More students studying abroad
Ventura Star 1/3/07
Increasingly they're choosing less traditional destinations, such as China, India and Argentina. And they're shifting the usual focus of study abroad programs by volunteering in their adopted communities, a nationwide movement known as service learning.
"There's been a big increase in service learning programs sponsored by colleges and universities," said Nevin Brown, president of the International Partnership for Service Learning and Leadership. "Students are looking for more than a superficial understanding of another culture."
Since 1993, the number of U.S. students studying abroad has grown by 170 percent. Just last year, it was up 8 percent, reaching a total of 205,983 students.
Why such an increase? Today's college students have grown up in a shrinking world. They recognize they'll be at an advantage if they're familiar with other cultures and speak a second language. Plus, after Sept. 11, many became more interested in international issues, and some want to do their part to help.
"Students themselves are much more active," said Karen Partridge, communications manager for Campus Compact, which encourages community service on college campuses. "They see what's happening in Darfur, and they want to do something about it."
Mackenzie Coffin, a junior at Pepperdine University, is one of those students.
Coffin, 20, traveled to Honduras last summer. She studied medical Spanish and worked in 10 schools, teaching children about hygiene and health. Eventually, she hopes to go to medical school.
"It was a perfect combination of what I'm studying and what I'm interested in doing," Coffin said. "It was a perfect way to practice my Spanish and do something that I could see had some value."
Programs being reworked
Study abroad, of course, is hardly new. Students have been venturing abroad since at least the 1700s, when wealthy British families sent their sons over to the Continent to get a little polish. For years, colleges have sponsored programs where students studied Shakespeare in London or Renaissance art in Florence, Italy.
Now, though, many colleges are reworking those programs, shifting the emphasis so students both study and volunteer abroad. The movement even has a name — "engaged universities."
Increasingly, universities want their students to become citizens of the world, not just tourists cocooned in a classroom, separated from the community in which they're studying.
And they're aiming their efforts not just at students majoring in the humanities — the ones most likely to study abroad — but also at math and science majors.
"Many universities are increasingly interested in ways they can build civic engagement," Brown said.
MIT, a stronghold of the sciences, is in the midst of revamping its undergraduate program to encourage more of its students to study overseas.
Locally, Pepperdine tries to include service learning in all its overseas academic programs, said Charles Hall, dean of international programs. The college expects program directors to give students a chance to volunteer in the community, Hall said.
While studying overseas, Pepperdine students have participated in projects similar to those they might find at home: feeding the homeless or helping a child through Big Brothers Big Sisters.
"Over the years, we're finding more and more students don't want to go overseas and experience a country simply as a tourist," Hall said. "They don't want to see things from a window. They want to meet people."
Students immersed in culture
At Pepperdine, 61 percent of students studied abroad in 2004-05. Five years ago, it was 50 percent.
Pepperdine has programs scattered throughout Europe, as well as in Thailand, Argentina and China. Now the school is planning to open a program in Shanghai, China.
"I have a feeling that, given the increasing interest in China, this will be as popular as our European programs," Hall said.
There's also a national push to give students a more international education, where they can learn a second language, immerse themselves in another culture and generally become citizens of the world.
Two years ago, Congress established the Lincoln Commission, giving it the mission of making study abroad the norm, rather than the exception, especially in developing countries.
Now the Lincoln Study Abroad Act, which is before the Senate, proposes that within a decade, the U.S. will send 1 million students abroad each year.
While the numbers are growing, they're still low — only 1 percent of college students studied abroad in 2004-05. That's just 200,000 students.
Far more students, though, say they want that experience. Students often come to college expecting to study abroad, Hall said. Because of that, colleges are starting to use their study abroad programs as selling points, right along with the campus rec center and organic food in the cafeteria.
"It's almost becoming as popular in promoting the school as athletics," Hall said. "Colleges say, ‘Come here, and we'll send you overseas to have a life-changing experience.' "
California Lutheran University opened a study abroad center last year, though it has long had partnerships with overseas universities. Since then, the number of CLU students studying abroad on semester programs has increased 39 percent, said director Lisa Loberg.
Nontraditional destinations
"We want to get students abroad," Loberg said. "We also want them to consider more nontraditional destinations."
Nationwide, more students are doing just that. The number of students traveling to Argentina and India has increased 53 percent in the past year. It's a similar story for China, which has seen a 35 percent increase in students studying abroad.
That doesn't mean students aren't still going to the United Kingdom, Italy and France. Nearly half of students who study abroad are going to Europe. But the number of students studying in the United Kingdom dropped by half a percent last year.
Wherever they go, students are staying for a shorter time than they did in the past.
Most students do a summer or semester abroad, rather than spending an entire year overseas. That may be because they're involved in student government, music or athletics, programs that don't allow them to be away for an entire year.
For other students, the reasons are financial. But schools are working to make study abroad available to all students.
Pepperdine offers scholarships. And this year, the Institute of International Education launched a Web site that provides information on grants and scholarships for studying abroad, http://www.iiepassport.org/.
"In the past, study abroad was perceived as something the privileged
could do," Hall said. "But we're saying we don't want just
privileged students to be able to afford this. We need to offer more
kids a chance."