Pomona College: Hungary: Budapest-BSM

Pomona College:

Hungary – Budapest BSM

Host(s)

• Technical University of Budapest
• St. Olaf College
• Pomona College

Countries:

• Hungary

“Move Over Summers In France, This Woman Is Changing The Face Of Study Abroad”

by Denise Restauri via “Forbes“

Eliza Pesuit likes to rock the boat. And she’s taking high school juniors with her. Eliza is the 30-year-old CEO ofGlobal Glimpse, a non-profit organization that brings students together from diverse communities — from affluent Marin County to the South Bronx — to become change agents in their local communities and beyond. Global Glimpse takes students out of their comfort zone, pushes them to challenge assumptions and shows them that they are capable of more than they ever thought possible.

In marginalized communities, too many students with leadership potential get lost before the end of high school. Global Glimpse partners with public high schools in these low and mixed income neighborhoods to deliver a program that engages students, teachers, administrators and families.

But Global Glimpse isn’t just for students from marginalized communities — it’s for everyone. Through after school workshops and a three week structured group immersion experience in Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic or Ecuador, high school juniors develop confidence and life-changing skills.

And this non-profit has a sustainable and scalable business model. Global Glimpse currently partners with 50 high schools in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City, and will launch their first programs in Chicago in the fall of 2015. It is the only organization in the student travel field committed to serving low-income youth on a large scale. Since it started in 2008, the organization has grown seven fold, served over 2000 students, and provided over $3 million in travel scholarships for low-income youth. In 2015 Global Glimpse expects to serve 750 students. 96% of Global Glimpse alumni go on to college in communities where the average college attendance rate is under 10%.

Following is the Global Glimpse story, in Eliza’s words.

Shaking Things Up

Today’s youth learn about the world through media: TV, YouTube, facebook, twitter, etc. They grow up with the illusion of connection to a big world, but without personal experience. Global Glimpse gives students a doorway into another world while constantly tying this experience back to their lives in the United States. When you remove high school students from everything that is familiar and settle them in a developing country for three weeks, their common assumptions are shattered. Their perspectives on poverty and privilege, on the importance of education, and most importantly, on their ability and responsibility to effect change in the world change radically. They gain the ability to see and evaluate the world and their home communities with new eyes.

For example, we may have the illusion of racial equality in the United States, but American high schools are highly segregated. Global Glimpse deliberately shakes this up. Our groups are socioeconomically, racially and ethnically diverse. We’ll put a group of students from Greenwich together with a group from the South Bronx. It’s very rare for people from such diverse backgrounds to live together for an extended period time. We immerse them in a new reality and, through daily experiences and nightly reflection sessions, support them to understand each other, to recognize and respect their differences in backgrounds and views as well as find common ground.

We believe that closing the achievement gap requires not only providing low-income youth with opportunities that will set them on a path towards success, but also providing them with experiences that allow them to operate comfortably across socioeconomic lines. It is just as important for students from more affluent backgrounds to understand the realities low income communities face in this country as interntionally. . . . .

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Middlebury Schools Abroad: School in the Middle East

Middlebury Schools Abroad:

School in the Middle East

Host(s)

• CV Starr-Middlebury School in the Middle East
• Brandeis University
• Ben Gurion University
• Middlebury Schools

Countries:

• Israel
• Jordan
  

Not-So-Great Expectations

by Elizabeth Redden via “Inside Higher Ed“

Are American institutions expecting too little of the students they send abroad?

In a time in which the majority of students going abroad are doing so on highly structured, faculty-led, short-term programs — some as short as one week — “How are we guiding students to go beyond their comfort zone?” asked Mary Anne Grant, president and CEO of International Student Exchange Programs (ISEP) at a session Tuesday at the Association of International Education Administrators’ annual conference.

Against the backdrop of a campaign to double American study abroad participation numbers, speakers at several sessions at the conference made a call to not sacrifice quality for quantity. In the session titled “Increasing Education Abroad: It’s Not Just About Numbers,” Grant’s copresenter, Elizabeth Brewer, argued that the expectations need to be raised, that American students don’t need a cruise ship with all the amenities to stay afloat.

“We need to get students off the cruise ship, and we have to create the narrative that they are capable of functioning quite well in the canoe or the kayak,” said Brewer, the director of international education at Beloit College, a liberal arts institution in Wisconsin.

Brewer made the argument that the more students “author” their own study abroad experiences, the more they can achieve, and she offered a few concrete suggestions to that effect. Change the application for study abroad, she urged, from a statement of students’ qualifications to focus more on their reasons for going.

On post-study abroad evaluations, Brewer said, don’t ask (only) about satisfaction. “Ask that last,” she said. “The first thing you should be doing is asking: What did you learn and how did you learn it and why did that matter and what are you going to do with it? Where are you going to take it?”

Lastly, Brewer said, make the outcomes visible to students “so you can have honest conversations about what study abroad really is.” One simple way to begin to do this, she said, is to ask students for permission to keep their evaluations on file. . . .”

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Furman University: TRAVEL WRITING THROUGH ITALY MAY EXPERIENCE 2015

Furman University

TRAVEL WRITING THROUGH ITALY
MAY EXPERIENCE 2015

Host(s)

• Furman University

Countries:

• Italy
  

Emory University: Emory Chemistry Studies Program

Emory University:

Emory Chemistry Studies Program

Host(s)

• Emory University
• The Department of Chemistry
• University of Siena

Countries:

• Italy
  

“Off the beaten path: ‘Huge opportunities’ stem from African study abroad programs”

 

by Natalie Marshall via “USA TODAY“

When college students search for study abroad sites, sub-Saharan Africa is not usually among the top contenders for possible host regions. According to a report by the Institute of International Education, about 12,859 students studied in sub-Saharan Africa during the 2011-2012 academic year, while about 151,143 studied in Europe that same year.

However, while students are not necessarily flocking to African study abroad sites, many students who have studied on the African continent have found their experiences to be very beneficial.

Zach Sturiale, a sophomore at Arcadia University, says that he was exposed firsthand to numerous issues during his time abroad. He studied in Cape Town, South Africa during his fall 2014 semester.

“South Africa is by far one of the most interesting countries in the world due to its past and current political, economic and social climate,” says Sturiale.

Most of all, he says he was exposed to the inequality that remains after the history of apartheid in South Africa.

“Studying in Cape Town made inequality strikingly apparent to me. I saw some of the largest examples of wealth I have ever seen in my life, but also saw the most tremendous examples of poverty I have ever seen in my life.”

Anna Wagman, a junior at Dickinson College, agrees that students can learn a lot from studying abroad in African countries. After studying in Madagascar, Tanzania and South Africa, she found that her study abroad sites offered numerous learning opportunities.

“Studying in a culturally disparate country is a huge opportunity for personal and academic growth, and great stories,” she says.

That being said, studying in developing countries often comes with challenges that students do not usually experience in more traditional study abroad sites.

Wagman says, “It’s always nerve-wracking to go somewhere so different from what you’re used to, but it was always really satisfying to push myself like that. Sometimes we had some really difficult living conditions . . . but I know the shared discomfort of these experiences made me really close with everyone in my group.”

Jessica Hawk, a senior at New York University, agrees that the challenges she experienced while studying abroad in Ghana were worth it in the end.

“There [were] days where I had to block my friends — who were studying in Florence — on Facebook so I couldn’t see the lavish lives they lived with great food,” she says. “But I gained local friends — who I now consider my family — that others sites may not offer. Sometimes water wouldn’t turn on or the lights would go out, but it was all really worth it.”

For Hawk, the challenges continued after she returned to the United States, as people from home did not fully comprehend her experiences in Ghana.

“I hated it when someone [from home] would introduce me as the person that studied in ‘Africa’ and everyone treated me like I was brave. It was a weird concept to think about. I wasn’t brave for living there. I ate, worked out, I went out at night. Life was pretty normal,” she says.

Despite some challenges, students generally hold fond memories from their study abroad experiences around Africa.

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Decisions: Study Abroad vs. Winter Sports

by Liz Varoli via “The College Voice“

Having the opportunity to study abroad during college is one of the main attractions for students who attend Connecticut College. Studying abroad is known to be one of the most amazing times of a student’s college experience. Over 50% of students at Conn take advantage of this opportunity either through programs offered by Conn or through programs offered by other schools.

Traditionally, students choose the fall or spring semester to spend four months learning, traveling and developing as a student in a different country. At Conn, student athletes who play a fall sport are able to study abroad during the spring semester while student athletes who play a spring sport are able to study abroad during the fall semester. Except this academic split between the fall and the spring leaves the student athletes who play winter sports with a challenging decision as the winter sport season is spread over both semesters. Winter sports usually begin Nov 1 and go through the winter break and often through February. No matter which semester winter athletes study abroad, they will be missing a part of their sports season.

The question is: when an athlete commits to play on a winter sports team does it mean s/he automatically sacrificed his/her opportunity to study abroad? Playing a sport at the collegiate level is a huge commitment. Athletes agree to dedicate a large chunk of their time to practices, games and traveling which can jeopardize their schoolwork and social lives. Many people do not realize is that athletes who play winter sports may be jeopardizing some of their educational opportunities. During a sports season, student athletes make the decision to put their commitment to their team before almost everything else. Coaches get angry when their athletes miss practices because an absent teammate can change team dynamics and missing an entire half of a season can put an athlete and their team, at a disadvantage.

In contrast to these expectations, many athletes at Conn have risked this all in order to travel abroad. Many athletes have found that they are able to study abroad while also playing for their teams and maintaining their commitment.  . . . .

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3 Tips for Making the Most of a Study Abroad Program in the Arab Region

“3 Tips for Making the Most of a Study Abroad Program in the Arab Region”

by Vicki Valosik via “USN”

Studying abroad can be a life-changing experience for students, exposing them to new places, customs and foods, as well as new ways of thinking.

For students from the Arab world, studying abroad within the Middle East and North Africa can have particular advantages, says Walid I. Moubayed, professor and dean of admissions and registration at the University of Balamand in Koura, North Lebanon, which currently has 602 international students.

Being closer to home makes it easier for students to travel back during holidays and for parents to visit. Moubayed points out that students staying within the Middle East for college or graduate school are less likely to face the language barriers they would encounter in other parts of the world.

But that doesn’t mean that the adjustment will be easy for everyone. Brian Moran, dean of graduate affairs at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, says, “Some [KAUST] students from the Middle East have expressed that they didn’t feel they experienced a drastic culture shock, while others have felt that even coming from within the Middle East there was a big difference in the culture, weather or environment.”

[Discover the top-ranked universities in the Arab region.]

Regardless of where you are headed, there a few things you can do to help ensure you have a positive study abroad experience.

Be in the Know Before You Go

Before you travel, taking the time to familiarize yourself not only with the university where you will be studying, but also with the city will help make the transition upon arrival a little smoother.

Moubayed advises international students coming to his institution to “make sure to learn about Lebanon ahead of time, including weather conditions, transportation systems, what facilities are provided in their residency, whether on or off campus, ​areas of attraction and leisure activities.” He also suggests finding out whether the university you will be attending provides transportation to campus for international students, so that it can be arranged ahead of time.

[Get advice on how to pay for higher education in the Arab region.]

Omar Almasri, a Syrian software engineering student at the Jordan University of Science and Technology in Irbid, recommends visiting the country before moving, if possible.

“If you can have a tour inside the country, go for it,” he says. ​Since campus housing is not available for male students at the college, Almasri used his visit to Jordan to find the apartment he now rents.

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Phoenix fights for global perspective: Athletes face obstacles to study abroad

“Phoenix fights for global perspective: Athletes face obstacles to study abroad”

by Kate Murphy via “The Pendulum“

When Miles Williams joined the Elon University football team out of high school, he was told players should not study abroad until their eligibility is up. But he chose to take advantage of Elon’s Winter Term his junior year and study abroad in Ghana, which challenged his position on the team when a new coaching staff came in.

“As a program, if you’re going to talk about student-athletes being students first, they should be able to get the whole student experience,” said Williams, a senior captain. “The coach that I asked to go on the trip was fine with me going because he knew the type of leader I was on the team and things I do in the classroom.”

The new coaching staff disagreed.

As result, Williams had to fight to regain respect from his coaches and teammates and complete additional early morning workouts for several weeks. For him, though, it was worth it.“They thought that going abroad for that amount of time was going to be a hindrance to developing cohesion on the team and I guess felt that I wasn’t a good teammate by choosing to go abroad,” Williams said.

Elon University has made a commitment to global engagement, touting the No. 1 undergraduate study abroad program in the nation. This commitment applies to all students, but many student-athletes feel they have less of a chance than others.

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