Study abroad offers vital insights on life

The term “study abroad” has an allure to it. Sunglasses and wind in one’s hair. Train travel. Ferry travel. Cabs and buses too. Odd customs, like eating at 9 at night. Foreign speakers. Confusion and panic, but just until one makes it through airport security. Unusual items on the menu. How much is that in dollars? Sights only seen in books or on videos. And if one is studying, perhaps there is not much worry about money. A general soaking up of another land’s cultures and traditions just for the sake of it.

It sounds very much like a vacation, and it is in many ways, but it also so much more.

Will Hehemann, a writer with the UAPB School of Agriculture, Fisheries and Human Sciences, wrote an exhaustive piece that was published in Sunday’s paper, and in it he focused quickly on the many benefits to studying elsewhere.

“Students who have participated in education abroad programming are better equipped for globally oriented careers and collaboration with people of different backgrounds and nationalities,” he said. And there it is in a nutshell.

When one travels and sees others face-to-face, sees that they have, in so many cases, the same wants and needs as us, the same motivations, the same desire to love and be loved, the same joy in laughing and being close to family, it removes barriers that had existed because we did not know what was on the other side of them. Suddenly, foreigners aren’t nearly so foreign, which is an invaluable lesson to learn, even if the study it took to get there happened over a beer or a pot of exotic tea.

And one trip abroad can beget another.

Randy Thompson, one of the students Hehemann wrote about, has done two study abroad semesters. For one, he went to China (And there’s a picture of Thompson with the Great Wall of China in the background to prove it!) where he studied Chinese at a university. And two years later, he was in Guatemala, where he studied Spanish and worked on a project to help impoverished people.

He thought money might be an issue, but he had already committed himself to going abroad.

“My older sister studied abroad in London for a semester when I was in grade school,” he said. “After that, I promised myself that when I went to college, I, too, would study abroad. The experience was definitely worth it due to the amount of knowledge I gained and the newfound perspective I earned.”

Now, no surprise, Thompson wants to do something in life on an international scale.

“Studying abroad has helped me focus on my career goals of becoming a global leader to help bridge communities and eventually nations,” he said.

Not that a person can’t reach for such heights without studying abroad, but a semester overseas can open the door to a student’s imagination in ways that would almost be impossible without that exposure. And certainly, a semester in Europe or Asia or South America will help that student consider the people who live in those far off lands in a completely different light.

It’s good to know this type of world education is happening at UAPB. In one way or another, it will be an experience never forgotten.