Spanish Language & Culture

elisabeth.delgado@gestion.unican.es — Wed, 16 May 2012 16:24:00 GMT

Diploma in Experimental Physics

elisabeth.delgado@gestion.unican.es — Wed, 16 May 2012 16:15:00 GMT

Cornell-Cantabria Engineering Program

elisabeth.delgado@gestion.unican.es — Wed, 16 May 2012 16:01:00 GMT

Earn Your International MBA in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Mente Argentina — Mon, 14 May 2012 18:54:00 GMT

Cross Cultural Perspectives on Health, Social Justice and Sustainability

GSUSTUDYABROAD — Fri, 11 May 2012 18:21:00 GMT

Business Mediterranean Style: Study Abroad in Greece & Turkey

GSUSTUDYABROAD — Fri, 11 May 2012 18:11:00 GMT

Applied Womanism Practicum in Liberia

GSUSTUDYABROAD — Fri, 11 May 2012 18:04:00 GMT

Business Culture Meets Law in Florence

GSUSTUDYABROAD — Fri, 11 May 2012 17:54:00 GMT

Italian Courses in Florence

centroitalianofirenze — Fri, 11 May 2012 12:38:00 GMT

Blog Post: Roosevelt jumpstarts study abroad interest

IIE — Thu, 10 May 2012 21:09:00 GMT

Recently, Roosevelt University held a Study Abroad Fair which allowed students to learn more about studying abroad. One student, David Muirhead, shared his experience studying abroad in England. Read more about David’s time in England in the Roosevelt Torch.

Analysing Disrupted Health Systems

k.vandenberghe@kit.nl — Wed, 09 May 2012 12:08:00 GMT

Blog Post: Oh, the Places You Could Go

luke-iie — Mon, 07 May 2012 15:10:00 GMT

Samantha has done her homework. After meeting with her study abroad advisor, she researched programs in the study abroad office and online. She dug deeper into a few that caught her attention. She talked with friends who had studied abroad to get their perspective and, over the course of several conversations with her parents, she convinced them of the value of studying abroad and learned about her financial parameters. She is feeling good about the next meeting with her advisor. Samantha is ready.

During her second appointment with her study abroad advisor, Samantha lays out the product of her efforts. Here’s a program in London. Here’s one in Cardiff. Here’s one in Dublin. She’s just not sure at this point.

The advisor compliments Samantha on the work she’s done, and, then, seemingly out of the blue:

Advisor: Samantha, I think all of these programs could work for you, but let me ask you something: Have you thought about any programs outside of Western Europe?

Samantha: (speechless for a moment)

Clearly, this question was not one Samantha had expected. Where did it come from?

Maybe it’s best to start with what the advisor was not saying in asking this question. For starters, the advisor has nothing against Western Europe. The advisor might have enjoyed living in Germany for several years, may have gotten married in Italy, maybe even studied abroad in London years ago. And the advisor was not attempting to push Samantha to a non-Western program to meet some super-double-secret quota for nontraditional locations.

So, what was behind the advisor’s question? In short, the advisor was attempting to open Samantha’s mind to possibilities that she’s most likely never considered, that most students rarely consider. The advisor might have imagined that, in Samantha’s mental geography, Western Europe is almost cartoonishly large and the rest of the world almost laughably tiny. And that’s not Samantha’s fault. Many U.S. students who are thinking about studying abroad share this mental geography.

Like most of us, Samantha no doubt grew up looking at a world map drawn according to what’s known as the Mercator Projection. See here just to refresh your memory. The Mercator Projection was really good back in the day for marine navigation, but it was really bad at representing actual landmass. Alaska, for example, is represented as the same size as Brazil, when in fact Brazil is five times Alaska’s size; Greenland on this map is the same size as Africa but Africa is 14 times larger. (Some championed another map projection, the Gall-Peters, but it, too, contained serious distortions. All flat, rectangular maps of our roundish world distort.)

It’s not just Samantha’s visual understanding of the world that makes Western Europe loom so large. It’s also what people in the United States know about history—ancient or contemporary. Most of us can get the dates of the heyday of the Roman Republic/Empire within a hundred years or so—that BC/AD thing helps—but how many can name the dynasty that held sway in China at the same time? It might not be a stretch for most U.S. students to name three current heads of state in Europe, but how many can come up with the same number in Africa or Asia?

One thing the advisor was trying to do with that unexpected question, then, was to open a crack in the wall of the American understanding of the world so that Samantha could get a peek at what else might be a possible study abroad destination.

The other thing the advisor was trying to do with that question was to put another voice, with a less frequently heard message, in Samantha’s ear.

All advisors know that the best advertising for a study abroad program is word of mouth. It’s why advisors urge students to talk with study abroad participants who have returned to campus. But, at the same time, the advisor worries about math.

The math of study abroad word of mouth is worrisome because repetition is key to successful advertising. If we see or hear an ad once, even if it’s a great ad, we’re not as likely to be convinced of a thing’s value than if we see or hear an ad about that thing several times.

Imagine that Samantha talked to ten students who had studied abroad. Just over five would have told her great things about Western Europe. One-and-a-half students would have said that Latin America is cool. Only one-half student would have sung the praises of Africa. (These numbers are from the 2010/2011 Open Doors Report.)

While these figures are better than they were ten years ago, Samantha would still have heard far more about Western Europe than any other region of the world in the course of her research. So, the advisor feels compelled to add a voice on the other side of the scale.

With that said, London, Cardiff, or Dublin may well be the best place for Samantha to study abroad. (Samantha and the advisor have not yet talked about the courses she plans to take abroad and how course choice and location can complement each other.) But there also might be other places that could engage Samantha’s imagination, open her eyes to fresh ways of seeing, and lead her to other ways of thinking about new things.

Oh, Samantha, the places you could go!

Blog Post: Increasing minority access to study abroad

IIE — Thu, 03 May 2012 21:07:00 GMT

According to recent studies, there is a lack of participation by minority students in study abroad programs. Last year over 270,000 students studied overseas, but only 21% of those students were minorities. Read more about this issue in The Daily Texan.

Italian Language Courses in Orbetello

terramare — Wed, 02 May 2012 12:53:00 GMT

Inorganic Materials Chemistry Graduate Program

savonla@uef.fi — Wed, 02 May 2012 10:58:00 GMT

Graduate School in Modern Optics and Photonics

savonla@uef.fi — Wed, 02 May 2012 10:49:00 GMT

Doctoral Programme in Environmental Health

savonla@uef.fi — Wed, 02 May 2012 10:38:00 GMT

Finnish Doctoral Programme in Environmental Science and Technology (EnSTe)

savonla@uef.fi — Wed, 02 May 2012 09:07:00 GMT

Doctoral Program in Molecular Medicine

savonla@uef.fi — Wed, 02 May 2012 08:55:00 GMT

Doctoral Program in Law

savonla@uef.fi — Wed, 02 May 2012 08:44:00 GMT