Travel planner: College's study-abroad director sends students off to see the world
<p>Part of Stemborski’s travel courses include learning about different cultures. Sometimes that means learning how to hunt with a blowgun, like in this picture in the Ecuadorian rainforest.</p>
<p>Stemborski is dwarfed by the Himalayan range behind him at a Mt. Everest base camp.</p>
<p>Mick Stemborski takes a photo with students of all ages on one of his South America trips. The locale for this photo overlooked the Tena River. (Photos submitted by Mick Stemborski)</p>
Mick Stemborski has a simple philosophy: People should see the world and other cultures to truly appreciate life.
So he’s not out of place as Flathead Valley Community College’s coordinator of multicultural services and study-abroad program, where he helps send students to the canals of Venice, the foggy streets of London and Peru’s beetling precipices hiding Incan ruins, among other stunning locales.
“I enjoy traveling with students,” Stemborski said. “You get to see things through their perspective, through their eyes. Students are always vibrant, alive and curious at any age.”
His role with FVCC started several years ago when he started contracting trips for students through the college. His private company, Peru Alive, has been up and running for 12 years, and now some of those trips are through FVCC.
While taking students abroad is his passion, Stemborski’s fire when it comes to other cultures in Montana also follows the idea that people should know more about the world around them.
He showcases this with a favorite Kurt Vonnegut quote, paraphrased on many of the study-abroad documents.
“There are thousands of other cultures and they all work pretty well,” the author wrote. “It is a source of hope. It shows there are many different ways to live; reaching our goals and dreams.”
This cultural relativism inspires community events such as bringing up a group of Buddhists from the Tibetan Ewam center in Arlee recently, as well as forums on topics such as the Arabic language. Stemborski, besides all his other roles, also handles the American Indian student services at the college.
Because of this, he attempts to get Flathead residents more in touch with the people who first settled the land, whether this be the Salish, Kootenai or Blackfeet tribes or otherwise.
He doesn’t cut corners when it comes to his favorite part about studying cultures and traveling the world.
“Hands down, it’s the people,” Stemborski said. “It’s not where you’re going, but who you meet along the way.”
Stemborski, 43, took some personal trips to Peru when he was a public school counselor and the country spoke to him.
His signature trips fly into the modern capital of Lima before busing participants to the ancient Incan capital of Cuzco. Stemborski takes the students through the Sacred Valley of Peru to soak in the culture of pre-Spanish Peru (which, yes, includes Machu Picchu).
“There are traditional Incan and Catholic traditions that are still intact but have not blended,” Stemborski said. “The people there still know who they are and where they came from.”
He grew up in Connecticut and Vermont but has been in Montana for 20 years. He worked as a school counselor for a few of those years before switching.
For all his travels, he’s found that the culture of the Flathead is his personal favorite.
“This is the best culture. Montanans are the best people,” Stemborski said. “I haven’t been to a place that beats the Flathead Valley.”
Even so, his students benefit from his curiosity and love of adventure.
“For a lot of my students, it is the first time they’ve been out of the country or even the first time they’ve been on a plane,” he said. “Study abroad and academics go hand in hand; 49 percent of students who study abroad achieve double bachelor’s or higher degrees.”
In the 20 years Stemborski has lived in Montana — first in Great Falls, now in the Flathead — the flux the state has experienced has been massive. Montana is more globally significant now than it has ever been, he said.
“Our state has more international influence,” Stemborski said. “And like it or not, understanding each other is a whole lot better than stereotypes and judging.”
Besides preparing students for a more globalized world, some of the study-abroad programs seek to take American students out of their isolation and open their world view.
Some of the next trips include a several-months-long trip to Italy studying Venetian art and language, and 10-day-long excursions to either London and Stratford-upon-Avon to study Shakespeare or Stemborski’s signature Peruvian jaunts. A Himalayan trip to Nepal could be in the works as well.
Stemborski, a father of one boy, is not close to done exploring the world.
“If I had a dream place to show my boy, I’d want to see the Pyramids,” Stemborski said. “You just have to love seeing the world but coming home after.”
Reporter Ryan Murray may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at rmurray@dailyinterlake.com.