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Global Learners: How Study Abroad Experiences Impact Students

When she left Rapid City, South Dakota, for the University of Minnesota, Angela Bianco had a pretty good idea that she wanted to study abroad at some point during her academic career. Suddenly she found herself entering her final year as an undergraduate in the elementary education foundations program. She still hadn’t left the continent. The course load for her final year was too specialized to fit traditional study abroad programs, but Bianco found her chance in an intensive three-week global seminar offered over the January winter term. She and two dozen other students traveled with CEHD adviser Nathan Whittaker to South Africa, where they toured historic sites, studied at the University of Cape Town, and volunteered with a nonprofit that cares for AIDS and tuberculosis patients and vulnerable children. Bianco left with the kind of lesson you can’t get from a textbook: “Just to be content with what you have. It sounds like a very cliché thing to say, but you don’t need a whole lot to be happy.” Accessible Programs Short programs held in January or May help the college ensure that students who cannot take advantage of semester-long programs still get to graduate with at least one global experience. A number of programs allow CEHD graduate students to complete degree requirements out of country. Many other students conduct international research alongside faculty. These globetrotting efforts are part of an initiative to further internationalize the College of Education and Human Development. “There’s absolutely no way to avoid it. Our world is interconnected, and we’re preparing tomorrow’s leaders. I think we would be ill preparing them if we did not include a global element to their education,” said Christopher Johnstone, director of international programs and initiatives for the college.

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