Charlie Guthrie
Charlie Guthrie
By Kim Puckett | News Editor
Since 1981, Charles Guthrie has impacted the lives of University of Indianapolis students in the classroom and abroad.
Guthrie, chair of the history and political science department, applies his experiences in developing countries in his classroom and on service trips.
Guthrie lived for three years in East Africa- one year in Uganda, where he got his master’s degree, and two years in Tanzania teaching secondary school. He also lived in Zambia for a year and a half. He uses his firsthand knowledge to teach African and Latin American classes at UIndy.
Guthrie also leads service trips, which he said are life-changing experiences for those who go on them. He said these trips benefit the students who go on them more than the developing villages the students visit.
“You take them out of their comfort zone,” Guthrie said. “You expose them to something so radically different than what they are used to, and that opens the doors for opportunities that are simply not available in the classroom.”
In his 28 years at UIndy, Guthrie has led eight or nine service trips, most of them doing construction, practicing medicine or both. Since most of his trips have been to the developing world, students experience places much different than the United States.
“They are seeing a part of the world that is what most of the world is,” Guthrie said. “They are getting beyond what they think reality is, learning about a specific culture, in a place in time, so they can ratchet up their ability to empathize with difference—different peoples, different cultures, different perspectives.”
One of the trips Guthrie led was to the West African country of Liberia to build a six-room schoolhouse. This trip also inspired Inches International founders Lydia Fischer and Lyndsay McBride to create their honors project, which would turn into an organization raising money for African school children. Since that trip, Fischer and McBride have earned thousands of dollars for African schools. McBride said Guthrie knew how to make their service trip a success.
“As a trip leader, he knew how to choose a group that would get along together, but also learn from each other,” McBride said. “He was always the first on the work site and always the last one there. He knew what we were there for and always kept us focused on that fact.”
Since the conception of Inches International, McBride said Guthrie has assisted them in whatever way they needed him, as a businessman or a friend.
“Dr. Guthrie is always a positive force,” McBride said. “He is someone who will always encourage you to do more, to go farther. We could not have completed Inches [International] without his help.”
Although Guthrie has had a tangible impact on McBride’s life, she would like to see him take a break from his busy schedule.
“He works too hard,” McBride said. “He should really take a vacation to go fly fishing, or plan another service trip to West Africa.”
Guthrie said his crowning moments at the university have involved the success of his students.
“Sometimes students don’t realize how important it is for students and staff that good things happen to students,” Guthrie said. “For us in academia, those good moments are when students get hold of something and find it very interesting and you see their eyes light up. The more of those you can have in the teaching profession, the better.”
