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Though the sidewalks of Ann Arbor
are filled with students rushing to
class during the academic year, 1,975 of
those University students studied abroad
from fall 2009 to summer 2010, accord-
ing to data from the Institute of Interna-
tional Education.
Mark Tessler, vice provost for inter-
national affairs and the Samuel J. Elder-
sveld collegiate professor of political
science, said he believes study abroad is
an important part of any student's aca-
demic career.
Tessler said the University is
expanding its study abroad programs,
reaching out to countries like Egypt
and Israel and looking to place stu-
dents on continents other than
Europe.
President Mary Sue Coleman
also places an emphasis on study
abroad as she deferred her pay
raise this year of 2.75 percent, a
total of $15,678, to scholarships
she and her husband set up to
help students study abroad.
Coleman has also pledged to
donate $1 for every $2 donat-
ed for study abroad as part
of the President's Donor
Challenge for The Student
Global Experience.
Recently, Coleman
announced the creation
of the Third Century
Initiative, a $50 million
program which aims
to further "immersive
learning experiences," including study
abroad, for undergraduates.
With these programs in place, Tessler
said he hopes more students will study
abroad.
Tessler speaks from personal experi-
ence, having studied abroad in Israel and
Tunisia as a student, when he says he
believes the experience is life changing.
"You learn a lot about yourself. You
learn a lot about the rest of the world,"
Tessler said. "I suppose these are kind of
like cliches, but it's true."
And while Tessler acknowledges the
academic caliber of the colleges may not
be as high as the University's, he said it
depends on the students' desire to learn
and the quality of the institution.
"I would say as a general proposition
you don't sacrifice academic quality, but
maximizing the academic excellence of a
program isn't necessarily the only thing
to take in consideration when you make
the choice (between programs)," Tessler
said.
W ith five Spanish classes at the
Universidad de Sevilla and doing
homework during the week, Gill said she
had a schedule that was harder than her
classmates'. But even with the workload,
she spent afternoons at coffee shops with
friends, and the academics of the Univer-
sity seemed far away.
"It wasn't the same at all. It was less
work," Gill said.
Beyond academics, Gill said the pro-
gram was more about the experience of
living in Spain, absorbing Spanish cul-
ture, speaking the language and under-
standing the Spanish education system
- where the true test of a course is a
20-page paper due the last day in lieu of
mandatory attendance.
In addition to an increased proficiency
in Spanish and a newfound interest in an
international career, Gill said she also
grew more independent - when a train
ticket almost left her stranded in
Rome.
"You really have to
rely on yourself.
When some-
thing
goes wrong, you can't call up your
mom," Gill said.
For language concentrators like
Gill, Alejandro Herrero-Olaizola,
a Spanish professor and associate
chair of the romance languages
and literature department, said he
believes study-abroad is essential
for proficiency and for furthering
student learning.
"The one thing is to be in a class-
room setting at the (University),
which will give you a lot of knowl-
edge and sort of preparing you for
being abroad and so forth. But the
experience I think is really impor-
tant to put that to the test,"Herrero-
Olaizola said.
Herrero-Olaizola added that
because the language curriculum
now places more of an emphasis on
cultural knowledge, study-abroad
offers a great entryway into the cul-
ture.
"We like the idea of proficiency,
not only linguistic but cultural pro-
ficiency as well," he said. "The two
go together, because you can't just
learn the language in a vacuum. So
we encourage our students to go
to find this cultural and linguistic
immersion say in France or Spain."
With the ideal mixture of culture
and language, Herrero-Olaizola
believes going abroad as a 20-year-
old is the "right time" in life,
because of the way the experience
shapes students' understanding of
the world.
"I think going in your 20s is good
for the kind of exposure you have
to different people, different cul-
tures and also for forcing you to
be in a position to dealing with the
unknown, the unexpected ... " he
said.
A he sat at his desk, LSA senior
avid Frankel's classroom tilt-
ed, rocking back and forth, as each
ocean wave brought students' heads
closer to their desks, lulling them to
sleep.
In his moving classroom, Frankel
was one of the 14 University stu-
dents participating in Semester at
Sea last winter, or what he says is
affectionately known across cam-
puses as a "booze cruise."
However, Frankel
emphasized that
the boat com-
plete with housekeeping services, a
beauty salon and swimming pool, is
not actually a booze cruise. But with
five-credits that amount to 22 total
days of class from January to April,
he acknowledges that his education
took place on shore.
"I would say the majority of the
learning experience took place in
the countries and not in the class-
room," Frankel said.
Traveling across the world from
the Bahamas to Ghana to Singapore,
Frankel said the ship would dock
at each country, and then students
were on their own to explore.
"It was literally like they dropped
you off (and said), 'be back on the
boat by this time on this date or
we're leaving without you,'"he said.
In the countries he visited, Fran-
kel said he learned valuable lessons
from tour guides showing him the
poverty in India and by seeing the
resilience of the people in face of
despair.
"It was more eye-opening than
a textbook could ever teach," Fran-
kel said. "I definitely feel like after
seeing some of these things it puts
everything bad at home into per-
spective."
On the ship filled with about
700 professors and their families,
college students aboard the ship
and adult students from around
the world, Frankel said he gained
perspective himself, as he, a Jew,
became good friends with a Muslim
girl from Jordan.
And as Frankel learned and ulti-
mately decided to pursue an inter-
national career, he said he thinks
Semester at Sea was the right choice
for a study abroad program.
"I would never regret missing out
on an experience (in Ann Arbor)
because I think I learned more in
one semester than I have in my
entire life," he said.
A t the University, the Center for
-.Global and Inter-
cultural Study admin-
isters 100 study abroad
programs in 40 coun-
tries. The center offers
the traditional study
abroad experience
through the Michigan
Global Academic Pro-
grams, Spring or Sum-
mer Language
Study and two facul-
ty-led programs of the
Global Intercultural
Experience for Under-
graduates and Global
Course Connections.
In the GCC program,
students take an on-campus
course and later take a two to
three week trip abroad that offers
an intimate view of a country. A
Russian course may culminate in a
trip where the professor takes stu-
dents to remote Russian villages.
"It's an opportunity you can't
ever get as a tourist," said Nicole
Bonomini, communications coordi-
nator for CGIS.
For pre-med, Nursing or Engi-
neering students who don't have
time in their course schedule for tra-
ditional study abroad, there's GIEU.
With this program, Dennis Beste,
an intercultural programs advisor,
said students can apply their learn-
ing to real world situations.
"We want to offer programs that
kind of cater to them and their inter-
ests and will also be beneficial in the
long run," Beste said. "They'll get
this international experience, and it
won't just be going to Italy and eat-
ing a bunch of spaghetti, they'll also
be going to China and doing some
engineeringwork."
By studying HIV and AIDS in
Zambia or transportation studies in
China, Beste said students in GIEU
programs are also adding valuable
skills to their resume.
"Everybody wants to do some-
thing abroad and that's really a way
to catch head-hunters' attention,"
Beste said. "A way to set yourself
apart from the rest of the appli-
cants."
But during any study abroad pro-
gram, Patrick Morgan, program
assistant at the Center, said stu-
dents learn time management and
improve study and communication
skills.
"You get to see other ways of
studying and engaging yourself in a
subject ina way you haven't thought
about it before," Morgan said.
And by navigating the often
vastly different class structures
and overcoming problems like navi-
gating a city in a foreign language,
Morgan said students are prepared
for life post-graduation.
"The way these classes are struc-
tured it's almost like the way real
life is structured," Morgan said.
"Things come at you that you don't
expect, and it's unpredictable. You
really have to take a risk and go out
there to succeed."
Tn the Greek capital of Athens,
the steps to her classroom were
already well-worn by generations of
famous scholars and philosophers,
as LSA senior Caitie Cooper got her
humanities credits out of the way
among ancient columns and stone
sculptures.
Though she's a neuroscience
major, Cooper said she was pleasant-
ly surprised to find that she enjoyed
humanities, when they were posi-
tioned
against the
backdrop of an ancient
empire.
"Actually being there and going
on site was a completely different
experience than sitting in a class-
room and seeing pictures of these
things," Cooper said.
With five days of classes during
the first section of the trip and seven
days during the second section,
Cooper said the classes focused on
the history of the architecture of
the Grecian sites. But grades didn't
matter in comparison to the time
spent outside the classroom.
"I think it was easier in the sense
of they don't grade as hard, and it
was more focused on us learning
about the experience as we were
there rather than just grade-based,"
Cooper said.
As she walked past white-washed
houses on the island of Santorini,
which she says is "the most beauti-
ful place I've ever seen," explored
the Peloponesse peninsula and saw
the revered site of Olympia, where
the Romans of yore held the Olym-
pics, Cooper said she learned more
than she would have if she had taken
classes counting toward her major.
"I feel like if I would've done sci-
ence classes there, I wouldn't have
come away with a better under-
standing of the culture that I did,"
Cooper said. "I think I would've
been too immersed in studying,
whereas this class I got to explore
those things while learning about
it."