I’m betting that at some point during college, each of us has heard someone drone on about their experience in their study abroad or travel study program.
Listening to these stories, I personally felt that they were boring and seemed like the person was bragging.
All of this changed, however, when I returned from my own study abroad experience.
Though I do catch myself being boring and boastful at times when I talk about it, I can’t discount my experience through the program.
Study abroad programs provide an ideal scenario to become fully immersed in the material within the classroom by being surrounded by a new culture.
Seeing and experiencing things physically is far more helpful than any PowerPoint or lecture could ever be.
Living in a different culture also can help in learning the customs and language of the people that have welcomed you.
I found that since my study abroad was in a small Tuscan town in Italy, learning Italian was much easier while I was living there in contrast to when I attempted to learn it before I arrived.
The immersive and personal aspect that is involved with traveling becomes deeper and more meaningful when you have the opportunity to get to know the city and the people you visit.
UTM is not typically a place that seems to promote or even talk publicly about their travel study and study abroad options for students. Our campus is hopefully changing this for the better in a few years.
Being in the UT system, we have some connections to travel programs and we do have a rather large percentage of international students already on campus.
Despite all of this, it’s still up to the students to look into and research travel study options provided by UTM.
As college students, the struggle for money is a real problem but there are options out there, such as departmentally funded scholarships and an SGA scholarship that will help ease the financial burden.
A few organizations, like the Foreign Language and Culture Committee, are attempting to broaden our options as students. This committee is dedicated to opening the connection between students and international travel.
Since this is a new organization, I would encourage students to look into the options on their own. This can be done by either visiting the Center for International Education in Gooch Hall Room 124 or visit http://www.utm.edu/departments/cie/tstudies.php.
With all of the options that are arising, I encourage you all to enroll in a study aborad or travel study program while you are in school.
