"Far Afield"

The Colleges operate an extraordinarily ambitious "study-abroad" program because the Colleges value globalism. And, while charity may begin at home, globalism is best sought elsewhere.

By Dana Cooke

In her sophomore year, Colleen McDonough '98 (at center in image, right), a women's studies major from Ogdensburg, N.Y., was giving little thought to off-campus programs, when her faculty adviser began advocating that she take the Winter '97 Term in Vietnam.

"He said that to see Vietnam at this time in its history would be amazing," she remembers. His rationale was intellectual, sociological, and inviting.

But McDonough had additional reasons to go. She knew she was too shy, too conservative about engaging her environment. She would use Vietnam to crack her own shell. "I felt that if you can do a communist Third World police state," she says, "you can do anything."

So she went. She had the sociological, cultural, and academic experiences. She learned that Vietnam has moved on - the war is history - and that Western influence has changed southern Vietnam, while the north remains traditional. She learned to appreciate the amenities of home (e.g., running water). She discovered how to make friends in a different land, such as Hang and Yien, who operated a small restaurant. "We couldn't talk to them," she says, "but we made friends." And she collected five credits toward her degree.

And, beyond anything intellectual, she discovered that she can hold her own. She gained the hoped-for transformation. "You learn that, in this culture, you are the other. You learn not to fit in, but to adapt. You learn to play along. You learn to recognize that some things aren't your own and you can't change them," she concludes. "You learn to be patient."

Most colleges offer "study abroad." What makes Hobart and William Smith's programs special is the extent to which they are integrated into a model of a liberal arts education.

"The institution is committed to the notion that the contemporary world is an international one, and that if we are doing our jobs as a liberal arts institution, it behooves us to expose students to that world in a profound way," says Gary Johnston, the director of Off-Campus Programs. "Unless you go there, your liberal arts education is incomplete."

For practical reasons, it is impossible to require all students pursuing a liberal arts degree to study overseas. But the Colleges do everything they can to promote it.

Over the course of a two-year cycle, more than 30 programs are offered in more than 20 countries, some of them especially far-flung - Senegal, Ecuador, Russia, Vietnam, Iceland, Korea, Australia. Some are operated by consortia or through affiliation with other institutions, but a large number of them - at present, 20 - are led by HWS faculty.

The program in Vietnam, for example, was created by Marie-France Etienne, professor of foreign languages, who was born and spent the first few years of her life there. Visiting northern Vietnam five years ago, she was impressed by its rich, traditional culture. She thought young people should know this land as something other than a former enemy. She worked with the University of Hanoi and an alumnus, Pat Aronson '91, who worked in Vietnam, to make the arrangements. The program was first offered in 1995, with 17 students taking part.

Her challenge, she remembers, was to facilitate cultural immersion. "I knew the students were going to have to take emotional and intellectual risks," she says. "I was not sure they would have the courage to do this, and they did."

The faculty directors make a big commitment. Scott McKinney, professor of economics, helped create the Ecuador program (pictured at right). He spent a summer there, working out details with a host institution, and arranging field trips (Galapagos Islands and Peru). Each time he leads the program - which he's done three times, with a fourth anticipated - he conducts on-campus recruitment to fill it. As the term approaches, he helps find transportation to and from Ecuador. He travels to the site in advance of the students, to see that everything is ready. He and his co-director (most recently, Claudette Columbus, professor of English) teach courses, offer walking tours of Quito, and fill a sort of super-advisory role, helping students with travel needs, health issues, relations with host families, etc.

Because the Colleges take direct responsibility for many of the programs, they are as academically relevant as possible. A great majority of courses taken overseas are credited toward an HWS degree. A term abroad, says Johnston, "looks normal on a transcript."

Steve Wallander '98 (pictured at left) took the summer program in Iceland, which emphasizes Arctic biology and geology. It served Wallander's geoscience major directly while helping to fuel his specific interest in Antarctica. While in Iceland, Wallander completed three courses for HWS credit, two of which apply to his major. And he had a high-quality academic experience in a volcanically based environment unlike any he'd find near Geneva, N.Y. "The ride from Keflavik to Reykjavik," he says, "made you feel like you were on the moon."

The Colleges reduce the financial implications of study abroad by:

• making costs for off-campus programs consistent with and structured like on-campus costs, as much as possible; and
• applying students' existing financial aid to terms abroad (the only exception being work-study aid, which can't be applied out-of-country).

Wallander was one of many students for whom this was important. "Basically," he says, "it was the same cost as a normal term, with the exception of the plane ticket."

The word that faculty members often use in describing the effect of study abroad on students is transformative.

Scott McKinney finds that some of the students who go to Ecuador are already risk takers, but some (much like McDonough in Vietnam) choose Ecuador to change themselves. "They'll say, 'I really want to push myself into the unknown to see how I do." The program, he says, "forces you to think about another way of conceptualizing the world, and organizing life in a way not based on a European model."

"Students have to balance academic priorities with taking advantage of the other opportunities," says math professor Kevin Mitchell, who leads the Queensland, Australia, program."They have to be organized in a completely different way. . . . I just see students coming back much more mature and independent."

Queensland requires students to conduct extensive biological field research. "What I hear some of the biology faculty saying is that students come back much more engaged," Mitchell adds. He views the return to campus as a telling phenomenon. "It's interesting to see how students manage that first term back. It's surprising how differently they perceive campus because of this different experience."

"I've had faculty members tell me," says Off-Campus Programs director Johnston, "that students who have gone abroad are more fun to teach. . . . It's just an overall maturation."

Etienne reflects on students who finished the Vietnam program. "They all came out different people. They were alive after. They had expressions as if they had seen something."

The students themselves, while not always so articulate, seem to know that something big has happened.

Joe LaSala '97 went to Poland in Fall '96, and thereafter Bath, England. Poland was more challenging, Bath more fun. Poland taught him that he had been culturally parochial: "I wouldn't have admitted it before I went, but afterward I could see." He feels broadened, something he notices in the classroom. "My viewpoint has changed such that, even now, I see things through that experience. . . . I keep learning things in my classes just from being in Poland."

"I think I learned more that year," he concludes, "than at any other time."

Erica Carlson '98 took part in the same two programs. Intellectually, Poland served her interest in women's studies. "In Poland," she says, "they never had a women's movement. I think they are suffering from that. . . . Women there work very hard." But she learned not to judge. "You understand that it's part of their culture. It's how they are brought up."

Above and beyond, though, she had the same transformation that Colleen McDonough found in Vietnam. "The past year really did something for my confidence," Carlson says. "You have no choice but to survive."

"It's a different kind of learning," she adds. "It's learning about life!"

Dana Cooke is the editor of The Pulteney St. Survey.

This article originally appeared in the Winter ‘98 issue of The Pulteney St. Survey. To request a copy, e-mail Susan Murad at murad@hws.edu.

Also of Interest

World Without Borders
In an accompanying article from the Survey, read about eight alums who have lived and worked abroad.

Off-Campus Programs
The office’s own website describes its ambitious array of domestic and international programs