Schools

Out of the Classroom and Into the World

More UGA students adding a global dimension to their education.

University of Georgia students are on the move when it comes to education. According to the Institute of International Education, in 2009-10, UGA had 1,994 students studying abroad, making it number 15 among Tier 1 research institutions.

During the same time, the university was ranked fourth in the U.S. for students—1,695 of them--who enrolled in short-term study abroad programs. Another 399 students spent a semester or an entire academic year abroad.

The institute releases its Open Doors report annually during International Education Week, Nov. 14-18. The U.S. State and Education departments jointly sponsor the nationwide recognition.

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“Study abroad is critical to students for a number of reasons,” said Kavita Pandit, UGA associate provost for international education. It teaches them “it’s better to listen, observe and reflect on what’s going on around them. They also gain personal benefits, the quiet confidence that ‘I can do this,’ whether it’s catch a bus or learn a foreign language.

“Finally, it gives them global skills and competencies. There is no doubt that employers value study abroad experience when they look at résumés.”

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Reasons Vary for Studying Abroad

Students study abroad for different reasons. Emily Richter, a senior recreation and leisure studies major from Dunwoody, said her biggest motivation was her father’s global experience.

“My dad studied abroad when he was my age,” she said, “and I came to college knowing it was something he wanted me to do and something I wanted to do.”

Emily spent six weeks in Verona, studying through the UGA Center for the Study of Global Issues program. The best part “for me was getting to see how people live in another country,” she said. “It was so different. I’m from Atlanta where everyone has a car. In Verona, people walk a lot. They take buses. The city had a small town feeling.”

Richter’s experience is echoed by thousands of other students, said Pandit. As a father, he has seen the changes in his daughter who spent a few weeks in Spain. She’s opened up and become more self-critical in a positive way. “Study abroad helps us to look at our old lives differently,” he said.

Being Abroad Helps Faculty as well as Students

Being abroad doesn’t change just UGA students. The university sponsors more than 100 programs (running 60 to 80 of them in any given year) in 39 countries—including an bi-annual trip to Antarctica—with faculty leading most of them.

 “Teaching abroad opens up a lot of research opportunities for our faculty,” said UGA study abroad director Kasee Laster. “I’ve had many faculty tell me that teaching abroad was the most personally satisfying and meaning opportunity of their careers.”

Traditionally, Laster said, most students had studied abroad in Italy, Great Britain and other European countries. As study abroad participation by both students and faculty increases, students are exploring less traveled countries in Africa and Latin America. And students in a greater variety of majors are learning globally as well.

Typically, the STEM fields—science, technology, engineering and medicine—are so structured that undergraduates thought they couldn’t take their education beyond campus grounds. That’s changing, said Carolina Robinson, study abroad coordinator in the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

“We have 11 to 14 programs, depending on the year, and they’re all science-based,” she said.

Through the college’s certificate program in international agriculture, Robinson has had an engineering major in Spain and a pre-vet student in Thailand. Numbers of exchange students in the college are also increasing from an average of two to 10 this upcoming spring.

“It’s a great trend,” Robinson said. “Students are trying to find a more immersive experience.”

Through UGA, even short-term experiences are going deeper than the global lecture hall. Quint Newcomer, director of UGA Costa Rica, led a group of graduate students and faculty from UGA and the Nanjing Forestry University in China. They helped the mayor and community leaders in Santa Elena, Costa Rica create a sustainable design for its downtown.

Santa Elena has experienced explosive growth over the past several years. The town’s busy bus stop and taxi stands were blocking off a major thoroughfare. Town leaders asked UGA for help. Working together, they came up with a design for the relocated central bus terminal, taxi stand, a network of small parks and a pedestrian greenway.

“Within a week, they had produced a phenomenal design,” Newcomer said. “It was an amazing cross-cultural sharing experience.


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