Project 2 Final Draft

How Should We Promote Studying Abroad?

Studying abroad is a concept that has been slowly expanding as the world evolves into a more diverse one and as workplaces everywhere crave that diversity within their companies and communities. There are many reasons to argue why studying abroad could be greatly beneficial yet could also carry great risks along with it that some may not be willing to take. It is very easy to find articles and blog posts online pertaining to the importance of studying abroad and the preparation needed to get there. However, many of these advertisements come across as a simple appeal to any student who is looking to switch up their lives and go study in a different country for a semester and have a good time. These study abroad trips are about more than just how the students will be benefitted later in their lives and many advertisements for study abroad programs fail to mention and inform the students and families of the great risks and dangers as well as possible issues that they could run into while studying abroad. So, are these advertisements possibly just another way for universities to make more money off of their students? Should studying abroad perhaps be represented more as a whole, including the risks, dangers and struggles, instead of just being glorified as a mostly accessible, all positive experience?

“The world’s international student population numbers more than 3.7 million, and is increasing by about 12% each year, benefiting individuals and entire nations alike” according to Suemedha Sood from BBC travel news. As a personal believer of expanding one’s mind culturally with experience and knowledge, I can’t help but wonder if studying abroad is doing much more then well, just that. An article written by the Association of American Colleges and Universities speaks about how employers of many companies don’t actually consider the experience of studying abroad anything much larger than an add on for the potential employees resume and often see the experience as one that was more “academic tourism” than a summer or term at the university. This is interesting because it is very easy to assume that students will automatically be placed in a higher priority simply because they have studied outside of the country. What students don’t understand however, is how they must take the things they learned out of the country and apply it to their specific community when they return to the life they will continue to live. Many students are set up to see the trip as a mini vacation with some required studying alongside. Colleges encouraging studying abroad programs should also encourage or even require their students to participate in an internship, job or study that allows them to reflect on their time away and be able to act on what they learned while away. The Florida State University study abroad website provides general information about the different programs available for students and also includes important paperwork and notices. However, it is difficult to not notice the first and largest object that first pops up on the webpage which is a picture of 2 male students and 3 female students, accompanied by their riverboat guide who is taking them in a boat through the beautiful and paradise looking country of Italy. With the water looking clear as ever, the sun shining bright and these smiling attractive students posing for the camera, it is difficult to not get the first impression that this would be a wonderful opportunity to explore a new country, but why not display a picture of one of the colleges or of the students participating in the classrooms? That is after all what students are spending their time money and effort to go to, right? In another brochure, provided by the University of Notre Dame, I noticed a similar strategy of advertisement as the main thing that was promoted were the big pictures in front of all of the cool places they could visit and a huge list of different countries that the students could go to. This brochure mostly focused on promoting the Study Abroad program as something that many students do and that because of that it is important to do so and expand your realms just like others do. They also do talk about the cultural and international aspect, but just barely touch on it. The brochure gives very little information on the finance and none on the safety and details are received when you inquire to an email or attend a meeting. When speaking to Deaven Palmer, an FSU senior who studied abroad during her sophomore year, she recalls it wasn’t very difficult to get into the program as all she had to do was fill out some paperwork and switch over one of her scholarships from a semester at FSU to the summer session over at The Institut Catholique de Paris. This can be tricky for students in programs that have a complicated process of transferring credits over so it is important that is brought to their attention. For Deaven, there wasn’t a GPA requirement to enter the program, yet with the program she attended, she was graded very strictly. The evaluation of the classes can vary from place to place yet Deaven also spoke about how during her experience she only really had to attend the classes which were spread from 9am-12pm three times a week and 9am-5pm twice a week. Hearing this and the fact that not much outside studying was required made it seem to me as if the rest of the student’s time there was spent on traveling and sightseeing. The reason why I point this out isn’t to discredit study abroad programs of their academic capacity or invalidate the classes taken abroad, it is simply to take a closer look at why to some, studying abroad may come across as more of a fun friend trip then an academic trip. One thing that did however catch my eye when pertaining to the academic aspect of the situation is that when I was speaking to Deaven during the interview she talked about how for her specific program, they only spoke French. Granted, the study abroad program was in France, yet there cpuld easily be the case that a lot of people just spoke English to each other. However, she mentioned that during her experience, their way of communing with other students and even with their teachers was simply just the French that they had and were currently learning, which forced them to learn more and practice the language.

Seeing more and more advertisements for studying abroad programs, something that is often not spoke of too much either, is the level of security that the program is to be held accountable for and the lack of rules that some study abroad programs provide despite their students being in a completely foreign country. Kyna Rubin from the NAFSA, speaks of how although there are a number of study abroad programs that do a fine job at promoting the safety concerns and preventable methods to danger, this is an area that every study abroad program could always continue to expand on since there are always going to be issues that come up that can be prevented by being informed. In a study done by Dr. Dimitri Kavakas from the University of Thessaloniki, students were asked to voice important factors and concern that influence them to make a decision on where they will study and were asked to also rate them on importance. It is shocking (yet not so shocking) to see that only 12% of students prioritized their concern with the health services/costs, 6% marked for wary of living in another country, 23% were concerned with the security issues in the host country, yet a striking 72% put great importance to the attractiveness of the city/country. After Georgetown University, Sara Schewe, was killed in an India bus crash, her father who is a marketing professor at the University of Massachusetts said “I think the ultimate issue here is that there are issues that can be controlled and issues that cannot be controlled. You can walk onto a bus in London and not know there's a terrorist on it. But when you have a road considered one of the worst roads in the world, and they choose to put children on that road, especially at night, that's a big mistake." He also adds, “I can't tell you how many students have come into my office all excited and bright-eyed about what's going to happen overseas” and when he asks them if they recall safety issues or have thought about them, they are left confused and blank minded because they haven’t. The biggest issue with this is that safety should be one of the top priorities advertised not only to the parents of the students going on the trip but also the students themselves. Deaven Palmer, the student I interviewed also added in on this topic, saying that although the students were warned about the dangers of being in France by themselves, she felt like they could have had a tad more safety preparation. She talked about how they stayed in a giant living community off campus where all students lived in regardless of the college or school they attended and their rooms were set up kind of like dorms. “There was very free reign, nobody really kept an eye on you. No curfew, no restrictions with drinking or smoking” commented Deaven. This being said, many issues could arise that students could prevent if it got hammered into their heads how much of an important factor their safety prevention is, especially in a foreign country. Kyna Rubin says that “it is crucial for universities or study abroad programs to formulate safety/crisis management plans-to face the common types of accidents that are often preventable but may occur anyway”. Study abroad programs should require a number of training classes in which everyone going on the trip must complete before going on the trip and then also at the new country in order to be able to adjust to the environment. From the get-go, programs should also place heavy emphasis on whether or not they provide health insurance or if individuals are liable for their own fees if anything were to occur as the amount of coverage usually varies from program to program. However, accidents and crises aren’t the only negative experience that a student could experience studying abroad, as there are many other illnesses that could develop down the road that colleges should think to at least mention and advise their students to think about. Mickey Scullard, a health educator from Minnesota says “information, should target injury prevention, mental health issues, and sexuality topics-areas of heightened risk for college students.” Although not many students may get physically ill during their time away, there are many factors that could trigger students to become mentally ill and/or develop unhealthy habits that could turn into an unhealthy lifestyle. Scullard also states that “few study abroad programs provide comprehensive health education beyond some information in pre departure orientations. And this usually targets infectious disease prevention in developing countries.” Keeping in mind that that’s important, Scullard also mentions that “less serious illnesses such as colds and gastrointestinal upsets can color the quality of a student's overseas experience, especially in cultures that treat some illnesses differently than we do in the United States” Some examples of unhealthy mental illnesses that could develop overseas could have to do with excessive drinking/smoking, issues being away from home or even some self-identity issues. Whatever these issues are, it is important for students to be talked to about the fact that this could happen to them and they should be provided with solutions that would give them support in the situation that it did occur to them and they were struggling.

The true economic cost of studying abroad is another issue that although a bit more addressed, can still give potential candidates of studying abroad the idea that it’s going to the be equal to the price of studying a semester in their home country. To begin with, study abroad programs are usually half than or a bit less than a normal semester at a college based of off 3 month semesters. So if you use the money that you were going to use on a semester at home on a study abroad trip, you are already paying more than you were at home. That might just be me picking at the details with cynicism, yet I do think it is important for programs to heavily address the fact that many issues can arise with financial aid, additional fees and the process of flying in and out of the country and into a new one. NBC news states that “Economic reality and money problems may be cooling the enthusiasm of U.S. college students to study abroad, just two years after students' interest in foreign study was at an all-time high.” Depending on the study abroad programs, some include the food, most include the housing and the tuition is definitely included. The Northwestern University study abroad program makes a really good point to outline any additional costs that many programs fail to mention or emphasize such as special courses fees or supplemental tuition, additional program courses or options, supplemental housing fees and additional meal plan or meal fees. These additional fees along with ones required for student visas/passports, special permits and perhaps certain travel fees can all pile up and really decide whether a family can afford the studying abroad or not. It is also important that if scholarships or loans are being lent out, that students read the fine print on anything they sign, as programs will most likely have specific credits and accomplishments they must have in order to fully receive the money that they are advertised. If not investigated carefully, the student could end up in a big financial problem that they had not anticipated coming. Interestingly enough, in the same study that Dr.Dimitri conducted, students showed a much higher concern for the financial topic than any other topic. 49% of the students were concerned with not enough financial aid to pay overseas fees and 60% with the price of the programs overall price. Speaking about these statistics it is also important to keep in mind that many of these statistics underrepresent minorities and are essentially speaking of people who are considered privileged compared to the rest of the world. The NAFSA displays a chart showing that the U.S. students who studied abroad in 2014-2015 were 72.9% and the rest of that whole were minorities. Minorities may be inclined to have lower income in the united states and are more likely to be in the situation to need financial aid help, therefore it is essential they are well informed on what they will have to pay in order to make the decision of whether the student will study abroad or not. These days, students are actually pretty conscious of how expensive these trips can be, and that is why it is even more important for programs to straight up emphasize the true cost of studying abroad instead of one that seems unrealistic to those who have to pay additional fees for mandatory requirements.