UD students travel the world during Winter Session

Italian street scene
Photo by Emily Bronson, AS ‘02

3:50 p.m., Jan. 3, 2005--Home of the original study abroad initiative launched more than 80 years ago and still one of the most active such programs in the nation, the University of Delaware is sending 1,189 students to study internationally at sites on all seven continents during the 2005 Winter Session.

The number of students is up nearly 200 over last year, according to Lesa Griffiths, director of UD’s Center for International Studies, and about 150 of those registered for study abroad are freshmen. Griffiths said the students are being led by 80 faculty members, who are offering about 150 courses.

About 75 percent of UD students who opt to study abroad do so during the five-week Winter Session.

UD is the institution at which study abroad began, with a young professor, Raymond Kirkbride, having fathered the Delaware Foreign Study Program that took its first trip to France in 1923. Kirkbride believed that such an experience would broaden the knowledge of American students and build international goodwill, and he received the support of then-UD President Walter Hullihen and benefactor Pierre S. du Pont.

UD remains committed to study abroad and in November gained special recognition from the NAFSA: Association of International Educators for its outstanding achievement in international education. The University was among 13 institutions selected for in-depth profiles in the organization’s special report Internationalizing the Campus 2004: Profiles of Success at Colleges and Universities

“The first students from any institution to study abroad were Delaware students who were accompanied by faculty members on a visit to France more than 80 years ago,” UD President David P. Roselle said. “The reasons for having initiated the program in 1923 remain in effect today and, when combined with globalization and other facts of today's world, study abroad can only be seen to be an increasingly important component of undergraduate education.”

Roselle added, “We are happy to have been able to assist many undergraduates to study abroad, and we hope that many more will seek such opportunities.’

UD Provost Dan Rich said study abroad represents “one of the most important learning opportunities for our students. Students who participate in study abroad broaden their horizons and deepen their knowledge and respect for other cultures and institutions.”

Rich added, “Working with UD faculty in programs on all seven continents, students who study abroad develop a greater appreciation for the diversity of people and values, and thereby a better sense of their own identity and values. Expanding opportunities for discovery-based learning is a University priority, and study abroad is one of the most valuable forms of discovery-based learning.”

Rich said UD is proud to be a national leader in the participation of students in study abroad, noting that the high rate of student and faculty participation in study abroad programs “enriches the learning environment of the entire campus and connects the educational process at UD with the transformations under way across the world.”

“Clearly,” Rich said, “students who graduate with that expanded educational experience are better prepared to assume their responsibilities as citizen-scholars in a global community.”

Griffiths credits the enthusiasm of the UD administration and faculty with providing a unique and vibrant study abroad program for students.

“Members of the faculty have been incredibly creative in the design of study abroad programs,” she said. “Each program is unique. I believe it is the combination of enthusiastic faculty, administrative support and the Winter Session opportunity that has led to the continuing increases in student participation in study abroad.”

Lisa Chieffo, associate director of student programs in the Center for International Studies, noted that UD's study abroad programs are more geographically and academically diverse than ever before. “Our students are studying everything from fluid mechanics in Tasmania to the history of slavery in Barbados to Portuguese language in Brazil,” she said. “And, I believe we're the only institution in the United States that can boast a program in Antarctica.”

Students who will travel to Antarctica will study journalism, geopolitics and wildlife photography with Ralph Begleiter, Edward F. and Elizabeth Goodman Rosenberg Professor of Communication and Distinguished Journalist in Residence, and photographer Jonathan Cox.

Martha Carothers, professor of art, will lead a group of students in UD’s Learning Integrated Freshman Experience (LIFE) program to Australia to study art and communication. Freshmen who participate in the LIFE program form small learning communities organized around several of their courses, academic themes and out-of-class experiences related to those courses and themes.

Antarctica
Photo by Danielle Murray, AG ‘03

Michael Cotsell, associate professor of English, will lead a group to South Africa where they will study southern African literature and history, and Harris Ross, associate professor of English, will lead his first study abroad program with a class on film to be taught in Australia and New Zealand.

Service learning abroad programs, a growing component of study abroad, will celebrate their 10th anniversary this year with several new courses offered.

Service learning began in 1994 when James Davis, then an assistant professor, led nine education majors to South Africa, where they worked in educational institutions in a black township.

Norma Gaines-Hanks, assistant professor of individual and family studies, took leadership of the program in 1999 and since has led groups alongside Davis, Erica Armstrong, assistant professor of history, and Francis Kwansa, associate professor of hotel, restaurant and institutional management.

Through the years, students have been placed at Tumelong Mission in Shosunguve and the Princess Diana Mohau Children Centre at Kalafong Hospital and the Motheong’s Project for the Establishment of Pre-Primary and Primary Schools in Atteridgeville, all in South Africa.

These early programs to South Africa led to the expansion of service learning abroad programs and this winter, four study abroad programs will have a service learning component, Sue Serra, assistant coordinator in the UD Office of Service Learning, said.

Gaines-Hanks will lead students on a new program to Barbados to serve in educational institutions, as well as agencies serving people infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS.

Jennifer Gregan-Paxton, assistant professor of business administration, will lead students to Peru on a program to study issues surrounding sustainable development for the second year in a row.

Tanzania
Photo by Jonathan Cox

April Veness, associate professor of geography, will lead a group of students to Fiji, where they will participate in a project with Habitat for Humanity, and Eugene Matusov, associate professor of education, will lead the South Africa program this year.

Most students experience service learning abroad as life changing, Serra said, adding that many return to Delaware and continue their commitment to their service placements through fund raising for the communities in which they served. Faculty who have led these programs indicate that students’ reactions are immediate and profound, she said.

Gaines-Hanks recognized the growth of one such student in a reflective journal on her experience in South Africa. She wrote that through institutions like the Tumelong mission, “the lives of the people in the Winterveldt are slowly being improved. It is at once a hopeless and hopeful situation.”

Participants, through their academic courses and faculty-directed reflection, begin to recognize their role as a member of a complex global community, Serra said.

While many students have felt moved to individually sponsor a child’s education, in 2004, members of the Alpha Lambda Delta First Year Honor Society were so inspired by a previous experience with Gaines-Hanks in South Africa that they began fundraising as an organization, eventually donating $20,000 for Mohau Children’s Center, the Motheong Primary School and Tumelong Haven.

Students from each of the service learning groups going abroad this Winter Session will make presentations during a special forum from 4-5 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 22, in the Ewing Room of the Perkins Student Center.

Griffiths said many students find themselves changed by study abroad. “We asked students how they thought they were changed by their study abroad experience and they spoke of changes in personal growth and development, such as flexibility, patience, responsibility and respect for others,” she said. “Students told us they were more conscious of similarities between their culture and their host culture and that they developed greater communications and language skills.”

Article by Neil Thomas

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