Southeast Asian Leadership fellows enjoy Western N.D.

Highlights of tour for the visitors to UND include Medora, Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Editor’s note: In the UND LEADS Strategic Plan, the Affinity core value calls on the University to “globalize our campus community by increasing recruitment and retention efforts and support for international students studying at UND and for domestic students who participate in study abroad.”

By taking part in the Young Southeast Asian Leadership Initiative Professional Fellows Program, UND is striving to add a global or world-cultures element to the culture of life on campus, in accordance with the plan. For more on the YSEALI fellows’ experiences at UND and in Grand Forks, see next week’s UND Today.

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Three fellows representing the Young Southeast Asian Leadership Initiative Professional Fellows Program (YSEALI PFP) experienced Western North Dakota as part of their exchange, a marked contrast in landscape and culture from UND and Grand Forks.

YSEALI fellows Ngo Bao Linh of Vietnam, Siti Luci Larasati of Indonesia and Zezinha “Z” Lumena Do Rego Cornelio of Timor-Leste, along with Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs Randi Tanglen, and Anna Clark, director of strategy, communications and planning in the Office of Academic Affairs, made the 5 1/2-hour journey from Grand Forks to Medora, N.D.

The U.S. Department of State-sponsored program that brought the fellows to UND is designed to boost cultural ties between the U.S. and Southeast Asia. To take part, UND partnered with the Mansfield Center at the University of Montana, a center that promotes global exchange and civic engagement. And as part of the program, the above three fellows plus Kev Channa of Cambodia spent the month of May in Grand Forks, partnering with campus and community leaders on projects supplementing the fellows’ employment in their native countries. (A wrap-up story about the fellows’ UND experience will be published in next week’s UND Today.)

The trip to Medora started with a visit to the world’s largest buffalo monument in Jamestown, N.D. The 26-foot-tall, 60-ton concrete bison was built in 1959, and is part of a larger entertainment complex known as “Bison World.”

After stopping to enjoy the view at the Painted Canyon Visitor Center in Belfield, N.D., the group explored downtown Medora, before settling in for the highlight of the evening — a performance of “Broadway in the Badlands” at the historic Old Town Hall Theater.

The performance featured UND Department of Music and Department of Theatre Arts faculty members Anne Christopherson, Justin Montigne, Emily Cherry Oliver, Emily Wirkus as well as undergraduate music major Kaden Dowling, performing compositions from acclaimed composer Stephen Sondheim, along with a handful of numbers from Disney musicals.

After enjoying a breakfast of bison benedict the following morning — a twist on eggs benedict served with braised bison meat — the group spent the afternoon exploring the south unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Despite high winds and overcast skies, the group hiked to the aptly named Wind Canyon Overlook for a panoramic vista of the Little Missouri River.

The trip concluded with a visit to the Cottonwood Campground, where the group partook in a staple of camping: making s’mores, albeit with the assistance of a portable camp stove due to the aforementioned winds.

The fellows agreed that the trip was an enriching supplement to their work at UND and in the Grand Forks community.

“This weekend was wonderful,” Larasati said. “We as fellows not only have responsibility for our work, but also the cultural exchange. This is the story we can share back to our communities and co-workers, because it is something that can help them gain insight and be a part of YSEALI.”

“Medora is a place that’s very unique for me,” added Cornelio. “It’s far away from here, but it’s so alive.”

To cap off the visit to the park, two male bison entered the campground as the group was departing for Grand Forks, coming within feet of the group’s rental van — an experience Cornelio agreed was “best viewed from the car.”

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