Why Study Abroad?

By: Eve Solomon

Studying abroad is a great opportunity given to almost every college student
and many high school students. However, when faced with the opportunity
of moving to a foreign country, many students hesitate. Worries about
missing out on the happenings at home or feeling uncomfortable in a new
place hold them back. To find out why it’s great, or not so great, to go
abroad, Athena Magazine turned to Dean Hillary Link, Dean of Study Abroad
programs at Barnard College, who sends approximately one hundred girls
abroad every semester.

Studying abroad is no longer what it once was.
Twenty and thirty years ago, students went primarily
to Western Europe, to countries like Italy and France.
Dean Link explains that today there are also,
“different types of experiences in all parts of the globe,
many of which are the right fit for different types of
students.” Students can choose between “field-study
programs in developing countries that allow them to
do independent research,” and, “traditional university-
based programs anywhere from Auckland, New
Zealand to Beijing, China to Cape Town, South Africa.”
Study abroad programs are sending students all over
the world.

When I asked Dean Link about the advantages and
disadvantages of studying abroad, she was hard-
pressed to find a disadvantage, claiming that, “there are only benefits of
choosing to study abroad in the long run. I believe the disadvantages are
perceived rather than real: students feel that they will miss out on events,
friends, their day-to-day existence, and a semester or year at a college they
love.” However, she reassures students that once back to school “those
same things will be happening, and in the meantime they will have gained a
lifetime of memories and connections.” However, she does warn that
studying abroad “is not right for everyone… so students should not feel bad
for not going abroad.” However, if someone wishes to “expand their life
experiences” going abroad is a great way to do it.

Studying abroad is an activity where girls rule. Dean Link commented with
a smile that, “study abroad programs tend to be largely populated by
women,” and joked that coming from an all-women’s college, “Barnard
students can easily feel comfortable and ‘at home’ while abroad!” She
believes that “for a young woman to challenge herself to leave the comforts
of home and put herself in a position where she has to carve out a niche and
a life for herself far from home without relying on the identity she has
created at home involving friends, family, school affiliations, is life-
altering.”

Going abroad helps to you find yourself without the influences of all those
people who know you at home. While a girl may put aside her relationships
with her friends and family during the time she’s abroad, she will
strengthen her relationship with herself. Girls “quickly learn who they
really are, and that is an experience that serves them incredibly well once
they return to campus and more forward in their lives.” Speaking about her
own experience abroad, Dean Link claims that “not only did it change my
academic college experience but it changed who I am and my life path.” She
adds that “the friendships I formed that year in Florence have remained
some of the strongest of my life.” Other women have had similar
experiences. Kimberly Solomon, who studied in Aix en Provence, France
over thirty years ago still manages to see the friends she made there two or
three times a year to catch up and recount memories. Dean Link’s host
mother’s house, “will always be ‘casa mia’” to her.

However, going abroad won’t be all fun and games. Like most things, going
abroad gets hard before it gets easy, and Dean Link warns that, “the first few
days or weeks are going to be hard… beyond the initial culture shock, there
is the exhaustion of learning to speak another language or understand an
accent or just adapt culturally. The first few days abroad are often times
when exhaustion and sadness hit and students feel very homesick and
question their decisions to go abroad. But that always goes away, and I tell
students that.” There is a way, however, to prepare for those first hard days:
“read the country’s newspapers on line, read about the cooking and cuisine,
learn a little about the politics of the country. Then being there will not
initially feel so unfamiliar. Envision what the first few days will be like…
learning as much as you can ahead of time will get you through those first
few days of uncertainty.”

The mere idea of packing your backs and shipping off to some far away
place is enough to make anyone nervous. However, Dean Link reassures
Athena readers that, “in this day and age, given Skype and the internet and
cell phone service and relatively inexpensive flights, going abroad can bring
as little or as much separation from home, friends and family as students
want it to.” So even though a student may be physically across seas, she is
still only a phone call away from family, friends, and home.

So, when given the opportunity to head over seas, don’t worry: the
experiences gained will be well worth the hard adjustment period. Find the
program that’s right for you, and don’t forget: there are many opportunities
to go abroad even during high school, both during the summer and the
school year.