Study abroad tour includes visit with former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld

Chapman University students traveling in Georgia as part of a summer study abroad course met former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld during a visit to the nation’s seaside town of Batumi.

In an email describing the study trip, Megan Demshki ’12, reported that, “It was quite the surprise to meet Secretary Rumsfeld and attend a few hours of the Rumsfeld Fellowship Reunion in Batumi.” Demshki is the University’s past Student Government Association President and one of 15 American university students chosen to visit the capital city last year as a Kremlin Fellow with the Russian Federation’s Federal Agency on Youth Affairs.

The students are in the region as part of the travel course “Georgia: Geopolitics of Black Sea-Caspian Region,” a course taught by James J. Coyle, Ph.D., director of the Center for Global Education. Dr. Coyle is co-author of “Politics in the Middle East:  Culture and Conflict” and a former U.S. government official in the Middle East.