Students get most out of study abroad program

According to Spanish Professor and Study Abroad Director Warner Anderson, the opportunity for Southern students to, “broaden their horizons,” has existed since 1994.
The program is designed to send students abroad to engage in academic training while fulfilling their service learning requirements. Students who participate in the program engage in the interactions of language and culture of the target country. To do so, students are directly housed with natives of their country, with the only exception being China.
Students in target countries in return, are given the opportunity to interact with Southern students and learn English.
“One of the greatest benefits is that students appreciate the opportunities that this country offers to them, both personally and educationally. I think they realize that the people in the countries that we travel to have many more social limitations and they have more restrictions on females pursuing higher education,” said Anderson.
In each travel, Southern partners with selected uni-versities in order to fulfill the participating students’ academic requirements. Students receive six total credit hours—three credit language studies and three for service learning.
The target universities identify contacts that ensure housing for the students.
“The experience was fun,” said Nolita Pore, Senior Mass
Communications major from Chicago, who traveled to Mexico in 2008. “I have no complaints about the entire program. I loved the classes, the community service and the family I was placed with; everything was good.
“The program reiterated everything that my mother has taught me; your families are not always going to be there, you have to use your survival skill and bounce back.”
This year, students will travel to Mexico, China, countries in Africa and South America.
To travel, there is no GPA requirement. “We simply want to make the programs available to any and every student who has a passion for international education and wants to travel abroad and broaden their horizons. We really don’t put any academic requirements; anybody can go if they so desire. If you have your money to pay for your fees, you can go,” said Anderson.
The fee for Mexico is $2,000. Africa and China travels are more expensive due to their distance. When the program began, the cost of traveling was $1,500. Since then, it has increased by $600 dollars.
“We don’t want to put the price at a level where it will not be accessible to students; if we put it what the other universities costs are, we would never have anybody,” Anderson said.
To assist students, the Center for International Education hosts a jazz brunch and silent auction fundraisers to provide minimal scholarships for the students.
Takeisha Russell, senior secondary education major from Baton Rouge will be traveling to China later this year. She hopes to gain an “overall appreciation for other cultures.” Also, she is looking forward to learning the Chinese language, and hopes to ‘enjoy’ herself.
“I have an open mind about it; whatever it is, I am going to make adjustments and get in where I fit in,” she said.
To find out more information on the study abroad programs contact the Center for International education, located in room 1100 Harris Hall, call 771.2613.
“We would like to encourage as many students as possible to take advantage of the study abroad opportunities that are offered here at Southern, these are programs that we created, we manage, we implement and we actually control. Its here for all students and not enough students know about it, we want students to know about them and take advantage of them,” explained Anderson.