The Middle Ground Journal

The Opportunity of a Lifetime – A Meaningful Spring Break – by Kyle Dosan. The North Star Reports: Global Citizenship and Digital Literacy, at NorthStarReports.org and facebook.com/NorthStarReports

Just imagine this scenario: Instead of going home for your first college spring break you decide to go on a service trip that will be thousands of miles from your hometown with forty-six people that you do not know that well. Sounds enticing doesn’t it? That is exactly how I spent my spring break this semester and I am so happy that I get to share my experience with all of you. To start off I need to tell a little bit of a backstory. At the beginning of the fall semester I decided to join a few extracurricular groups who love to volunteer throughout the school year. One of the clubs I joined is called Students Today Leaders Forever (otherwise known as…

Sustainability in Italy – A Special Series – Sustainability and Agriculture – by Sara Desrocher. The North Star Reports: Global Citizenship and Digital Literacy, at NorthStarReports.org and facebook.com/NorthStarReports

Buongiorno! I will be spending the semester studying abroad in Montespertoli, which is about 13 miles outside of Florence, Italy. I am being hosted by Castello Sonnino, which is a family owned residence that has been converted into a winery producing wine and olive oil. A few of the structures were built in the 13th century! Students are being housed in a few buildings throughout the property. I am living in the Farmhouse, which was built in the late 19th century. You can guess why it is called the Farmhouse, one of the farmers lives beneath us students and the backyard is teeming with chickens, roosters, cats and dogs.

I am studying Sustainability and Agriculture in Italy. I had assumed that we…

The “Moscow of the Far East”: An Introduction to Harbin, China – by Marin Ekstrom. The North Star Reports: Global Citizenship and Digital Literacy, at NorthStarReports.org and facebook.com/NorthStarReports

[The Saint Sophia Cathedral, a former Russian Orthodox church-turned-city museum that serves as Harbin’s most recognizable landmark.]

Towering onion dome cathedrals and Stalinist spires…matryoshka nesting dolls and tins of caviar sitting in shop windows…broad streets, or prospekti, criss-crossing an urban landscape…

Based on these descriptions, one would assume that this place would be the most Russian of Russian cities. However, these are actually some of the key sights to see in Harbin, a city located in the northernmost throes of China! Harbin, the capital of China’s northeastern Heilongjiang Province, offers a fish-out-of-water experience and a standout highlight of any expedition into China.

[A mountain of matryoshka Russian nesting dolls for sale.]

The city of Harbin as it is known today dates back…