真相就在那里

A dedicated biology major with minors in psychology and chemistry, 杰克 Goembel ’23 全心全意地接受了文科的经历. 他们有着各种各样的兴趣， 杰克 decided to take his experiential learning to the next level with a faculty-led 2023年1月去古巴旅行.

 

An unparalleled experience offered to 九州娱乐官网 students each January, the Cuba Experience is a once in a lifetime opportunity for students to visit Cuba and conduct real-world research into the culture, music, religion, and foods of Havana. Led by two WC faculty members, the Cuba Experience offers students the chance to pursue 学术和激情项目都一样.

Keen to take advantage of this research opportunity, 杰克 began brainstorming numerous research ideas and methods before landing on studying Cuban perceptions of extraterrestrial life, with a project aptly named “Marxism and Martians: Comparing Perceptions of Alien 两代古巴人在哈瓦那的生活.

“I started out juggling a lot of research ideas, including using surveys and incentives to figure out the legitimacy of people’s avowed moral systems, interviewing psychiatrists to find differences in their practices across geography, and determining how political beliefs impact people’s perception of alien life… I’m fascinated by the relationship between economic philosophy and perception of alien life, so the fact that Cuba [is] a socialist country – and, furthermore, one with different economic beliefs between generations – meant I could probably get some interesting insight into how that relationship 体现.”

Having been approved for Cater Society grant and successfully completing the IRB process, 杰克 moved forward with hypothesizing the differences in perceptions of alien life 在古巴几代人中. “我的假设是，受影响更大的古巴年轻人 by American 媒体 and the turbulent state of modern Cuba, would hold a pessimistic view of advanced extraterrestrial civilizations, seeing them as malicious colonizers. On the other hand, I anticipated that older Cubans, shaped by revolutionary ideals and their experiences growing up in Cuba, would have a more optimistic perspective 关于先进外星文明的性质和第一次接触的前景. 这 hypothesis was based in part on utopian trends in Soviet science fiction and Argentine 托洛斯基分子J. 波萨达斯认为先进的外星文明一定存在 共产主义.”

Utilizing a team of local translators, a group of eight participants were recruited 来自两个年龄段的人——在古巴革命时期长大的人，以及在古巴革命时期长大的人 经历了现代古巴的人. 然后是20分钟的访谈和人口调查 were conducted, with a bit of help from the extensive preparation he did before the 旅行.

“准备是关键! 作为课程的一部分，阅读古巴历史有助于建立背景 我在参与者的回答中看到了很多不同. 这也意味着我问 用正确的顺序提出正确的问题. 比如，从容易开始，多轻浮 questions before moving to politically charged ones was a good way to establish rapport 让参与者更愿意分享他们的观点. 如果我没有做背景调查的话 研究古巴的社会、历史以及与美国的关系.S.，答案 就不会这么有见地了.”

Having collected his data and explored all Havana had to offer, it was soon time for 杰克 to analyze and interpret the results using direct context analysis of the interview transcripts and demographic surveys; “Younger Cubans displayed a more pessimistic outlook on extraterrestrial civilizations and indicated a greater influence from American 媒体. 他们期待着暴力的第一次接触，想象着外星社会 随着资本主义. 一些人甚至表达了明确的反社会主义观点. 相比之下，老年人 古巴人对先进的外来社会持积极态度，据报受到 their personal experiences during their childhood and the values of the Cuban Revolution.”

Upon the completion of his project, 杰克 presented his findings at the Cater Society Open House in February of 2023 with great success, having found his time and experiences in Cuba to be vastly enriching to his undergraduate experience, citing it as “without 毫无疑问，这是我做过的最酷的项目.”

Following his graduation, 杰克 will be applying to medical school with the goal of becoming a psychiatrist or primary care provider; “We’ll see where things go – if my time at WAC has taught me anything, it’s that you never know for sure what direction 新的经历可能会吸引你.

To further explore The Cuba Experience and other experiential learning offering here 在WC，结帐 WC的海外留学项目.