Europeans enhanced Jerusalem Center experience
(BYU) Daily Universe 30Sep99 D3
By Katie Christensen: NewsNet Staff Writer

One of the English participants, Rachel Hardy, expressed how her dreams were realized when Europeans were invited to attend the program. "(My dream) was fulfilled in more ways than I could have ever hoped," she said. She attributed the success of the experience to the strong "BYU atmosphere" -- living and associating with strong spiritual people of the same age.

Janelle West, 20, a junior from Redlands, expressed her excitement with the Summer II program. "I thought it was exciting, because we were going to meet people from different countries with diverse cultures," she said.

Vashti McGeady from Ireland said, "I was a bit nervous about the whole thing and if there would be major differences between the Europeans and Americans." She later realized that there was nothing to worry about and this experience would be one she would remember the rest of her life.

Natali Morris, a 20-year-old junior from Springville, Utah said, "I believe that the biggest benefit to having European students on the program is that now I have places to stay when I go to Europe; the diversity and culture they added were nice too."

Ben Jensen, a 23-year-old senior from Las Vegas, said, "They made things more fun and brought a different perspective to the whole experience."

Hardy expressed it best when she said it was the variety that made the group special. "Americans rock, BYU rocks, Jerusalem rocks, Summer II 1999 rocks. Or in England we would use words such as 'splendid' or brilliant'!"