Students Span the Globe

By Amanda Breen
abreen@student.stonehill.edu

Geri Sheehan was impressed with how mature her daughter was when she returned from a semester abroad in Egypt.
“She saw all the sights but had the added experience of staying with an Arab family. She had to go through checkpoints, and have a curfew. It wasn’t the standard study abroad experience. Now she explains to me about Arab culture” said Sheehan, a Stonehill College librarian.
American students studying abroad have reached record numbers. According to the 2007 Open Doors report published by the Institute of International Education, study abroad program participation is up 8.5 percent.
Students studying abroad has increased 150 percent in the past decade, bringing the total number of American students abroad to 223,534, up from fewer than 90,000 students in 1995.
Universities generally allow its students to study in any country as long as it safe and has comparable classes. The United Kingdom still ranks first among study abroad favorites with 32,109 students choosing to study there in 2007, an increase in non-traditional destinations is on the rise.
The Open Door survey found an increase in those who choose to visit Asia, Africa and the Middle East. From previous years, the number of students in 2007 studying in Asia rose 26 percent, Africa increased by 19 percent and the Middle East climbed 31 percent the study found.
Young people today have more options and resources than generations before them did.
Most colleges in the area offer international programs for both academic study and internship opportunities.
Stonehill College in Easton has seen international programs enrollment steadily increase in the past six years. From the 2002-2203 academic year to today, the International Programs office has seen a 38 percent increase in students studying and interning abroad.
“Forty one percent of the class of 2008 spent at least a semester abroad. It just keeps increasing” Alice Cronin, assistant director of International Programs at Stonehill said.
Wheaton College in Norton has also seen an increase in students choosing less traditional study abroad destinations.
Lynn Gaylord, associate dean in the Center for Global Education at Wheaton, said that while the center sees consistent enrollment in programs in Italy and Spain, numbers of students traveling to Asia, Latin America and Africa are on the rise.
“Students see all the cultural experiences that are available in Western Europe but people are beginning to look to other destinations” Gaylord said.
Students from Wheaton will be interning this summer in Beijing for the Olympics and the numbers of students studying in Cairo has also increased.
College students are not the ones who can participate in international programs anymore. High school students are beginning to travel for academic and cultural experiences.
Stonehill College freshman Hilary Curtis of Scarborough, Maine spent a month in Amboise, France this past summer where she attended classes and lived with a host family.
Curtis went through Intrax, an organization which gives high school, as well as college students, a chance to spend anywhere from a month to a whole year abroad. Curtis saw this experience as a way to prepare for her departure to college at the end of the summer.
“When I was abroad, I really missed my friends and family. But when I got back, I was able to leave for college with that initial shock behind me.”
Curtis also plans on studying abroad again during college.
“The next time I’m abroad, I’ll be able to settle in more quickly, and I’ll know better ways to communicate through a language barrier.”
Other organizations like People to People and Boston-based Explorica offer high school students opportunities to study, explore and volunteer in a foreign country.
Boston-based Explorica offers teacher-led educational tours to teens with destinations from Ireland and Greece to Peru and Belize.
Alicia Sousa, 20, a junior at Stonehill College, is studying abroad in Toledo, Spain. In 2004, during her junior year of high school in Dartmouth, Mass., Sousa went to Spain with her Spanish class through Explorica.
“I got to practice my Spanish a lot when I came in high school and it definitely made me more confident. Now that I’m living with a host family for four months, it helps me understand the social aspect of Spain. That’s something you can’t get in a one week trip” Sousa says.
People to People’s Student Ambassadors programs gives high school and even elementary school age students the chance to interact with other students around the globe.
Programs offered by People to People include Australian adventure trips and visits to England where students meet with a member of the British Parliament.
For those students who dream of participating in a study abroad program, whether at a college or through an outside organization, but think they can’t afford it, think again.
More and more funding has become available for students who wish to enhance their lives and education by international studies.
Organizations such as the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship provide financial support to undergraduate students who study abroad. Websites like studyabroadfunding.org allow youths to search for specific international scholarships they might be eligible to apply for.
Sousa said that studying abroad makes students more confident.
“I have to take initiative if I want to see something cultural or on plan a trip” Sousa says. “You get a good sense of you own power and knowledge when you’re away from what you know.”