Expanded study abroad programs enrich learning experience
- Alec Dent
- October 18, 2024
- Student success
- Contributors: Photos submitted
5 – minute read
Florida Gulf Coast University is making it easier than ever for students to have international learning experiences. Internships, short-term trips, a new program that sends first-year students to Ireland, and even remote learning that allows students to take online classes with professors and students from all over the world are now available to students. All are part of the effort to ensure Eagles have varied opportunities to interact with other cultures globally.
“We’ve really expanded the number of partnerships that we have because we recognize that it’s not one size fits all,” said Dechen Albero, assistant director for study abroad programs in FGCU’s Global Engagement Office. “There are a lot of different goals that students have with regard to study abroad, and we try to really match them with a program that’s going to help them.”
For Emily Valdovinos, a senior psychology major and French minor from Broward County, one of the appeals of studying abroad is the opportunity to immerse herself in a new language.
Valdovinos, who grew up speaking English and Spanish, said she has always had an interest in languages.
“I wanted to go to a country where the majority of people speak a foreign language so it would put me in that challenge of having to push myself to learn the language,” said Valdovinos.
She picked South Korea for her semester abroad because she wasn’t familiar with the culture and “wanted to explore individualistic versus collectivistic cultures.”
“A big thing that I found I related to was that my Latin American background has more of those collectivist values, with family at the core, and I found a lot of similarities in Korean culture,” she said.
A first-generation college student, Valdovinos had not traveled outside of Florida before this year. It had been a lifelong dream of hers to go abroad, but financial barriers stood in the way, she said. The Honors College member spent a year researching and applying for scholarships to make study abroad affordable. Her efforts were rewarded with the national Gilman Scholarship, FGCU’s Perez Scholarship and a full-ride study abroad scholarship from The Education Abroad Network, the program through which Valdovinos studied at Korea University.
Lindsay Pohlman, a senior marketing major from Fort Myers, similarly thought that studying abroad was out of reach and had never given it serious thought.
“I didn’t think that it was something that was available to me, just because of my circumstances,” she said. Then a friend of hers studied abroad one semester, came home, then signed up for a second semester overseas. “Then I realized how attainable it is,” said Pohlman.
Pohlman also received the Perez Scholarship, which partially funds study abroad, and spent last spring in Bilbao, Spain, where she studied at University del País Vasco.
“I knew I would get more experience with culture there,” said Pohlman. “The other options I had were Barcelona or Madrid, but those are really big cities where a lot of Americans go.”
It didn’t hurt that Pohlman, a surfer, got to be close to the ocean in Bilbao.
Valdovinos and Pohlman will finish their time at FGCU this academic year, but both had such positive experiences abroad that they’re exploring options to return to South Korea and Spain, respectively, after graduation.
Valdovinos is applying to be an English language teaching assistant in South Korea, seeing it as an opportunity to further the experience of “becoming one with the community” that she got during her stay. Pohlman says she hopes to return to Spain because she also feels that there’s still much of the culture and history to explore.
“There are just so many parts that are different from each other. There’s a lot more to see,” said Pohlman. “The culture, the sense of community, being able to practice the language.”
A deep immersion into the culture is exactly what the university hopes its students get out of study abroad programs.
“A lot of people mistake study abroad for tourism or the longest spring break or not serious academics,” said Albero. “Study abroad in general gives our students tangible skills … like the ability to adapt or the ability to work with people from different cultural backgrounds or across huge divides.”
And while experiencing other cultures is the focus of study abroad, it has some other benefits too.
“Research shows that students who study abroad are more likely to graduate on time,” said Albero. “They find employment quicker after graduation, and they earn higher salaries.”