This past weekend, under the watchful eye of the rarely seen English winter sun, I brought my students to Stratford Upon Avon. With the weather in full cooperation and all students settled nicely into their cozy B&B’s I handed out information packs, maps and tickets to the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of King Lear.

Upon meeting the students at the theatre after dinner we embarked on a three and a half hour crusade through one of Shakespeare’s masterpieces. I call it a crusade because it is not an easy production to watch even at its best, and this show was definitely exemplary. King Lear not so slowly goes insane as his daughters back stab and kill. And at the end, half the cast is left bleeding or dead. With the stage covered in carnage the audience is left in shock and the curtain call seems somehow inappropriate after such an intense experience.

After the show I spoke to some of the students about how they felt. While I am not personally a fan of Shakespeare I can appreciate the emotional density of his work, his moral debates and his eloquent diatribes. Not to mention our front row seats kept us in the middle of the action. However, some students did not feel the same. In fact one musical theatre student was overwhelmingly exasperated by the end, feeling as though she had barely made it through. This production had been so out of her comfort zone that it had been near impossible for her to last the entire length not to mention enjoy it.

That’s when I started to think about how students respond to new experiences abroad. In this case King Lear was by all accounts a triumph but at least one very vocal student felt her triumph was sitting still for 3 and a half hours while some people pranced around on stage. She even admitted gagging at the more vulgar points! This is a perfect example of ‘You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink’. You can pull students out of their comfort zone but you cannot make them understand it. In this case I was fine with the students liking or disliking the production but I wanted them to analyse the experience and think about ‘Why?’ they felt the way they did. Sometimes the most uncomfortable experiences are those that change us the most, but without the self analysis one may never realize that.

So, I feel that one of the most, if not the most important aspects of study abroad is self reflection. For many programmes this aspect has become almost completely obsolete but this is in fact the way to realize change and growth from the journey abroad, and isn’t that why students go abroad in the first place? To grow and develop? You can bring them all over the world and show them magnificent sights, fantastical shows and mind bending culture, but without the self introspection, does it really sink in? Why is this no longer an intrinsic piece of the study abroad puzzle?

Emily Nunes

Frozen but Attentive!

New semesters are always crazy. When new students come together, in a new country with a new culture, and new classes with new faculty, involved in new activities with new programme leaders, it is bound to be just that…Crazy!

This year, my student arrived in the middle of England’s cold snap. Being from upstate New York, I know many of my American comrades would think anything above zero was bathing suit temperature. Londoners on the other hand, myself now included, were reduced to walking icicles.

When I told the students to bundle up when leaving Heathrow, they mumbled in somewhat self-righteous tones, that they had come from New York and knew how to deal with cold temperatures. In a quick retort I simply said, ‘You may be from frosty New York, but that doesn’t make it any less freezing outside.’

Off we went to the coach and on to their flats in central London. When I announced a neighbourhood walking tour they managed to pull out their trusty winter jackets and brave the elements as I walked them from ATM to grocery store, post office to tube station. However, the relief was tangible when we walked through the warm doors of a local restaurant for a Thai feast.

Though the next few days were undoubtedly filled with orientation packets and advice about what to do, where to go and when to see it, I think that the first day is what sets off a student’s semester. With dedicated faculty and supportive staff I think students can rise above those crazy first hours and create a foundation of wonderment and learning that will carry them through the semester and leave them changed for the better at the other end.

That being said, I am curious about other programmes’ orientations. Do you feel that hands-on (or hand holding) orientations are intrinsic to a positive experience abroad? Or do you prefer to through them in at the deep end where they’ll either sink or swim?

Emily Nunes

Kendall Monaghan

The best adventures and memories that I have experienced this fall was when I went out and travelled by myself. You gain a personal attachment to the specific destination and a sense of achievement that is indescribable when ‘going it alone’.  During my time in London, I have trekked to the towns of Gloucester, Leeds, Portsmouth, Cheltenham and Bourton-on-the-Water (known as “the Venice of the Cotswolds”) in England; Bridgend, Ogmore and Merthyr Mawr in Wales; Shanklin, Sandown, Bembridge, Brading, Freshwater, Newport and Cowes on the Isle of Wight; Dublin, Monaghan and Howth in Ireland.

Like every study abroad student, I imagined myself travelling to Italy, France, Belgium and Ireland before I came here.  Once while I was living in London my program took us on a week trip visiting the Lake District and York in England and Edinburgh in Scotland.  After experiencing the culture and atmosphere in the country parts of England, I realized I loved my time there more than the major cities and knew that that was where I wanted to spend my time visiting.  Instead of traveling to all of those major European attractions, I picked one of them, Ireland, and set about picking out different areas to visit within the United Kingdom.  I was able to travel and explore 18 different towns on the same amount of money it took my friends to visit four major cities in Europe.  Definitely something to think about!

What I found most helpful during my travels were the information offices located in the majority of the towns I visited.  I was able to get maps and even coupons for different attractions that the town offered.  When I got off the train in my chosen destination, the only thing I knew were directions I wrote off of Google map on how to get to my B&B.   I went to these various places with one main sight to see and found the majority of others things to experience once I got there.

My favorite things from my many adventures were the Windmill and Osborne House in Isle of Wight, seals in the water on the coast of Howth in Ireland, a stepping stone footpath on River Ewenny to Ogmore Castle in Wales, Gloucester Cathedral, where Harry Potter was filmed and the various bridges in Bourton-on-the-Water in the Cotswolds of England.

Before arriving in London I never expected to do the majority of my travelling alone.  I invited my fellow roommates on my planned adventures and in the end, I was the only one wanting to travel to these specific areas, so I went ahead and set about travelling by myself.  The driving force for my solo travels is due to my mother.  When my mother was in college she visited London by herself for a short while.  During her brief stay she was unable to experience everything she wanted to explore and continued to think on her journey, “oh, when I come back to visit later in life I will see that attraction”.  My mother always thought that she would be able to return to London, but was never able to.  I treated my four months in London as if this was my only chance in my life to visit.  No one knows what the future holds, so you might as well travel and see what you want, even if you are alone.

If I were to give any piece of advice from my solo travels around the United Kingdom and Ireland I would have to say, do not be afraid to travel alone.  I know so many friends who studied abroad and returned home without seeing the main destinations that they wanted to experience simply because they did not have anyone to go with.  If I only travelled with another companion, I never would have experienced the various cities and had such amazing memories.  It is scary at first, but completely worth it.

Have you traveled alone while on a study abroad experience?  Do you agree that it’s worth it?  If you’re a study abroad leader do you encourage your students to travel alone at least part of the time?  If so, do your students pay you any heed?

Sam with friends in Italy

This past week I spent my fall break traveling throughout Italy; from Rome to Florence and finally to Venice. And although this trip did entail a lot of planning, money, and stress, the most rewarding aspect was not only seeing more things in this one week than most people do in their lives, but getting to know the other students on my program and sharing this experience with them. I found it interesting that while traveling throughout Europe and living in London we get consumed with taking all these pictures of the things we come across. And having taken over five hundred pictures of this past week, I realize that while these pictures are a great means of documentation, which can stay on my hard drive for years to come, what doesn’t make it there is the essence of the experience with the people I have met.

How ironic that after seeing the landscapes from the top of the Duomo in Florence, or watching the world float by from a gondola in the canals in Venice, that what was most important from my trip was actually all the ‘real time’; shooting the breeze with my friends at a piazza wine bar, or tasting all the flavors at one of the many (many) gelaterias.

I found that what is everlasting while studying abroad is not the trip you took to Windsor Castle or the millions of pictures you post on your Facebook page, but rather the type of bond you make with the people you travel with. I feel I have gained such character while living in a foreign country, and only these friends understand what it was like. No one else can understand the growth from a semester abroad than the people who are there alongside of you.

And while I tend to experience things (clearly) through photographs, there is no picture for the new life-long relationships I have made this semester, making it all the more valuable that I take a second to realize that I can never take them for granted.

How do we encourage study abroad students to put down their cameras and fully engage their senses?  Can we model good behavior to help them appreciate the value of engaging with all the people around of them…by putting the camera down?

Samantha Blye
University of Rochester

ryan lorenz

Recently I attended a presentation on intercultural adjustment for US study abroad students in Barcelona. Although the professional presenters had plenty to say of interest, I was most fascinated by student comments especially as I have spent my career working with college students abroad.  Now that I’m organising programs in Barcelona I’m particularly interested in hearing about their study abroad experience in this city.

They had plenty to say about the challenge of language (trying to practice their Spanish when people respond to them in English, for example), what it feels like to be singled out as an “American”, how the experience has changed them (or not!) and why they chose to study in Barcelona.

The comment that most captivated my attention, however, was a student complaint that her experience so far has been much less intercultural than she expected. She said that she understood why students in her program who chose not to take classes at the local universities and spend all their time together…might…find their Barcelona study abroad experience very American and not very intercultural. But she had signed up for classes at local universities (in addition to those offered by her hosting US program). Only to find that one was full of other American students, the other full of non-Spanish European students. Where are the locals she came to find?

My immediate response to her complaint is two-fold. First, I assume this student was well-informed prior to choosing the study abroad program and city she chose. Quite possibly the fact that the program offered a nice, safe, comfortable nest among other US students was a deciding factor. If she had been offered full matriculation at a lesser-known university on the plains of Spain, where 90% of the students would be local and all classes taught in Spanish…would she have chosen it? Probably not. It would have seemed too challenging.

Now she’s here and not feeling challenged enough. Which is where my second response comes in. The student deciding where to go and what to do for study abroad is a different person than the student who has been here a couple of months. The student looks the same but thinks differently. Most likely this student will be thinking quite conservatively when choosing a program, looking for something (and someplace, let’s not forget) interesting yet not too challenging and certainly no ‘baptism of fire’. Yet that same student may come to regret the ‘safe’ decision once here, wishing she had greater opportunity for intercultural interaction and for experiences that are more uncomfortable because they produce some of the best learning and fondest memories. But there is no time for regrets, only for action!

How do you get students to make better choices at the point of applying for their study abroad program? How do you convince your students to take responsibility for their own intercultural immersion once on-site, vs. blaming the program and feeling regrets?  If we share ideas and work together, we can both make the study abroad experience richer for our students.

Emily Nunes

In addition to being a study abroad manager to my many American students in the UK and Ireland, I am currently studying for my MA in Contemporary History and Politics at the University of London. Though I am sure you would find all of my reading, highly riveting, I will refrain from regurgitating everything I have learned thus far. However, when doing reading on Chinese nationalism last week, I came across a passage regarding the Chinese’s change from a country to a nation.

Again, not to bore you with details, but a nation in this case is being defined (by Wikipedia) as: ‘a body of people who share a real or imagined common history, culture, language or ethnic origin. The development of the nation is closely related to the development of modern industrial states in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries… Though “nation” is also commonly used in informal discourse as a synonym for state or country, a nation is not identical to a state.’

The article discussed how the Chinese decided to become a nation after a series of embarrassing defeats and unwieldy postwar demands by dominating countries (ex: Japan, Britain). The Chinese wanted to move away from their country’s religious origins, and followed a steep learning curve to try to adjust to the Western nationalist example.

Here is where this ties into study abroad. I think the Chinese were the first country to send students to ‘study abroad’.

In an attempt to create a Chinese ‘nation’, the Government sent students of all ages to the west to learn their technology, religion, politics and culture. Isn’t that exactly what study abroad is about?

I constantly ask students… Why are you studying abroad? And they typically answer… To learn about a new country. What they don’t say, but what is implied, is that returning home they bring with them their new found knowledge. They are more informed about the world and bring a ‘je ne sais quoi’ to the benefit of their country.

Though I am not sure all of my students are thinking about the benefits their experience abroad will bestow upon their home countries, I do think that it is another way of thinking about the ‘abroad experience’. And it’s amazing to think about its origins!

* What do YOUR students say when you ask them why they study abroad?

* What do they say AFTER they have returned home, and you ask them how they benefited from their study abroad experience?

Academic Solutions

Our blog was included on the “100 Best Higher Education Blogs” by Online Degrees Hub.  We were one of six International Education/Study Abroad related websites recognized.  Also mentioned were the NAFSA blog, the International Higher Education Consulting blog, Study Abroad Blog and News, and Global Higher Ed blog.

Are you blogging about issues related to International Education?  Please let us know in the comment section!

by Ryan Lorenz

A disturbing experience happened to me yesterday while moving a carload of possessions from my current flat in Sant Cugat del Valles to a new one in central Barcelona. Moving house presents an opportunity to jettison old clothes, broken appliances and other clutter that takes up space but seems to offer little current value in our lives. Yet value is a subjective perspective as I remembered while visiting the Red Cross clothes depository. I found my path blocked by three people, clearly Latino immigrants, seemingly part of a team yet competitors at the same time: a tall man, a medium-height woman and a short woman.

The man held his hands out for my clothes, which prompted the short woman to ask/demand “all three of us are going to share these, right”? I told them I had many more bags, don’t worry. They then followed me back to my car to help unload my seemingly valueless clothes and shoes, a treasure trove for them as I am confident they will sell most and wear a few. Who knows? Perhaps my discarded stuff will get all three of them through the next month, euro by euro. They were effuse in their gratification.

My two kids watched the whole spectacle from the car, which gave us plenty to talk and think about. They are used to my popular refrain that “we are the lucky rich in this world of poverty”. Yesterday’s scene helped them better understand this, although my daughter already knew this from slums she has seen in Nairobi. It was a truly teachable moment, minds open and ready to learn, powerful illustration right in front of their faces.

What does this have to do with study abroad? Most of us international educators are committed to opening our students eyes to the experiences of others. Students typically talk about their past study abroad experiences in this way; i.e., “I was immersed in a different culture”. Yet US students in Barcelona are more likely to spend their time with fellow Americans. Those who break free from this bubble will probably spend time (in bars, clubs, restaurants and at the beach) with other comparatively rich, privileged westerners. People just like themselves, albeit with different languages and accents.

I want them to come to Sant Cugat. See the ‘people exchange’ I see every morning at the train station. Resident, locally born Catalans walking to the station to travel to their jobs 20 minutes away in Barcelona while Latino immigrants come here from poor neighbourhoods in Barcelona so they can clean the houses, watch the children and take care of the older relatives of these same Catalan families. Those immigrants are the lucky ones. They must feel true compassion for the unlucky ones. People like the three I met yesterday, struggling to get by one day at a time.

My students should ‘immerse’ themselves in their reality, even if only for a few hours. Question is how to connect them to this learning opportunity. As Barcelona has the highest ratio of immigrants in Spain there are many NGOs out there working with this population. Two of our US university partners have already asked me to connect their students to the immigrant experience though volunteerism, requests I shall enthusiastically pursue. But I’d also like to hear from my colleagues out there regarding additional ways to open students’ eyes to a reality most study abroad students will never see, to give them a study abroad experience worth remembering.

How do you engage your students with their host environment and get them to see what otherwise might remain hidden?

by Guest Blogger Penny Schouten

I recently received an e-mail from a school teacher in Florida asking me for advice on finding a job in international education.  That same day I re-tweeted a link to an article about how to sell your study abroad experience in a job interview  by Dan Klamm and received another request for advice on how to break into the field.  Here’s my advice:

1.  Build the skills and experience necessary for the job you want.  If you want to work in study abroad, then you should have AT LEAST a semester spent abroad.  Studying in non-traditional locations and non-English speaking locations make you more unique.  Find people who have the job you want to see what qualifications they have, how do you match up?  Technical skills are also sought after-database management, web design, social media, etc.  Building skills is something you should continue to do throughout your career.

2.  Check the NAFSA Job Registry.  You can search by location or job.  You can also post your résumé.  Also check IIE’s International Education Job Board and Forum on Education Abroad.

3.  Sign up for the NAFSA Academy.  Although this has a fee, you get a foundation education in international education, as well as build a network of colleagues.

4.  Network at regional and national NAFSA conferences.  Make up business cards with your contact info on one side and a list of your skills/qualifications on the other. 

5.  Follow NAFSA, other field related organizations and professionals on Facebook and Twitter.

6.  Check out Working World: Careers in International Education, Exchange & Development by Sherry Mueller & Mark Overmann.  It’s available for Kindle if you’re in a hurry. (*Note: I haven’t read it, but the description sounds appropriate).

I was able to get into the field with the help of my NAFSA mentor (Ryan Lorenz) and because my technology skills made me stand out from my competition.  I also paid (out of pocket) to attend the conferences and to take relevant workshops while I was still trying to get my first job.  I looked at it as an investment in my career and it paid off.  I am not a schmoozer, but networking at conferences helped make people aware of my job search.  They would forward openings that might interest me.  I’ve always found the international education community highly supportive, so if you are a newby, don’t be afraid to approach us!

What helped you break into the field?  Please share to help the newer generations!

Guest Blogger Penny Schouten

 Sarah McNitt and I presented Study Abroad in a Transparent World on Thursday, 28 May at the 2009 NAFSA conference in Los Angeles.

Sarah is a study abroad advisor at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.  She attended Albion College followed by the University of Michigan’s School of Information, where she received her master’s degree (specializing in Human-Computer Interaction).  She is interested in trivia, baking and educating others in the field about online communication tools.

Our Audience:

  

We were pleased to see Jeramy Johnson & Mike Bova from Academic Programs International (API) and Emily Gorlewski from Northern Illinois University  among our audience members! We speak on Twitter, but don’t often see each other in person.

Additional Related Resources:

• .eduGuru Higher Ed Internet Marketing blog:   ”Responding to Offending Blog Posts.”  This blog is a good resource in general.
• MarketingProfs Daily:  “Your Social Media Strategy Starts with Monitering.”
• Social Media Today:  “Protecting Your Brand from Negative Buzz” and “Following is passive, listening is active“