Study Abroad Articles
The 4 F's of Studying Abroad were first conceived by Dr. Marjorie Ganz, Director of the Study Abroad & International Exchange Program at Spelman College. We at IIEPassport.org had the privilege of speaking with Ms. Constance Lundy, Director of International Programs & Services at Lincoln University, who shared some of her wisdom on overcoming these four potential challenges to studying abroad.
While family, finances, faculty, or fear can all become objections or possible barriers to studying abroad, Ms. Lundy emphasizes to her students they can all be overcome with the proper information and attitude.
The 4 F's That May Challenge Your Study Abroad Experience:
FAMILY
Challenge
Some students will find their families reluctant to endorse, much less encourage them in their dreams of studying abroad. While some parents will be extremely receptive, all parents tend to fear for the safety of their children as they send them off into the unknown, particularly to a foreign country.
Overcoming
If your parents have concerns about you going abroad, the most logical person to refer them to is your study abroad adviser. Your adviser has doubtless talked to other concerned parents and knows what information will be helpful to them in making an informed decision about the benefits and realities of studying abroad. Your adviser can help dispel any misconceptions that your parents may have and share with them the tremendous potential benefits that studying abroad offers. Ms. Lundy comments that she spends a great deal of her time talking to the families of her students, who frequently are the biggest advocates of their students studying abroad once they really understand what's involved.
If your family cannot easily communicate with a study abroad adviser, a wealth of information is also available online and in print. William Hoffa's Study Abroad: A Parent's Guide can be an excellent resource to help your family understand your desire to study abroad and what is involved. You can see an example of another, more targeted Parent's Guide on Dickinson College's website. Look at the website of the school or program you plan to study abroad with for resources they might offer. If you do a Google search, you should have no trouble locating a wealth of additional articles and websites that can provide your parents with great information about studying abroad.
You should also spend time talking with your parents - telling them why you want to go abroad, what you hope to gain from the experience, and the details of the program you will be going with. (You need to know these things for yourself first!) Taking the time to consider your motivations for studying abroad will help you clarify the goals of your experience and make it easier to communicate with family, friends, or faculty about the benefits of your plan.
FACULTY
At some schools, students will find resistance to the idea of studying abroad from their faculty members. Professors may feel that students will be better prepared if they complete their major coursework at the home institution and may be resistant to the idea of accepting course credit from abroad to fill required coursework at home. Depending on the amount of support available at a student's home institution from the administration or study abroad advisers, it may be difficult to overcome these objections.
The easiest place to gain support at your institution is your school's study abroad office, if there is one. Go and talk to an adviser about the program you're interested in, and the adviser should be able to work with you and the faculty members involved to deal with potential issues. If your school doesn't have a study abroad office, the professors in the language department are most likely to support your efforts.
However, if you cannot find a faculty member at your own school to champion your cause of studying abroad, don't despair. If you have already selected a program you are interested in, contact your adviser or admissions counselor at that program or university. Explain to them the difficulties you are having obtaining permission to study abroad and ask that person to contact your academic adviser.
Study abroad programs are used to working with other schools to transfer credits and will know how to address some of the issues that may be causing the resistance in the faculty at your home institution. The important thing to keep in mind throughout this process is the need for open and respectful discussion as you communicate the value of studying abroad to your academic experience. Knowing and understanding the benefits of studying abroad can provide a firm foundation for your discussion with faculty and administrators.
FINANCES
We all know that pursuing a degree can be costly and that going abroad can potentially add to this burden. Plane tickets are expensive, as is the travel you might want to do while abroad. Currency exchange can work against you, and your study abroad program might cost more than your home institution.
The first thing to realize about finances is that it may well be possible to have a lower cost for your semester or year abroad than for that same time period at your home institution. A number of factors contribute to this:
Here are a few examples of funding that is available for studying abroad:
Obviously all of this requires effort on your part to research your options, apply for scholarships, and be proactive in pursuing the opportunities available to you. You can visit the IIEPassport Student Guide for more information on financial aid and a list of resources to start your search.
FEAR
All of us can be afraid of the unknown. Many students hesitate to study abroad because they're worried about leaving their friends for a semester or a year, worried about leaving their academic program, worried about fitting in with a new culture and making new friends, worried about learning and speaking a new language, worried about safety or health issues, worried about learning to live with a host family, and just worried in general. While there may be excitement or anticipation mixed with that concern, it is important to recognize and deal with fear as a healthy part of the study abroad process.
One of the best ways of overcoming the fear associated with studying abroad is to learn. What we really fear is not the experience itself, but that it's unknown and unfamiliar. We fear what we cannot anticipate and do not understand. How do you learn more about studying abroad before you actually get on the plane?
The idea behind all of this is to get a better understanding of the place where you are going. Probably the best option for allaying your fears is to talk to other students who have already studied abroad, particularly with the program or in the area that you'll be studying. Students who have already been abroad can tell you what it was really like. They understand your concerns because they've been in your shoes. They can tell you what the classes and people were like, how they dealt with culture shock and embarrassing situations, what they learned, and how their lives were changed by their amazing experiences. While no two people will have exactly the same experience abroad, you can learn a wealth of information from those who have been there before you.
Talking with other students should help you manage most of your fears about the unknown aspects of studying abroad while talking to your study abroad adviser can help you learn what the misconceptions and real concerns are when dealing with health and safety abroad. In talking about the fear of prospective study abroad students at Lincoln University, Ms. Lundy commented that as students of color, some of them have concerns about racial incidents. When they bring this concern to her, she can share with them the reality that discrimination in many forms may be a possibility although Lincoln has not had any overt incidents in the past. She is able to help students understand what they should do were they in a situation where they felt victimized by race, including who to inform while abroad, and what situations might exist in the country in which they will study. In this way, she and study abroad advisers like her are able to help students deal with their fears in a productive way that prepares them for the realities of studying abroad while giving them the knowledge and tools to succeed in their experiences. She also encourages concerned students to talk to returned students about any acts of racism they may have experienced and how they handled those situations.
Overcome & Triumph
Studying abroad can provide you with amazing opportunities. Your horizons will expand. Your knowledge and perspective on the world will grow. You will gain cross-cultural communication skills. Studying abroad is likely to help you with the rest of your academics as well as with your career. While there are certainly challenges such as the 4 F's to contend with, the rewards are rich, and it's well worth working to out these issues to pursue your dreams.