Since class was canceled because of the Inquiry Conference, we were supposed to do an hour of work on our particular projects. Not too hard, right? But then Ashely told us that we need to make our approach similar to what we are doing in the field. Hmm... Now it suddenly is complicated.
My project is going to be different than the typical field study. Yes, I am doing questions, but it is extremely informal and requires multiple encounters. Participant observation is also something I will need in order to do a creative writing project. However, given my mini project, I figured that participant observation is not really going to help me much. At least, from just wandering around on campus.
The only way I could figure out how to make this activity useful to my field experience in India was to only interview one person, and have it be someone that I could establish rapport with. I tried doing various interviews in the WILK with just random undergraduate students waiting for their food, studying, etc, but it was awkward and did not facilitate any kind of deeper discussion.
Rather than that approach, I chose to interview someone who I was previously introduced to. I did not know him well, but I did know that he was envious of me for getting to go on several international study programs. I decided to follow up with him.
After a neighborhood activity I decided to pull him aside and ask him a few of my questions. First, I got him talking about what he wanted to do, when he was graduating, what he was studying, etc. It was really informal and friendly. I then eased him into talking about why he did not go on any kind of international program, when he kept telling me how he always wanted to go to Spain. Here were some of the main points I gathered from the conversation.
1. Money. He assumed that it would cost a ridiculous amount of money in order to participate in an international study program. He said that he once looked into a program where you could enroll directly into a university in Spain, but it was so expensive that he immediately gave up. He went on to say that he was very against going into debt for an undergraduate degree.
2. Lack on Knowledge. Following up on money, he assumed that because the one program to Spain his professor mentioned was so expensive, that they all were. He told me that the only experience he had with people talking about international programs were study abroad people or that Spain direct enrollment, and they were usually talked up by the professors. He did not know that there were any other options available.
3. Academic Relevance. My new friend told me that because he was studying economics, there was no way that he would be able to get credit towards graduation. He explained that he was really antsy to get into a graduate program and that going out of the country would be something that would take time away from his long term plans. He thought of Spain more of as a vacation.
At the end of our conversation I talked to him a bit about field studies because he was interested about the program I worked with and the costs involved. I was sad to hear that he had never heard of a BYU field study. He seemed interested after I told him more about it, but explained that since he was so close to graduation it was too late to think about it.
One of the more interesting questions I asked was what he thought the best way to increase undergraduates awareness for the different international study programs. He affirmed that having professors talk it up in class with cool visuals was the best way to get their attention. I guess that means that we need to do more class visits?
All and all, this was a really interesting informal interview that is a more useful approach for what I am doing in Dharamsala. It took a lot of time and more energy than any random interview, but I got a lot more information out of it. By not being formal he was able to tell me more about his background and his decision to not go on an ISP during his undergraduate, and it is that kind of detail that I need to record interesting stories.
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