CENTER VALLEY, Pa. — Eight students in the course "World Mythologies and the Arts" at Penn State Lehigh Valley (PSU-LV) had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to learn about some of the world’s most enduring myths during a weeklong trip to Scotland earlier this semester. During the trip, students conducted primary research for a capstone video project, the results of which were recently shared with the PSU-LV community.
Elizabeth Flaherty, director of the honors program at PSU-LV, and Todd Retzlaff, associate professor of mathematics, chaperoned the eight students whose travels took them to Glasgow, Edinburgh and Inverness — three distinctly diverse Scottish cities. The students were charged with identifying a myth and doing primary research on that myth while in Scotland, in terms of how the arts have embodied it and if it’s still a part of Scottish culture. From Selkies to Kelpies, Loch Ness monsters to Clootie wells, the students chose a wide range of mythical beasts and beings for their projects.
The group had a truly immersive experience while abroad.
“We went to multiple castles and toured the castles to talk about Scottish and military history. We went to a bunch of museums. We sampled local cuisine — just about everyone tried haggis. We had a full immersion of different experiences, which is part of the cool thing about the three cities. Each one was so categorically different,” Flaherty said.
The group even traveled to the famous village of Loch Ness, but unfortunately had no sightings of the mythical Loch Ness monster.