| Undergraduate students in Christian Liberal Arts Universities are often compelled to learn and develop attributes that correspond with the Protestant faith tradition, through various methodologies. Empathy is one particular character trait that is often discussed but inadvertently neglected in the research. However, in this study focuses on an Anabaptist Liberal Arts university in United States that takes pride in its cross-cultural study program and its ability to foster the development of empathy in its undergraduate students.; This particular study investigated empathy development in a group of undergraduate students who embarked on a five-week cross-cultural learning experience to Lesotho, in Southern Africa. Along with home stays, students were engaged in a service-learning project that involved developing and working in an AIDS/HIV garden. Using a quasi-experimental design with a control and experimental group, data was obtained from the Balanced Emotional Empathy Scale (BEES) (Mehrabian, 1996, 2000) to assess whether empathy development occurs in undergraduate students through the cross-cultural learning experience. The results of the study indicated there was no significant change in empathy development in the 22 undergraduate students who participated in the Southern Africa cross-cultural learning experience. |
