A difficult year for international studies
Many Townshippers have had to postpone travel plans over the past year, but what happens when you are a student organizing an exchange and plans cannot be delayed?
For Julia Charron, it was nothing short of extreme disappointment when she awoke to an email from Bishop’s International informing her of the cancellation of her exchange to Norway.
“I woke up to two emails one after the other, one was an email from the Norwegian University telling me they were excited to welcome me onto their campus this fall while the other one was an email from BU saying that all exchanges were being cancelled and that we had a meeting at 5 p.m. to discuss it,” said Charron. “The news was really hard to swallow, especially after having my winter 2021 exchange to Scotland being cancelled earlier this year,” she said.
In her situation, it wasn’t just the experience of studying abroad that she had to let go of but something much more exciting. Charron was a part of a research project that involved a partnership between the school of education at Bishop’s University and a University in Norway. Charron’s tuition, travel, and living expenses were all going to be covered, and she was going to be teaching English at an elementary school not far from her university. “It was not a typical exchange,” she said, “there was an application process as well as an interview. Then once I was chosen, I had to attend monthly meetings where everyone part of the project was updated on the research coming from both countries,” she said. Furthermore, according to Charron, the project had been something that the school of education at Bishop’s University had been prepping for years. Their plan had been for a fouryear exchange where each year, two students from each country would switch places as well as one professor from each country.
Sadly, for Charron, an opportunity to participate in something like this was a one-time thing. As a student in concurrent education doing a Bachelor of Arts for her undegraded and a Bachelor of Education at the same time, she had a small window available for exchanges. “I should have only been allowed to do one during my third year,” said Charron, “but when my Scotland trip was cancelled, and I heard about the research project being conducting through the schools of education, I figured out a way to make it work,” she said.
After multiple meetings with her dean and the chair at her school, Charron rearranged her work schedule and took some classes early to be open and available to leave in the fall. “One of the reasons I came to BU was for how amazing their international exchange program was and for their partner schooling, so I wasn’t ready to just give up,” she explained. But once again, Charron’s plans fell through as Bishop’s International was forced to cancel each of their exchanges because of the still-standing Canadian international advisory that encourages all to avoid non-essential travel outside Canada. “I wasn’t too shocked,” she admitted. “Bishop’s kept on postponing their decision and I had been warned that there was a big possibility that travelling was not going to be likely. Throughout the whole process I was trying to be realistic, mentally preparing that it was not going to run but there’s always a big side of you that can’t help but be hopeful,” she said.
However, even if this was Charron’s last chance, many others have only had to push their plans back. “As of right now, we have received an email from Bishop’s International informing us that firstly, Bishop’s is still taking incoming international students and that secondly, BU is planning on allowing their students to participate in exchanges as soon as this winter. Because of this, most people are deferring their exchange to a later date,” she said.