experience abroad came while he was a graduate student at the University of Michigan. He applied for a Fulbright scholarship and was awarded one of only five in the whole country. He credits his wife, Ruth, for making the trip possible.

"We had two small children at the time and there we were in Athens," Storvick recalls. Now more than a half-century later he is grateful for the warm welcome he still receives from students and the opportunity to experience these interesting places with them.

"We are sharing a treasure," Storvick says, "and that's the beauty of it."

- Back to eNews