Education That Works: The Neuroscience of Building a More Effective Higher Education by Stellar Dr. James

Author:Stellar, Dr. James [Stellar, Dr. James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ideapress Publishing
Published: 2017-01-07T16:00:00+00:00

C H A P T E R 9:

Study Abroad

Study abroad is a third form of experiential education we have considered, in addition to the two previous chapters on internships and service-learning. If it is true that three points make a pattern, then with this chapter the experiential education pattern should emerge.

When I became the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Northeastern University in 1998, I inherited the college’s small but robust study-abroad program. The previous dean, who founded the program, believed that study abroad should fundamentally be an academic experience. He also said, with respect to the university, that study abroad, internships, service-learning, and undergraduate research (which we will discuss in the next chapter) all fit under the umbrella of experiential education. I concurred, on both points. The umbrella concept was very useful at the time in convincing colleagues that those approaches should all be integrated into the conventional academic curriculum of an arts and sciences college.

When I took office, Northeastern’s study abroad program had just a few hundred students, but it was a new and exciting offering. It was also fun for a college administrator to manage: I met interesting new people and negotiated partnerships with universities all over the world. Of course, that meant some travel.

The partner university would supply foreign teaching venues and housing for our students. In places where we could not enlist a university, we formed affiliations with other organizations to be local contacts and to help our students navigate the local circumstances.

One of the best parts of building the program in those days was seeing the growing interest of students in overseas study. Students found the experience fun, while it also gave them a different worldview from the students who did not study abroad. Other faculty members and I found it satisfying to see our students’ resulting growth in maturity. Students returning to campus from abroad sold their peers on the program. Each year, its numbers grew. That mirrored what was happening nationally, where participation in study abroad climbed from around 50,000 students per year in the 1980s to almost 300,000 in 2012, according to the National Association of Foreign Student Advisers, which is now known as NAFSA: Association of International Educators. 1 Study abroad is now a major activity on many American campuses with its own interesting history from the turn of the twentieth century. 2

Some student populations are typically reluctant to study abroad. Pre-medical students are one of them. This is a group I know well, as I was pre-med in college. Pre-meds often have eschewed overseas trips because they face such a tight set of curricular requirements for medical school. But with the addition of medical mission trips abroad to provide health services, pre-med students are starting to participate. Similar offerings have been well-received by majors in engineering and other applied fields with a tight curriculum, and many of them are studying abroad too, or at least going abroad while in college.

Follow the Money

Student popularity alone would be insufficient to make study abroad the success that it has become.

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