Miriam Collins has been the Assistant Director of Study Abroad at Guilford for over 20 years, and recalls a time less than 10 years ago when more than 100 Guilford students would study abroad in a single semester.
Only 52 students are abroad this fall.
“There are a few students that think ‘there’s no point in applying because (the programs) are already full,'” Collins said. “That’s just not the case anymore. We want more students to come study abroad.”
Jim Hood, associate professor of English and director of Study Abroad, said that he has made his primary goal to work to increase the number of Guilford students who study abroad: “We have strong programs, but we need more students to take advantage of them.”
Study Abroad offers Guilford students the opportunity to study, for a summer or a semester, in any of more than 15 countries and 20 cities on almost every continent.
“We’re not doing a good job of explaining to students that so much of the Guilford education is lived outside the classroom,” said Associate Professor of Political Science Ken Gilmore. “There are a lot of opportunities here for Guilford students to grow. I would put Study Abroad at the very top. I’ve seen more students than I can count coming back from Study Abroad transformed.”
Students decline to study abroad for a variety of reasons. Some students expect the program to be full, believe the credits from institutions abroad won’t transfer, or expect the experience to be too expensive. Other students fear trading their friends and loved ones within the close-knit Guilford community for a different culture of strangers.
“It’s really tough sometimes to be so far from comforting people and places,” said Madeleine Pope, a junior who is abroad in Guadalajara, Mexico, this fall. “You’re forced to grow up a bit. This has definitely been the most useful part of college so far for me.”
Anna Clarke, a junior, studied abroad in Brunnenburg, Italy, last spring. “It really expands your sense of self and what you’re capable of,” she said. “It’s just really important to put yourself in an uncomfortable situation for a while.”
Clare Hyre, a junior religious studies major, studied in Cape Coast, Ghana, last spring. “You can get your credits transferred; you can make them work for your major,” she said. “I got eight religion credits toward my major. And, you’ll make a ton of new friends who are awesome.”
Students can apply their financial aid to a semester abroad, so the only increases in cost for a semester abroad are air fare and changes due to the international exchange rates. For little or no additional costs, students are offered a priceless opportunity.
“No amount of class work, reading or studying will duplicate the hands on, lived experience of being abroad,” said Assistant Professor of foreign languages Maria Bobroff. “When you’re abroad, every moment you are living, breathing, and eating the culture that’s around you.”
Carl Farlow, a sophomore studying in Tokyo, Japan, this fall, said: “There really isn’t anything quite like the experience of studying abroad, in Japan or elsewhere. I look back to the first day I spent with my host family, and I’ve never had a clearer gauge of how much I’ve learned and grown, even after only four weeks.”
The various study abroad opportunities are geared toward different interests and majors. Almost anyone can find a program suited for them.
In Brunnenburg, English majors can study the poet Ezra Pound, taught by his daughter in the castle where he wrote the final six of his 116 “Cantos.”
“What I will look back upon most fondly are the (daily) teas with Mary, Ezra Pound’s daughter,” Clarke said. “It’s like stepping into another time.”
Collins said: “How many chances do you get to do that? And in a castle no less! In Munich, for art students, instead of (studying) a painting in a picture, you can stand in front of it. You can walk the streets and still see bullet holes from the time of Hitler. People come back and say, ‘Everything here looks so new.'”
In Cape Coast last spring, Clare Hyre stayed in an Anglican seminary. “It was amazing to experience another culture of Christianity, two very foreign things for me.”
“It was really challenging as a white westerner to see how much our heritage impacts them,” she continued. “The town we were based in, Cape Coast, is the town where the major slave castle for all of Ghana is located. I definitely felt the presence of all the people in the past.”
Study Abroad also offers students a chance to directly enroll in universities in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland through Intercontinental Recruitment and Support Services (IRSS). The University of Dundee in Scotland offers several courses for science majors that other programs lack. The IRSS programs may require an additional fee, and they can be more selective than the other programs.
Biology and environmental studies majors also have additional options, offered by The School for Field Studies (SFS). The programs are available in five countries, and are focused on field research and community service. Students can study sea turtles and marine mammals in Mexico, rainforests in Australia, or human/wildlife conflict in Kenya.
“I went to the two field stations in Kenya that SFS operates in 2004,” said Lynn Moseley, Dana professor of biology and Guilford’s faculty liaison for SFS. “I met the faculty and the staff, I stayed in the cabins where the students stay, and ate in the dining room where they eat. I was completely impressed with the quality of the academic and study abroad experience there.”
“Any program you go on will have something unique about it,” said Bobroff. “Anywhere you go, you will have a semester you could not have possibly have had here in Greensboro. After one leaves college, there is rarely another occasion in one’s life to drop everything, to move away, and to experience life somewhere else. For many students, it’s a once in a life time chance to see somewhere they’ll never get to