So much to learn, so much to see

By: Sarah Tesorero
Posted In: News

A junior at Salve Regina University, Molly Osborn, 21, has just begun the application process to study abroad at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia. The school is located an hour north of the busy city of Brisbane, and although it was the school’s unique name that caught her attention at first, the university had another draw as well. “It’s only a 10 minute drive to the beach, which is a plus,” said Osborn.

Osborn has just joined the ranks of the increasing number of U.S. college students who have made the decision to study abroad in another country. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, a survey done by the American Council on Education revealed that more than 70 percent of high school seniors think it’s important that their college offers study abroad programs. Along with the increase, the Chronicle states that more students are moving away from the traditional destinations in Western Europe and heading off the Asia, Africa and Australia.

Margrete Jean-Louis, an academic advisor at Bryant College, spoke of Australia’s popularity among the students at Bryant, saying that students choose to study there because there is no language requirement and English is the official language of the country. However, multiple study abroad and exchange opportunities are available through Bryant College, especially since the school allows students to study through programs sponsored by the institution.

At Salve Regina University, access to other programs are available through the Study Abroad office’s connection with certain study abroad associations, as well as the advisors personal contacts with other schools. For example, Camille Allen, faculty advisor for the study abroad office at Salve Regina, simply went to the website for the American University of Rome, and inquired about possible study abroad opportunities. Efforts like Allen’s have helped to expand Salve Regina’s study abroad program, with currently 5 percent of the university’s small population studying abroad in favored destinations such as Italy, Ireland, England and Australia.

A major reason students choose to go abroad is that immediately after graduation, they will be dealing with college loans as well as the cutthroat professional world. Since traveling has become cheaper, more and more college students have been taking advantage of any travel opportunities they can get their hands on. Allen made sure to point out that the cost for studying abroad from Salve remains the same as the college tuition, minus the room and board. Although students are required to bring their own spending money, as well as purchase their plane tickets, the cost of traveling to places as far as Australia is far less when going through a study abroad program rather than independently.

The idea of spending that amount of money to send their child to a foreign country still leaves parents, like Osborn’s, unsettled. Osborn said that her father is more concerned with whether or not her financial aid will transfer to the new abroad school, while her mother is still preoccupied with homesickness.

However, money and the chance of being homesick are just two of the smaller obstacles Osborn could face, because her choice at going abroad during the first semester of her senior year is one that could pose possible dilemmas. In his article in the Chronicle, John A. Marcum brings up concern about disrupting the traditional academic cycle, which usually includes adjusting to being away from home in the freshman year, declaring a major by the end of sophomore year, leaving junior year as the beginning focal point for specific studies within that major. Senior year is then left to focus on internship opportunities in the local area and meticulous preparation of the senior thesis in addition to the final year spent with friends in the college environment.

Conversely, Camille Allen believes going abroad during the junior year is the best time. Understanding the possible conflicts going abroad could have with major studies, Allen says Salve’s program includes supplying new freshmen with a great deal more information. A lot more time will be spent counseling first-year students on which classes to take if they plan on studying abroad, with more focus on their majors in their first two years and saving electives such as art to be taken while abroad. Allen also works closely with students such as Osborn who did not have the benefits of the study abroad services as freshmen.

Although Allen has been part of Salve’s Education Department for some time, her recent addition to the Study Abroad Program this past fall was a result of the booming student interest in traveling abroad. In Osborn’s case, Allen works closely with her advisor and the head of her particular department to decipher which classes offered at the college or university abroad could best match up to the classes required at Salve.

This attention is particularly important to assure the successful transfer of credits. The application process requires a lot of paperwork on the student’s end at Salve, in addition to the application being sent to the university of choice. Allen says that, “We make it as smooth as we can, and start as early as we can.” Osborn has just begun her first steps in the application process, and says that although the necessary deadlines and dates seem vague so far, she’s sure she will become more informed the closer it gets to the trip.

In addition to the changing destinations of students studying abroad, the lengths of stay have also evolved. In Marcum’s article from the Chronicle, he noted that between 1985 and 1997, the number of students studying abroad for longer than one semester shrank from 18 percent to 10 percent, with at least one third of students going abroad in the summer. Allen believes that students are wary of leaving home for a whole semester, but upon their return from shorter stays, she says that most express a strong desire to return for a longer period of time. To accommodate these needs, Salve has begun to offer more short-term programs such as weeklong stays in France, Mexico and Italy.

Allen herself is a strong believer in the benefits of the study abroad experience. In response to the idea that students are using the study abroad opportunity to merely add a different stamp to their passport and quench their thirst for travel, rather than go to experience a different form of academics, Allen said, “I don’t think it’s a bad thing… to the point of going there is more than just the classroom, it’s the culture. It inspires them so much and they work really hard while they’re there.”

Osborn chose her destination in Australia for another valid reason. “I think it’s somewhere that I probably won’t travel on my own in the future… I also want the challenge of being halfway across the world.”