Many people rarely have the opportunity to travel to a foreign country.
Michele Hop, journalism sophomore, gets a chance to not only visit one foreign country, but 11 countries through a mission trip sponsored by The World Race.
Hop will be leaving in June 2010 and will be gone for a year. She will begin her trip in Ireland for training. Then she said she will travel to Romania, Ukraine, Israel, Egypt, Kenya and Cambodia to name a few. She will spend one month in each country.
About 100 people will be on the trip and will be separated into groups of four to six. They will be sharing the Gospels with the people of each country. The trip is $14,000 and this includes lodging and food.
The purpose of this mission trip is to provide “humanitarian aid” to the people in these countries.
Also, Hop said her Christian faith inspired her to go on the mission trip and inspires everything she does.
“I believe that the world is broken and that there is hope for it in the Gospels,” Hop said.
The World Race Web site said, “[The mission trip] is a way for young adults to abandon a traditional lifestyle in exchange for a dramatic paradigm shift.”
Hop is involved in community development with refugees in Louisville, and this has fueled another reason for the mission trip.
She said she has trouble understanding what refugees have gone through, and she said she hopes this mission trip will help her do just that.
“I want to experience it first-hand,” Hop said.
Hop said she also believes this mission trip will help her enhance her journalism skills.
“I plan to write overseas and this will give me new challenges and frontiers for my writing,” Hop said.
Hop first became interested in journalism in middle school. After reading biographies of her favorite authors, she said she noticed that most of them started out as journalists. After more research, Hop said she was hooked on journalism.
“Journalism is a job that combines my love of a fast-paced work environment with my love for writing, meeting new people, taking pictures and research,” Hop said. “I love to learn new things, so why not pursue that as a career?”
Hop said she plans to use her journalism degree to help her community by raising awareness of public issues.
She also said she wants to help refugees and immigrants that come to the United States feel welcome.
Hop also said she loves photojournalism and plans to take a lot of pictures while on the mission trip.
“I think the world is very beautiful,” Hop said. “I want to find some medium to capture that with.”
She said she believes people should be informed, which stimulates her passion as a journalist.
Hop has been involved with the Institute for Cultural Communicators for four years. She has traveled the nation putting on conferences for grade school and high school students. Hop said the conferences teach students how to debate, write and take pictures.
Hop said she used her journalism skills, like researching and writing, to write a book for the Institute for Cultural Communicators.
Her book, “The Art of Platform Speaking,” is a how-to guide about writing and delivering speeches.
Hop said she works as an IT consultant at IU Southeast and works at Red Lobster. She works about 30 hours a week between both jobs.
When she isn’t working or studying, Hop said she likes to hang out with friends. She said she is willing to try new things and likes to be active.
By AMANDA FRENCH
Staff Writer
aafrench@ius.edu