Students interested in jetting across the world, or just the stars and stripes, can find opportunities through UCA’s education abroad and national student exchange programs.
Alexandra Depner, director of education abroad and national student exchange, said that taking part in a study abroad program gives students confidence, perspective and real-life skills.
“For any person, no matter what their professional aspirations or whatever their professional goals are, there’s a ton that can be gained from study abroad experience,” she said.
“You have some more obvious benefits like increasing your cultural awareness, experiencing other ways of life. One thing that I always tell students is ‘I think it’s hard to really fully understand what it means to be American or to identify your own culture until you experienced another.’”
Depner said abroad opportunities give students “a different perspective” and allow them to “identify what things are kind of unique” in their own cultures and worldviews.
She said that she has noticed students coming back to campus with newfound self-determination; “I think students leave study abroad experiences a lot more self-confident, especially those longer-term experiences, but really any at all.”
“You kind of gain this confidence in yourself and your ability to navigate situations that you may have perceived as difficult or even impossible for you before.
“You’re in a new environment, you have maybe a bit of a language barrier depending on your destination. You’re navigating unfamiliar things like metros or public transportation which we really don’t have around here,” Depner said.
“Students are really building their capacity to problem solve and use critical thinking and figure out how to get from point A to point B.
“Students gain a lot of understanding of their own ability to survive and thrive in the face of obstacles and cultural differences,” she said.
Depner said she often encounters two myths about the program: It’s very expensive and it’s only for foreign language majors.
She said that students pay the same tuition as normal, and scholarships and grants are available for other costs.
“Students will still pay the same tuition that they pay at UCA, actually slightly cheaper because they don’t pay all of the on-campus fees that they would when they’re here in a normal semester.”
Students can also “still use all of their scholarships or grants or loans that they typically have while they’re here on campus,” Depner said.
If the student “has a UCA scholarship or maybe they have a Pell Grant or things like that, they can apply those just like they normally would to cover their tuition costs.”
“In addition to that, our office does offer study abroad scholarships for all of our programs. So for semester exchange programs, students can apply for funding. They very frequently get up to $2,000, sometimes more depending on the availability of funding.”
This money can cover “additional costs like airfare” or other personal expenses while they’re abroad.
Depner said other entities, such as the federal government and private scholarship funds can all contribute to help pay.
The second myth, that abroad opportunities are only for foreign language minors, may be based on the idea that all of the universities require foreign language experience, Depner said. However, she stressed that each placement has a different linguistic experience.
“We have partners where you can study fully in English and take all your classes in English. There are a lot of destinations where you can go and you don’t necessarily need to speak another language. The Netherlands is a great one because a ton of Dutch people speak really great English,” she said.
However, “There are some programs like in France and Spain, that we give preference to students who do have previous language study,” Depner said. “We think it can be quite difficult for students to navigate a whole semester without any language study.”
But “there are exceptions” and “if students are interested in any destination in particular, they should always consider coming in and talking to us,” she said.
Depner said there are possibilities to make things work if a student is interested, and that the program is open to all majors and fields of study.
“We’ve had students from all different kinds of backgrounds and different majors do study abroad programs. And we want to see that kind of diversity from around campus.”
A few programs are offered at Education Abroad, including full-term programs and shorter summer programs. Students interested in studying for a term elsewhere in the U.S. can apply for the National Student Exchange program.
Qualifications for each program are different, including GPA and credit hours completed. Depner encourages students to check out the office’s website for all the specifics.
“We have a little over 20 destinations currently, you have lots of options in Europe, France, England, Spain, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, and then opportunities in Asia as well as Japan, South Korea, China, some in North and South America, too. So students can look at that list on our website and see what appeals to them.”
To find out more, visit uca.edu/globalstudy. Students can fill out an interest form, or schedule an appointment to talk about their options.
Interest meetings for the National Student Exchange program are ongoing, with the final one of the semester held from 12-1 p.m. over Zoom on Thursday, Dec. 7. Visit nse.org/exchange/info/ for the link.
