Students traveled to Chicago's Field Museum for a tour of the Near Eastern collections.  James Phillips and Anne Underhill spoke to the students about their archaeological research and several curators demonstrated research opportunities in a museum setting.
 

Students attended an all-day visit to the Indiana University Medical School in Indianapolis.  Members of the medical faculty outlined the types of research opportunities available in a medical school setting.
 

An all-day trip to the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago included a tour of the Near Eastern collections at the Institute and heard a lecture on pilgrimageby Professor Walter Kaegi.  The class then dined at the Nile Restaurant, an arabic cafe that serves many of the dishes they might sample in Jerusalem. 
 

Students visited the Anastos Collection of Byzantine literature at the University of Notre Dame, one of the premier holdings of Byzantine resources in the United States.  They learned how to access resources in this specialized library, as well as a variety of web-based resources on Byzantine studies.
 

The class spent 3 days at  the New Melleray Abbey in Iowa with a practicing Cistercian community to enhance their understanding of the social and symbolic parameters of daily monastic life, analogous to those of Byzantine St. Stephen's.  They were expected to attend one full prayer cycle for a day (prayer every 3 hours) to better understand the daily rhythm of monastic life.
 

Students joined Dr. Schurr's archaeological field school for a day of excavation in northern Indiana where they learned basic excavation and geophysical survey techniques.
 

Father Hesburgh has been very supportive of this program since it's inception, and readily welcomes visits by the students in the program.  The 2002 Summer NSF-REU group spoke with him to learn about the history of the university and listen toaspects of his exceptional career as an educator and activist.