By Katie Nichols and Gregg Chenoweth
As Rachael Nichols, 21, bundles up in her Illinois apartment, Arctic-like winds don't worry her. She's used to it. She prepared in Nizhni Novgorod, Russia's third largest city, while enrolled in the BestSemester Russian Studies Program in 2005.
There her Russian "mother" taught Nichols how to wrap the sheer, wool scarf on her head. Strange that such ordinary apparel holds extraordinary power, percolating memories upon each use. "Mother" would repair her technique, first at the head, saying, "You need more here," then with a playful pat on Nichols' backside, "and here!"
"Here" is a relative term, particularly for Nichols and the 216 classmates from Olivet Nazarene University (Bourbonnais, Ill.) who have participated in BestSemester programs since 1995. The school ranked second of all CCCU institutions for number of students studying abroad in fall 2006, and fourth over a decade. This semester, 35 students are in 18 world areas.
The school has taken the U.S. Senate's Resolution 308 quite literally. By recognizing 2006 as the "Year of Study Abroad," students and schools were commissioned to "create goodwill" between nations. And more practically, Pres. Bush launched the National Security Language Initiative in support of international communication.
Generation Y needed it. A National Geographic global literacy study found that 87 percent of college students could not find Iraq on a world map.
According to the Institute of International Education, the nation's most comprehensive database on international education, high school and college students travel like none other:
- Olivet's home state ranks 10 th nationally for sending 6,400 U.S. citizens to other nations on study abroad programs. The state receives about 14,000 students from India (4,600), China (3,500) and others.
- Study abroad participants totaled 200,000 in 2006, up 10 percent from the previous year.
- In 1955, just 34,000 international students studied in the States. Today, half a million do so.
Tourist or Traveler?
Transitions Abroad magazine founder, Clay Hubbs, cautions adventure-seekers to be travelers, not tourists, while away from home.
"Tourists bring their homes with them wherever they go, and apply them to whatever they see," he said. "They are closed to experiences outside of the superficial. Travelers, however, leave home at home, bringing only themselves and a desire to learn."
Tabitha Vegh, a 21-year-old senior who studied at the Contemporary Music Center int he spring of 2006, didn't necessarily choose to become a traveler, but it was required nonetheless.
"I was on an island in the middle of the ocean with a completely different culture," Vegh said. "My roommate was from Oklahoma.She was the biggest hippie ever! But we ended up being the closest friends."
Nichols found herself adapting to a much different culture."Going to Russia, there's not one thing that's like the U.S. there," she said. "You had to adjust and adjust quickly."
InMcDonald's, of all places, she learned "when in Rome" should be "when in Russia." There would be 200 to 300 people crammed around the counter for lunch, but not in any resemblance of a line.
"At first it was hard for us because we didn't want to make people angry," she said. "By the end, we were pushing our way through."
For Nichols, part of her academic program included becoming a part of the culture around them. In addition to living with Russian students and host families, the group taught English to community members, worked at orphanages and helped restore churches.
Through these experiences, Nichols realized the universal importance of the family. "All families have problems, but they are there for each other no matter what," she said. "I stayed with a divorced family, and even though the children were already grown, the parents still kept in touch and helped support each other. My family was poor, and everything they did showed how much they loved and supported each other."
Meaningful Memorabilia
In the fall of2 006, Pam Tanis, 20, bought a boomerang while at the Australia Studies Center, as a symbol of her BestSemester in the land down under.
"I was just so excited to leave America," she said. "I was ready to sleep on the ground if I had to."
Michelle Linn, 20, now stocks her desk with a pink First Lady mug and playing card set she obtained in the fall of 2006 during the American Studies Program, tangible reminders of a surreal experience.
Vegh's bookshelf features a brown hard cover West Side Story novel, representing "the dumptique," a store where Martha's Vineyard's wealthy donate a variety of things, free for the taking.
"When I think about it and look at pictures, I almost can't breathe for a minute," Vegh said. "It's kind of indescribable and I can't ever put into words what the semester meantf or you."
For Vegh, the changes that happened in her during those four months on an island have not only changed the way she plays the guitar, but has also changed her thinking.
"I became a lot more open-minded," she said. "I just learned so much about people and how different isn't always bad and different doesn't mean wrong. The biggest way that I changed was learning to be more accepting of people exactly how they are ,even if they're not exactly like you. . .The person I became doesn't fit who I was when I left."
As a result, students can unexpectedly become isolated at home, while still trying to explain what the experience meant to them.
"I felt like I made this huge jump," Nichols said, "and was waiting for everyone to catch up to me."
Nichols spoke of her new global awareness and concern for how the U.S.'s public policy affects the world. But back at home, her friends didn't seem too concerned.
"I became a more global thinker after my time abroad," she said."Respecting other cultures became so important to me."
In addition, Nichols learned daily reliance on God. "I was forced to rely on God in a way I had never had to before I left America," she said. "That did not necessarily make my faith stronger than my friends', but it made it different. I had never been forced to have so much faith just to get through the day sometimes."
Institutional Idiosyncrasies
Despite such re-entry stress, Olivet students continue to study abroad in droves.
Brock Schroeder, dean of academic support and study abroad coordinator, believes Olivet's success in study abroad emerges from a campus culture that values it.
Keys to success include study abroad symposiums and transferring financial aid to any Best Semester program. "This helps out students, not Olivet," Schroeder said. "With that money we now write the check that is sent to the program. The [study abroad programs] are so important that [the school] is using the scholarship money that they have raised to support [study abroad programs]."
Linn strongly believes forwarding financial aid is a golden ticket for students,and that these programs challenge and stretch students in ways they couldn't experience if they stayed on a college campus. She goes as far to say "study abroad should be mandatory."
Schroeder echoes. "Americans have become more global. Since 9/11 Americans got awakened to the realization that we need to be engaged with second and third-world countries and that our comfortable existence in the U.S. is dependent on these countries."
But the countries abroad offer more than comfort. They change us, a fact Nichols knows all too well: "You come back a new person not knowing you needed to be one."
Katie Nichols is a junior Journalism major from Omaha, Neb. and veteran of the Washington Journalism Center. Dr. Gregg Chenoweth is the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Olivet Nazarene University (IL), journalism professor and sponsor of several student trips abroad.