Twenty-five wooden desks sit in neat rows facing a blackboard covered in fragments of calculus equations, foreign words and declarations that “Erin was here,” all smeared and clouded by dust-saturated erasers. A clock hangs above the exit—a lagging reminder of the minutes remaining in class, while a teacher at the front drones to sleepy-eyed students.
This traditional impression of a classroom becomes outdated when considering statistics from the study abroad office that 2,159 University of Wisconsin-Madison students studied abroad and 147 students interned abroad during the 2010-’11 academic year.
Available programs are located in more than 70 countries ranging from Finland to Vietnam, each offering vastly diverse international scholastic and work experiences, proving education has moved to a global scale.
However, there is no universal way to gain a global education, according to University of Wisconsin-Madison senior Sam Eichner. Each experience is customizable and depends on the student.
For example, Eichner said his primary concern was whether he would be able to study abroad in France and still graduate in four years. He said planning ahead is crucial to successfully completing a study abroad program.
“You’ve got to make sure that you are taking courses that you can transfer back to Madison,” Eichner said. Most of those will not be major-specific, he added.
UW-Madison junior Leslie Jernegan said an internship abroad made more sense for her because it combined travel with something to impress future employers.
“What I thought of it as was an investment,” Jernegan said. “I thought I could knock two birds with one stone: get the abroad experience and also have the job experience on my resume.”
In contrast to Jernegan hoping to foster her professional marketability, UW-Madison junior Sierra Buehlman Barbeau said the opportunity to improve her Arabic language skills while fully immersed in Muslim culture lured her to study abroad in Morocco.
“Living with a host family, I was able to see the family roles, like what a woman’s role in the family is and what the 17-year-old daughter’s role was in comparison with her 11-year-old brother,” Buehlman Barbeau said. “I feel like I really got to look into real life in Morocco.”
Whether studying or interning abroad, Eichner, Jernegan and Buehlman Barbeau all agreed the the most important aspect of seeking a global education is to maintain an open mind and prepare for all expectations to be shattered, regardless of one's chosen path.
Buehlman Barbeau said she expected to see caricatures of the stereotypes often associated with Muslim countries but quickly learned her assumptions were wrong.
“It was very surprising to see how much the younger Moroccans were integrating western culture into their lives,” Buehlman Barbeau said. “You would see teenage Moroccan girls with their headscarves, but they were wearing the tight clothing that you would see on any street in America.”
Eichner said he anticipated feeling awkward at first in a foreign country and was surprised when that feeling remained throughout his stay in France.
“It’s more shocking than you’d think being in a different country that doesn’t speak your home language,” Eichner said. “You feel like you’re kind of intruding on other people’s world, but in a good way... That good sense of being uncomfortable never went away, and it never ceased to fascinate me.”
While some study abroad programs are very structured, international internships often leave students with more flexibility when planning their time abroad.
Jernegan said this freedom amazed her during her internship in London, when she was charged with figuring out housing, transportation, making friends and surviving on a limited budget all on her own.
“It was the first big real world experience that I had,” Jernegan said. “When you’re in college you’re still kind of in a bubble, so it’s that first sense of not feeling safe anymore, which is kind of a great thing.”
In countries all over the world and in varying programs, the most important educational experiences come from outside the classroom, according to Eichner. Attendance was not as much a priority for him as was meandering through the streets and talking to locals in the French college town where he stayed.
“Nobody would say that going to class was what they gained the most from,” Eichner said. He added the real benefit of studying abroad is the countless opportunities to try something new.
In London, Jernegan also said she learned the most from professionally engaging with people of diverse backgrounds.
“[My internship] made me really look at how different cultures interact in the workplace and how you can get along with different people in an increasingly globalized world,” Jernegan said.
For Buehlman Barbeau, coming back to the United States from Morocco was a moving experience in itself and taught her to appreciate all that she has.
“Overhearing people complaining and wanting more was the hardest part of the reverse culture shock,” she said. “We’re so lucky here, and people don’t always realize that.”
