NEWS AND EVENTS Becky Mann,
Director of Public Relations
864.250.8305
------------------------
Get to know Greenville Tech
Greenville Tech Facts
------------------------
Campus Locations

October 3, 2007
Student to Sail with The Ship for World Youth

Amanda Pruitt, a student in the University Transfer Honors Program at Greenville Tech, has been selected to participate in The Ship for World Youth program in 2008, bringing together approximately 250 young people ages 18 to 30 from 13 countries.

The U.S. delegation, made up of 10 students, will first travel to Tokyo, where they will stay with Japanese families and experience Japanese life firsthand. They will also present a lecture on U.S. culture while in Tokyo. The U.S. group will then board the cruise liner Nippon Maru and join their counterparts from around the world to travel to locations in Japan as well as the seaports of Chennai, India, and Muscat, Oman.

Over a two-month period from January 15 to March 5, 2008, participants in the program’s 20th venture will be involved in activities aimed at fostering cultural sensitivity, understanding, and friendship.

The government of Japan plans and finances the international cultural exchange program. Each year, a number of countries are invited to send a delegation. The combination of countries changes each year. The goal, according to the organization’s web site, www.swyusa.com, is to “encourage participants to challenge the filters through which they view the world and illustrate that people from different nations can live together peacefully, learn from each other, and work together to overcome differences and misunderstandings.”

Pruitt, who plans to transfer to a four-year college or university to major in international education or trade, is the first in her family to graduate from college. Her first degree was a Medical Transcription Certificate earned in 2002 at Jefferson Community College in Watertown, N.Y., a program she chose as a quick way to get an education so that she could help support the family while her husband served in the military.

Once the family moved to Greenville, Pruitt’s husband encouraged her to find a field that would build on her interest in Japanese language and culture. She enrolled at a nearby four-year university but found that with two children and a job, she had a hard time fitting in. Professors expected students to have no other obligations, and other students had never encountered someone like her in class.

At Greenville Tech, Pruitt has found greater flexibility, something that’s very important when you have daughters born a year apart, one with cerebral palsy who recently underwent surgery at Shriner’s Hospital that allows her to walk. When she’s not working as an administrative assistant in the college’s International Education Office, carrying a full load of honors classes, or being a wife and mother, Pruitt runs her medical transcription business.

With a degree in international education or trade, Pruitt hopes to teach English in Japan through a year-long program. Her husband, pursuing a degree in secondary education, would qualify as well.

At Greenville Tech, Pruitt has had a chance to answer classmates’ questions about the Ship for World Youth excursion. The greatest misperception, she says, is that the trip is simply fun and games, but Pruitt explains that the purpose is to build cultural tolerance and understanding.

In her classes, Pruitt enjoys a rich mix of ages and experiences, and she expects the ship to offer the same diversity. “There’s so much experience you can contribute when you’re older, but sometimes you lose sight of the things you wanted to change when you were younger,” she says. “It helps to have more ideas to add to the table. The Ship for World Youth, with people from 18 to 30, is a lot like the community college setting.”

Being chosen to participate in The Ship for World Youth is something Pruitt never expected, but something she for which she is very grateful. She draws inspiration from her nine-year-old, Katlyn, who was determined to stand up and walk shortly after her surgery, though doctors told her it would take some time. “She’s an inspiration,” Pruitt says. “She just won’t give up. I draw some of my strength from her.”