Dean of International Programs Dr. Jeffrey Hopper recently returned from a trip to Egypt where he evaluated the overall safety status of future Harding University in Greece (HUG) excursions to the unstable region. Due to recent violence in the country of Egypt, the HUG program’s trip to Egypt has been in question.
Hopper said the trip to Egypt will remain on the HUG itinerary.
According to Hopper, Egypt is just as safe for tourists as any other place of travel. He is committed to making sure all of the proper safety precautions are taken to ensure peaceful travels for all of Harding’s international program participants.
“I went to the places where the trouble has occurred and also to sites that the HUG group visits,” Hopper said. “I believe that the current safety status of Egypt is as it has always been when we went. We are committed to taking all prudent measures to keep our students safe.”
Hopper said Harding will do everything it can to ensure that Egypt will continue to be a part of the HUG experience in the future; that includes this semester.
“Egypt is in the itinerary for this semester,” Hopper said. “I just got back from (Egypt) and all the tourist and biblical sites are operating and have operated as normal. We make decisions about all our programs and visits almost on a day-to-day basis because we want to make sure it is as safe as possible for our students.”
Hopper said he believes Egypt is an eye-opening experience for all the students who travel there because of what the country has to offer. Some of the sight-seeing highlights for students include the Giza Pyramids, the archeological museum, the Luxor and Luxor Temple, the Nile River and the lands of Goshen and Sinai.
“In addition to important biblical sites, over half of the known history of the world has taken place in Egypt,” Hopper said.
In recent semesters the trip to Egypt has been canceled due to political unrest and safety concerns. Typically, if students do not travel to Egypt, they travel to the country of Turkey instead and visit historical and biblical sites including the seven churches of Asia and the famous city of Istanbul.
Junior and HUG Spring 2012 participant Bailee Searcy was not able to travel to Egypt. But according to her, Turkey ended up being her favorite trip of all.
“I was really excited about the Nile cruise and going to Mt. Sinai,” Searcy said. “But I really enjoyed Turkey; (it) was probably my favorite trip. Turkey was such a rich, fun culture. It was very unknown to me, and I loved going into it without any stereotype or expectation.”
Searcy’s fellow traveler that semester, junior Luke Smith, said no matter where you end up going at HUG, it changes you forever.
“My biggest take away from HUG was just the fact that it made my faith real,” Smith said. “We grow up hearing these incredible stories of faith, and we actually got to see where so many of them took place.”
