Students studying abroad in Paris enjoyed the Eiffel Tower and other historical sites. Photo courtesy of Jessica Pignataro.
- Students studying abroad in Paris enjoyed the Eiffel Tower and other historical sites. Photo courtesy of Jessica Pignataro.
- The wait was killing 20-year-old Rachel Hildrich, a junior at George Washington University. Hildrich was on a seven-hour plane ride to Sevilla, Spain for an entire semester, leaving the only home she’d ever known.
Hildrich said her goodbyes to her mom, dad and little sister, taking photos for keepsake, and then entered the security line at John F. Kennedy International Airport. She originally boarded the plane with the utmost confidence thanks to the hours she’d spent searching Spanish fashion online. She had put together the perfect outfit that would help her blend in with the native Spaniards rather than stick out like an American tourist, which had consisted of a yellow tank top, bright blue Capri pants and a pair of GUESS sandals that she’d recently bought at DSW. Her yellow tank top and blue Capri pants flaunted her five and a half foot frame while not revealing too much, which was a big no-no in Spain, and complimented her wavy auburn hair. “I was dressing to impress, who was I kidding?” said Hildrich over Facebook chat from her home-stay room in Sevilla.
It wasn’t until the plane took off that Hildrich realized her heart was racing and her palms were sweaty. As she got closer to her destination, her nerves tugged at her constantly, making her feel like she was going to vomit.
“I was extremely anxious, but I was also very excited about the whole traveling ordeal and getting to a new place and not knowing what to expect,” said Hildrich. “I knew I couldn’t let my anxiety get the best of me. After all, I was on my way to Europe. When would I be able to do that again?”
Hildrich is one of hundreds of thousands of U.S. college students taking advantage of the study abroad experience. “270,604 U.S. students studied abroad for credit during the academic year 2009/10, an increase of four percent from the previous year,” reported the latest survey from the Institute of International Education’s Open Doors Report. And the Institute doesn’t expect it to stop there: “This upward trend is continuing.”
One program has seen the spike of interest first hand. International Studies Abroad started with sending merely a handful of 50 students to Salamanca, Spain. Now, 25 years later, ISA has a full-time staff of 250 to accommodate the thousands of students they send to 20 different countries every year.
Studying abroad isn’t anything new, so why are more college students taking advantage of it now?
Well, for starters, studying abroad isn’t the same as it used to be when our parents went to college or even when the new millennium started. “It used to be that students would study abroad their junior year of college; that was typical, but now the programs are more flexible and there are more options,” according to Danielle Houston, Education Abroad Advisor at the University of Tampa. “From designing programs for specific majors to the short term programs, the opportunities are endless for freshman, sophomores, juniors and seniors.”
“The old excuses: ‘I can’t afford it,’ ‘I’ll fall behind in my major,’ ‘I won’t be able to graduate on time,’ ‘I really wanted to go to X country, but there aren’t programs there’…. You can take all those old issues and toss them out the window,” wrote Nick Zappitelli, the Regional Director of University Relations at International Studies Abroad, through email.
That’s exactly what Scott Bates did, a junior international business and accounting major at the University of Tampa. Bates was looking for a program that had the proper business accreditation with UT, so he could take business classes abroad and receive credit for them. He found that program through Miami University in Ohio, which has a business course set up in Differdange, Luxembourg. As an added bonus, the program gave Bates, 20, a chance to spend his spring semester of his sophomore year in Europe with his longtime high school friends.
“My trip consisted of traveling every weekend for four straight months and having four weeks scattered throughout the semester where we were on week long trips,” said Bates. Starting in Luxembourg, he made his way to Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, Hungary, and France, to name a few.
One stop included a last minute trip to Switzerland for a weekend in mid-January. “Being
a UT student, I do not invest in warm clothes,” said Bates. “I showed up to the Alps in tennis shoes.” The last thing Bates expected was 7,000 meters of snow to welcome him when he got off the train at Interlaken. “Needless to say my shoes were ruined,” said Bates. He didn’t let that ruin the rest of his trip though. He shrugged it off and said, “Something crazy can and will happen everywhere you go.”
In all, Bates visited 14 different countries, used many different currencies and met tons of people, both locals and others studying abroad like himself. “I have become much more globalized and understand the perspectives of other countries on language, politics and currency,” said Bates. “It’s something that I couldn’t experience at UT.”
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As far as pricing is concerned for studying abroad, not all trips are as expensive as you might think. “Programs can be the same price as studying at UT for a semester,” said Houston. “ Costa Rica is $8,000 for a semester, which is cheaper than being at UT.” She also mentioned that Federal Aid and Bright Futures [Scholarship Program] could cover some travel abroad programs.
For 20-year-old Jessica Pignataro, a junior business major at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut, studying abroad has always been something she has wanted to do. “One of my professors that I’m really close to had told me about [a program]. He thought I would be perfect for [Sacred Heart’s] Luxembourg Trip and that I would benefit greatly from it, since it was made specifically for business majors.” And so Pignataro embarked on a trip to Luxembourg for three weeks the summer after her sophomore year.
While in Luxembourg, she went to Skype Headquarters, European Investment Bank and many other places to learn about businesses in Europe. “I gained insight to how businesses are different and similar to businesses here in the U.S. and I feel this knowledge will help me in the working world,” said Pignataro.
It didn’t hurt that Pignataro received a good deal for going on the trip. Since she was a business student taking a business course, her tuition was waived, which most universities have been doing to encourage students to study abroad. Even if she had to pay for tuition, she wouldn’t have missed this opportunity. “Studying abroad is the best hidden secret of every school. It’s growing fast and is by far the one thing (if any) that every student should take advantage of,” said Pignataro. “I have the fever for traveling.”
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The answer? No.
Yes, the students want all those choices when choosing their trip, but it also comes down to one thing: the experience. Hildrich, Bates and Pignataro said the deal breaker for them was listening to their fellow college students, sorority sisters and friends talk about their stories abroad and how they wanted to experience that for themselves. “Sure, Skype and Google hangouts are great, but there is something to be said when the rest of your senses are engaged in an experience,” said Zappitelli. “I can watch someone in Spain drink a [café] cortado over video chat and hear them give a little ‘MMmm’ and I know it’s good, but being there to experience it for yourself is a completely different situation. It’s the murmur of Spanish conversations in the background, the smell of fresh bread from the pastry shop next door, the clothing of the people walking by, the taste of the coffee, the feel of the warm cup in your hands on a cool morning. It’s that experience that will keep students coming back for more.”
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