study abroad

The University should expand its international summer options and scale up sources of funding for students who need it to make a summer abroad feasible.

Columbia claims to be a “global university,” but its excessively stringent requirements often discourage its students from studying abroad. If the University is serious about creating a new generation of global citizens, it should help them clear the hurdles.

For me, the environmental policy major is Barnard’s best-kept secret. It afforded me the perfect way to major in something that both involves science—a passion of mine— and is interdisciplinary at the same time.

Reacting to the call for better study abroad programs, both the Columbia College Student Council and the Engineering School Council are taking action. A new think tank organized earlier this month by CCSC sophomore class Vice President Sue Yang and involving several council members focuses on programs for Columbia College students, whereas ESC is considering organizing a panel of students from the School of Engineering and Applied Science who have studied abroad.

This Monday, Spectator Opinion presents four students’ experiences with studying abroad and their decisions to leave New York for a semester. Another student makes the choice to stay behind.

When my friends ask me about my six months in Tanzania, I’m usually pretty indulgent. I tell them about water shortages, bed sharing, and the lack of books in the library—all of which are what I think most people expect to hear about universities in Africa. Much of what I learned in Tanzania was about myself and my identity as an American, and that in itself was a valuable experience.

When I first got to Cape Town, my initial response was to doubt that decision. I could not help comparing everything to New York. It certainly has been a challenge to adjust here, but I think I am starting to surmount one of the biggest ones: I am beginning to stop comparing everything to New York and Columbia.

Unlike many study abroad programs, mine doesn’t come with a welcome party or a group of fellow Americans looking for a cultural exchange—and perhaps I’ve learned more about myself than about the British people. But even if I wasn’t quite sure when I picked this place, I know now that I came in search for that stillness, a stillness I could only realistically deal with for six months, tops.

In Egypt, I stumbled upon a cultural case study that was impossible to ignore. At the heart of the matter is a fundamental question: can one essentialize culture in a productive but evaluative manner that sheds light on both its strengths and weaknesses? I’m sure as hell going to try.

Before last spring, I had never hesitated to take an opportunity to escape, but as the year drew to a close and I was finalizing my plans to spend the fall semester in China, I was having second thoughts. What I was experiencing wasn’t a feeling of “been there, done that,” but more a sense of regret about what I hadn’t done.