North Park’s 50-year relationship with Sweden’s SVF gets a modern makeover.
By Ellen Almer BA ’94
North Park University’s ties to Sweden have been strong since its founding in 1891, but the relationship deepened about 50 years ago with the addition of an intimate exchange program with a small school called Södra Vätterbygdens Folkhögskola (SVF).
SVF partnered with North Park to provide an experience where Swedish students and North Parkers swapped time on each other’s campuses. The resulting program is now the longest exchange program between an American and Swedish school and remains an iconic North Park tradition.
“We have legacy Covenant students coming to North Park just to attend SVF,” said Chad Eric Bergman, interim co-dean of North Park’s College of Arts and Sciences.
“It was my first time abroad… From architecture to language to culture to how the entire way of being and seeing the world can be widely different from how I grew up in Minnesota. And just being outdoors. It still feels like the air is so fresh and crisp in Jönköping.”
—Josh Hiben
Indeed, multiple generations of parents and students have cycled through the unique program, which has evolved over the years but fundamentally remains a cohort exchange in which Swedish and American students live and learn together on both campuses.
The arrangement has resulted in lifelong friendships and even international marriages. Ida (a Swede) BA ’12, MOL ‘17 and Josh (an American) Hiben BA ’12, MDiv ‘18 met through the SVF program.
Among their favorite memories of the program: Cooking and taking walks with fellow students; Josh eventually becoming a coffee addict thanks to daily Fikas; and a class Ida took with Bergman, which strengthened her English skills.
Josh said his first reaction to landing in Sweden was revelatory.
“It was my first time abroad… From architecture to language to culture to how the entire way of being and seeing the world can be widely different from how I grew up in Minnesota. And just being outdoors. It still feels like the air is so fresh and crisp in Jönköping.”
The program has succeeded despite the elemental differences between the institutions. While North Park is a traditional four-year university, SVF is known in Sweden as a “folk high school,” an option for students who don’t enroll in university but seek more life skills.
According to John Ahlström, the Swedish director of SVF’s exchange program with North Park, the program proved extremely popular when it started because very few such exchange programs existed in the 1970s. During the program’s heyday about 20 years ago, the school had 100 applicants for just 12 spots.
Then, in the early 2000s, things slowly began to change. Exchange programs became extremely popular, and soon, Swedish students had many options for studying in America. At the same time, North Park’s student population diversified, with fewer Swedish Covenant students enrolling. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, and international programs halted, Ahlström and Bergman feared the partnership might not survive.
“For the past four years, we’ve had to reenvision how this could work,” said Bergman, who has worked closely with Ahlström on redesigning the program. Last winter, President Mary Surridge and Provost Michael Carr accompanied Bergman on a trip to SVF in part to reinvigorate the North Park-SVF connection.
The group soon determined schools could easily reimagine the program to focus on modern topics.
“We have so much more to offer than people just coming to explore their roots,” Ahlström said. “Sweden is known for its progressive policies. Students who come here learn about how we dealt with our refugee crisis in 2015, and how we handle climate change and recycling. There’s so much to learn here.”
Similarly, SVF students who come to North Park learn about life in a large, intercultural city such as Chicago.
“If you are lucky enough to have those opportunities at a younger age, then you can enter adulthood already knowing yourself better, knowing yourself better, knowing your values and perhaps how you want to live your life.—Marit Johnson Awes
Once the pandemic receded, Bergman found North Parkers were still interested in going abroad.
“We found that students were still interested in having an international experience, but maybe not for an entire semester,” Bergman said. “We haven’t necessarily retained the traditional exchange, but we’ve creatively kept it going.”
Bergman and Ahlström’s teams developed a new program structure. In the fall, Bergman teaches an online course about Chicago to the SVF students before the group comes to North Park’s campus for the second semester. Then, in May, the SVF students and a group of third-year North Parkers return to Sweden for a three-week residency.
The residency focuses on a single topic, such as Bergman’s seminar on the lost art of letter-writing a couple of years ago.
While the look and feel of the program have evolved over the decades, it still breeds deep devotion among its participants.
Marit Johnson Awes BA ’03, MA ‘11 participated in the program her sophomore year, as most students do.
“My friends and I took the train all over Europe and would play hacky sack as we waited in long lines at museums or castles,” recalled Awes, who still travels to Sweden to visit friends she made there. “We slept on each other’s shoulders on the train and packed lunches together in the hostel kitchens each morning to save money as we explored the city we were in that day.”
Bergman and Ahlström hope to capitalize on such sentimental fondness with a 50th-anniversary trip, perhaps as soon as next fall.
Marit Johnson Awes BA ’03, MA ‘11 participated in the program her sophomore year, as most students do.
“My friends and I took the train all over Europe and would play hacky sack as we waited in long lines at museums or castles,” recalled Awes, who still travels to Sweden to visit friends she made there. “We slept on each other’s shoulders on the train and packed lunches together in the hostel kitchens each morning to save money as we explored the city we were in that day.”
Bergman and Ahlström hope to capitalize on such sentimental fondness with a 50th-anniversary trip, perhaps as soon as next fall.
Awes’ advice to young people is to take advantage of all travel opportunities.
“Sweden is known for its progressive policies. Students who come here to learn about how we dealt with our refugee crisis in 2015, and how we handle climate change and recycling. There’s so much to learn here.”—John Ahlström
“If you are lucky enough to have those opportunities at a younger age, then you can enter adulthood already knowing yourself better, knowing your values and perhaps how you want to live your life.”
For the Hibens, their decision to participate was life-changing.
“It changed the trajectory of our lives and gave us both lifelong friends and a true chance to immerse ourselves in a new culture,” Ida Hiben said. “The partnership provides exchanges of ideas and cultures in a very formative time of a student’s life.”
