Global Learners
How Study Abroad Experiences Impact Students
By Dan Haugen | Spring 2011
Charissa Jones studied in South Africa over winter break.
When she left Rapid City, South Dakota, for the University of Minnesota, Angela Bianco had a pretty good idea that she wanted to study abroad at some point during her academic career. Suddenly she found herself entering her final year as an undergraduate in the elementary education foundations program. She still hadn’t left the continent.
The course load for her final year was too specialized to fit traditional study abroad programs, but Bianco found her chance in an intensive three-week global seminar offered over the January winter term. She and two dozen other students traveled with CEHD adviser Nathan Whittaker to South Africa, where they toured historic sites, studied at the University of Cape Town, and volunteered with a nonprofit that cares for AIDS and tuberculosis patients and vulnerable children.
Bianco left with the kind of lesson you can’t get from a textbook: “Just to be content with what you have. It sounds like a very cliché thing to say, but you don’t need a whole lot to be happy.”
Accessible Programs
Short programs held in January or May help the college ensure that students who cannot take advantage of semester-long programs still get to graduate with at least one global experience. A number of programs allow CEHD graduate students to complete degree requirements out of country. Many other students conduct international research alongside faculty. These globetrotting efforts are part of an initiative to further internationalize the College of Education and Human Development.
“There’s absolutely no way to avoid it. Our world is interconnected, and we’re preparing tomorrow’s leaders. I think we would be ill preparing them if we did not include a global element to their education,” said Christopher Johnstone, director of international programs and initiatives for the college.
The global effort goes beyond study abroad. “We’re also looking at a real diversity of global experiences,” said Kenneth Bartlett, associate dean for graduate, professional, and international programs. They include internationalizing the curriculum that’s taught on campus and the research that’s conducted by faculty. Such globalization is part of a commitment to diversity.
Ongoing Relationship
Among many student-centered initiatives, the college has partnered with the University of Sao Paulo College of Accounting and Economics in Brazil and University of Brasilia. The student exchange program is complemented by ongoing research projects, led by Alexandre Ardichvili, professor of human resource development, and supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education.
“It’s quite a unique project because very few U.S. universities have strong partnerships with Brazilian universities,” said Ardichvili.
Each semester two University of Minnesota students study in Brazil, while two Brazilian students study human resource development or agriculture at Minnesota. The program is open to undergraduates, as well as graduate students, who may choose to spend less than a semester in Brazil. Even though graduate students may stay for a shorter period of time, Ardichvili believes they have the greatest potential impact. “Unlike students who just go for one semester, these people will hopefully work with Brazil for many years to come. They actually may end up writing their dissertations on Brazil. They may become professors studying Brazil and engage in research and work there,” said Ardichvili. “I’m looking at this as a multiplier effect.
Emerging Options
Students from Duluth and the Department of Family Social Science meet with Pra Acharn during a January 2010 trip.
A pair of faculty from separate departments is planning a 10-day trip to Thailand this summer to develop digital stories about how China’s damming of the Mekong River upstream affects Thai families whose livelihood depends on the river. Cathy Solheim, an associate professor of family social science, and Linda Buturian, senior teaching specialist in postsecondary teaching and learning, will incorporate these stories in the courses they teach back in Minnesota. Solheim will also hone her digital storytelling skills for use with students when she returns to Thailand for a January term course. She and Jill Klingner, assistant professor in healthcare management at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, hope to recruit about 20 students for the course.
The college is also introducing a new youth development leadership master’s degree in September through the Peace Corps’ Master’s International program. It will allow students to complete their final 12 credits online while serving their Peace Corps assignments.
The youth development degree already requires a significant non-classroom experience. When the Peace Corps approached program coordinator Jerry Stein, a senior fellow in the School of Social Work, the two organizations found their programs very complementary. “It just seemed perfect,” Stein said.
Adapting to Student Lives
Initiatives like these aim to overcome some past hurdles to internationalizing traditional colleges of education. Gerald Fry, a professor of international and intercultural education who has studied the impact of study abroad programs, said one factor is that education degrees are often aimed at graduate students, many of whom already have families, children, or full-time jobs anchoring them in one place.
“It’s not that easy to just say, ‘Oh, I’m going to go study abroad in Costa Rica for three months," said Fry.
Fry was part of a faculty committee that started talking about internationalizing the school in the 1990s. The committee passed the baton in 2007, when the college created Johnstone’s position.
The number of College of Education and Human Development students who study abroad has stayed fairly consistent over the years, between 15 percent and 20 percent, Johnstone said. The college is working on raising that number and making study abroad possible for those who in the past could not afford, financially or logistically, to pack up and go away for a semester.
The immediate impact of studying abroad has been well-documented. It’s a “transformational experience for students,” said Fry, pointing to research that shows students are more likely to change majors or career goals following a study abroad trip.
Fry’s own research points to longer lasting impacts, too, including a tendency to be less materialistic and make purchasing decisions based on social responsibility.
Long-term Dividends
Minnesota students who plan to study in Brazil get tips from University of Sao Paulo students and exchange coordinator Renato Azevedo (center).
The institutional benefits extend to include stronger and more diverse research ties, as well as better-informed curriculum. Vanessa Abanu, a doctoral student in the higher education program and a coordinator in the Educator Development Research Center, traveled to Brazil last September to interview scholars and make connections for researching a thesis comparing African-American studies with Afro-Brazilian studies.
“It’s not just about me coming with my American perspective to enjoy the great things they have down there and come up and write about it,” said Abanu. “It’s really about how do we learn from each other, how do we publish together, how do we compare what’s going on here with there, how do we broaden the conversation?”
Professor Solheim see potential for her digital storytelling project in Thailand to produce an ongoing repository of stories and multimedia that can then be used to enhance classroom discussions back in Minnesota. If the lesson is on rural health care, she could show video of the mountain roads people travel up and down on to get to the nearest clinic. “It’s more powerful than if you are just writing about it,” said Solheim.
The distance learning curriculum being developed for the Peace Corps’ youth development leadership master’s program could open the door to more international collaboration, said Stein. It could allow the college to have national and international cohorts, who travel to Minnesota for a summer semester, then return home for a year before completing a degree in Minnesota the following summer.
Changing Lives
Whittaker is planning to organize another student trip to South Africa in January 2012. He said the country challenged him, adding," It challenged the students as well—spiritually, politically, you name it.” The TRiO student services adviser first traveled to volunteer there in 2001 and has since made it a second home. Almost a decade after his first visit he applied for and won funding from the University’s Learning Abroad Center to take a group of students there for a seminar. He’s now planning to organize another student trip to South Africa in January 2012.
Meanwhile, Bianco will graduate this spring and start working on her teaching license in the fall. After that, she wants to teach, but she doesn’t know where.
“I love rural and urban schools. I’m open to teaching wherever,” said Bianco. “I think I can learn from wherever I go.”
Worldwide draw
The hall outside the Department of Family Social Science office is lined with flags representing students’ home countries. Graduate students shown (left to right): Melanie Jackson (Barbados), Yaliu He (China), Polina Sheldeshova (Russian Federation), Xiaohui Li (China), Charles Sim (Singapore), Chanran Seo (Republic of Korea), To Nga Hoang (Viet Nam).
The halls outside the Department of Family Social Science (FSoS) in McNeal Hall are draped with 23 flags from around the world, representing the countries of current and past graduate students. The department is home to 16 international graduate students at this time.
Associate professor Virginia Zuiker, director of graduate studies, attributes some of the department’s global attractiveness to word of mouth. “Students return to their home countries and network, encouraging others who have an interest in their field to study in our programs,” she says.
Foreign government recognition is another draw for international students, explains Steven Harris, professor and director of the marriage and family therapy program. “The reputation of the University’s research leads foreign governments to support students studying here,” he says.
Others benefit from institutional support. For example, To Nga Hoang, a top student in her home country of Vietnam was named as a Harvard Fellow. Because it does not offer a program in family therapy, Harvard made accommodations for her to study at Minnesota and continue in her field.
—Amanda Brown
