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INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS BROADEN HORIZONS
FOR MISSOURI COLLEGE STUDENTS
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By Susan Caba
A year ago, Jesse Moll had never been out of the United States, except for a brief vacation. Nor did he have much interest in overseas travel.
 This view of the sunset from the highest hill in the capital city of Antananarivo concluded an outdoor lecture by Dr. Chantal Radimilahy from the Museum of Art and Archaeology in Madagascar. |
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But as a history major at Saint Louis University, Moll—then 19—felt an obligation to see some of the world, not just read about other languages and cultures.
“I was tired of learning just about Western history,” he says. “I wanted to go someplace as different from Western countries as
I could.”
He perused the options offered in SLU’s overseas study program and decided to spend an academic year in Beijing.
| Jennifer Woodsmall (front) and Kara Johnson ride an
elephant as part of their study abroad adventure at Webster’s Thailand Campus. |
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“As a history major, I figured China has a longer history than Japan and so I decided on the program in China, studying Chinese language and culture.
“I was very nervous,” he recalls. “Before this, I’d been gone for like a week in Costa Rica. The first month was tough and nerve-wracking.” He lived in a dorm, mainly with Americans and other international students, “but at the end, I had more Chinese friends than American.”
| Students at Webster University’s Leiden Campus, the Netherlands. |
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When he returned to St. Louis, he decided to continue his language studies and
he’s thinking about a graduate degree in Chinese history.
Moll is just one of the many hundreds of
St. Louis-area college students who take advantage each year of foreign studies
programs that range from two weeks to
a year. They may study the language of the host country or take courses dovetailing with their majors back home (business, for example, or the hospitality industry). Their home school advisors are delighted with the results of the programs.
| Jennifer Christ, Webster graduate, as study abroad student at Webster’s London campus visiting Buckingham Palace. |
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Overseas study, say administrators, results in personal growth for the student who
traveled, but also enriches the academic atmosphere for those who remain at home.
“We know that students return from
a study abroad experience with a more
open mindset, new perspectives, and concern about issues they’ve maybe never considered before,” says Traci Faschingbauer, coordinator of the international study programs at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
| St. Charles Community College (SCC) students hike through Savana, a modern-day village, as they make their way to a 1000-year-old city for excavation. |
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Occasionally, the benefits are even more far-reaching. Earlier this year, ten archeology students from St. Louis Community College were transformed into goodwill ambassadors when their three-week study program captivated the imagination of the host government in Macedonia.
“It became a celebrity thing,” says Jaime Torres, director of SLCC’s study abroad
programs. “It became much more than
we expected.”
| UMSL student Crystal McZeal studied abroad at Nanjing University in Nanjing China. |
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Paradoxically, the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 have only made overseas study more popular, says Torres. A two-year-old program in Istanbul, focusing on the study of Islam, has been a particular success.
| Unusual behavior is entertaining to the villagers. A crowd gathered to watch SCC student Kristy Cross record the measurements and draw a memorial stone in the highland town of Betafo. |
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Ismael J. Betancourt, who coordinates study abroad programs at Saint Louis University, says the same thing about 9/11. “It raised awareness among students,” Betancourt says. “It’s brought up Madrid for them on the map, it’s brought up Italy, it’s brought up China in their minds.”
Sophomore or junior year is the best time to study abroad. Freshmen can’t go and seniors usually don’t because of requirements that final credit hours be earned at the school from which they graduate.
Almost every university or college in the region offers—even urges—international study. Most offer a variety of options, including direct enrollment in foreign schools or coordination with programs run by other American universities with campuses overseas. Community colleges are no exception.
St. Louis Community College and St. Charles Community College belong to a statewide coalition designed to make overseas study affordable and accessible, even to part-time students.
| SLCC student Carley Anne Macaluso at the college excavation in the castle of Markovi Kule in Macedonia. |
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The cost of the international programs is tied to the cost of tuition and room and board at the
student’s home school.
In some cases, scholarships or financial aid
is available.
Washington University encourages students in every discipline to participate in a study abroad program, calling it an “incredible experience” and “an investment in your future that may be career enhancing and even life-transforming.” Each school at the university assigns a faculty contact for overseas studies. The list of host countries starts in Australia, proceeds through Britain and the Czech Republic, Chile, China, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Israel and on down the alphabet of countries.
UMSL has been offering study abroad programs for more than 30 years. Approximately 160 students participate each year, choosing from among some 30 host countries—the list begins with Austria, meanders through Italy, Japan, Korea, Lithuania, jumps into
S-territory with Scotland, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland, before finishing with Taiwan.
| SCC student Ben Hinn gets acquainted with a ring-tailed lemur at Anja Park,
a game reserve in the central highlands
of Madagascar. |
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“We actively encourage students to go abroad—part of the university’s five-year goal is to increase participation by 50 percent,” says Faschingbauer.
One of the more popular programs at both St. Louis Community College and St. Charles Community College is a semester spent at Canterbury Christ Church University College in England, about 90 minutes from London. There are also programs in Thailand, Vietnam, Greece, China, France, Spain and Costa Rica. If a professor has an interesting proposal for an overseas course and a minimum of 10 people enroll, it’s likely a class can be arranged, says Torres.
“Traditionally, community colleges were not looking beyond the borders of their state or community. But now there is more of a global orientation,” he says. “We are now very pro-active in encouraging students to study abroad.”
| UMSL student Crystal McZeal in China. |
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One advantage of the community college classes (besides costs, which are generally lower than at four-year schools) is that they are open to anyone. A part-time student—or someone just interested in one overseas course—can enroll, often for much less than the trip would otherwise cost.
“But they cannot think of it as a junket,” Torres says. People are learning and, in some cases, it has a life-changing impact.”
Webster University takes the idea of studying abroad a step further and defines itself as “a multi-campus international university.” The school opened its first overseas campus in 1978 in Geneva and added four more, in Vienna, London, The Netherlands and Cha-am, Thailand. Webster is also affiliated with universities in China, Japan and Mexico bringing the total number of Webster campuses worldwide to 100 plus. All classes are taught in English.
Students are not only encouraged to study abroad, it’s suggested that they may want to study at more than one foreign campus during an academic semester or year. “The combinations are endless!” says the school’s promotional material “Webster encourages student mobility internationally.”
| Webster study abroad students from left to right, Tiffany Hacker, Rachel Delcau, and Alyson Pedley visited a famous “Buddha head enveloped in a Tree” in Thailand. |
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At Saint Louis University, between 400 and 500 students study abroad every year. The school offers programs in nine countries. “It’s an addiction—that’s what I tell them at the beginning,” Betancourt says. “Most of them want to go back afterwards, either to the same country or another one.”
Are there disasters? Not really, he says.
“Last year, two kids came back early. Both came back because of boyfriends. One came back and broke up, and then she wanted to go back, but it was too late. She ended up going back on another program over the summer.”
It’s “very rare” for UMSL students to cut their studies short, even though the trip is often the first time they’ve traveled out of the country—or even out of Missouri. In the past four years, says Faschingbauer, only two students failed to complete their programs.
Long-range preparation is key to the programs’ success, especially when a foreign language is required. Washington University suggests students start planning as soon as freshman year, though students must be juniors for overseas study. The schools all require orientation sessions, in some cases a semester-long class covering health, safety, travel and culture issues.
“This is the first time traveling abroad for
a lot of students,” says Betancourt. “They
usually start to freak out a week before
they leave—that’s when I begin getting the phone calls.”
Torres retired as a colonel after 28 years in Air Force, which some parents find reassuring: “My main job is to calm them, and give them a picture of reality. Even though we hear about things happening overseas, it doesn’t mean the students aren’t safe…things happen here in St. Louis, too.”
| (Left to right): Damjan Donev of the Museum of the City of Skopje, SLCC Professor Norman Rex Brown (Emerson Center for Engineering & Manufacturing at SLCC) and Kiro Ristov also with the Museum, watch GPS survey data for a Macedonian dig. |
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In many cases, a faculty member accompanies the students, especially on the shorter programs. In fact, often it’s a teacher’s interest in a subject, language, culture or country that prompts the course in the first place. And host families are generally prepared to deal with most problems.
“Some of these families in Spain have been hosts for 15 or 20 years,” says Betan court. “The families are pretty cool. They know where the students are coming from.”
Ultimately, every student takes something different from the experience of living and studying in another country.
Adam Smith of Kirkwood was taking a history class at St. Louis Community College when the topic of the semester in Canterbury came up.
“I guess what struck me to do it was I had a lot of friends who were going to four-year colleges and I was really at a loss as to what to do,” he says. “I thought maybe it would open my eyes and give me a better idea of what I wanted to do.”
Subsequently, he enrolled in a tourism and recreation program and went to Heidelberg, Germany with 17 other students. Now back in St. Louis, he’s ready to study at home— at least until he replenishes his travel funds.
Jesse Moll’s year in China is still reverberating. “It changed me in a lot of ways,” he says. “I became more independent. Three years ago, I could never see myself doing this. I was always afraid to move out of St. Louis. But finally, the desire overcame the fear.”
UMSL GLOBAL MBA
Thinking of an MBA?
UMSL suggests you go global.
By Susan Caba
Graduates of the university’s brand-new International Masters of Business Admin-istration program will earn two MBAs, one from University of Missouri-St. Louis and the other from graduate business programs at universities in France and China.
In addition, students have the opportunity to tap into an international web of contacts. Not only are they exposed to fellow students during the first year of study at one of the two partner schools; they also meet students from both countries during the second year of study at the St. Louis campus. The program also includes a three-month international internship and independent study.
“This is unique in the world,” says
Dr. David Ricks, director of international
business programs at UMSL. “It will be very high-profile, especially once the students—who are spending the first year overseas at the partner schools—return to St. Louis for the second year.”
The current international partner schools are the Universite’ Robert Schuman in Strasbourg, France and the University of Nanjing in Nanjing, China. UMSL has verbal agreements with universities Japan and Austria (the names of the schools will be announced when the arrangements are finalized) and is looking for additional partners in Australia, Germany, India, and Mexico.
Fluency in a second language is required for acceptance into the program. The list of approved languages includes: Arabic, Chinese,
French, German, Hindi, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. Required classes will be taught in English.
All programs at UMSL’s College of Business Administration are accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools
of Business (AACSB), which grants this status
to only one in four of the MBA programs
in the United States. In addition, UMSL’s undergraduate international business program ranked among the top twenty in the
country for the last three years by U.S. News & World Report.
For more information, visit the school’s website www.umsl.edu. |
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