College Faith #52: The Benefits and Challenges of a Study Abroad Semester or Year
Jan 2, 2025
50:06
My guest on this episode of the College Faith podcast is my colleague Dr. Stephen Garrett, Vice-President of Curriculum at Global Scholars. Steve is uniquely qualified to help us understand the benefits and challenges of students taking a semester or year to study abroad, having taught in Lithuania as a “receiving” professor of study abroad students and being a “sending” parent of a son who studied abroad.
In this podcast we discuss:
- Steve’s perspective as a “sending” parent:
- How Steve and his wife first began considering with his son the possibility of studying abroad
- The value of studying abroad
- How much parents should be involved in the process
- The importance of realizing that every school offers different study-abroad programs
- Three different models or ways to study abroad
- Benefits and cautions about third-party study abroad companies
- Who might studying abroad not be for
- Other considerations such as the language of the host university and country, the status of the host university, the weather, etc.
- What he wishes he knew as a parent before sending his son off to study abroad
- Allaying parent’s fears of security and safety for students studying abroad
- The importance of registering with the US Embassy in the host country
- Concerns about connecting and making friends in the host country
- The value of the inevitable “failures” while studying abroad
- Steve’s perspective as a “receiving” professor:
- What helps students have a good study abroad experience
- The role understanding different cultures plays in a good experience
- What will ensure the student has a very bad study abroad experience
Resources mentioned during our conversation:
- Your university’s Study Abroad Office (or similar title)
- US State Department’s website
- The Red Cross
- T. S. Eliot, Christianity and Culture: Essays
- The Culture Company’s Country Comparison Tool
- Andy Crouch, Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling