Why Study Abroad

Explore the world for a week, a summer, a semester or an entire year. The opportunities are endless.

Career Advancement

• Enhance your résumé and impress potential employers as someone who accepts challenges and exceeds expectations.
• Develop fluency in a second language, which will help you advance in business, education and government.
• Demonstrate self-motivation by exploring and coping with diverse global issues.
• Become cross-culturally literate, ready to engage people and cultures around the globe.
• Seek out new career paths based on your global learning experience.

Educational Enrichment

• Earn college credits while traveling.
• Explore new cultures.
• Participate in global and local communities.
• Gain a new, exciting perspective on the world in which you live.
• Increase your awareness of global issues and cultural differences.
• Learn a new language. But remember, you don’t have to speak a foreign language to participate.
• Experience firsthand what you’ve learned in the classroom.

Personal Growth

• Go beyond your comfort zone and challenge yourself in a different environment.
• Develop self-confidence and become more independent.
• Explore the world and seek new adventures.
• Learn while having fun and making new friends.

 Comments From Faculty and Students

• Provost S. Loretta McGrann: “Travel abroad helps us understand, not only other countries and other people, but ourselves and our own country in a clearer, deeper way because we have the opportunity to see both from perspectives that differ from our ordinary views. We come to appreciate our shared humanity, our shared concerns, our shared challenges and achievements.”
• Business Professor Ralph Nofi, M.B.A.: “A global studies experience is one of the most practical ways to prepare for and participate in the growing interdependency of the world’s nations, peoples and cultures. It will continue to accrue benefits, professionally and personally, long after formal education is completed.”
• Religious Studies Chair Thomas Petriano, Ph.D.: “For me, global studies is about engaging other cultures, discovering the beauty of our world, seeing the harsh conditions under which many in the human family are forced to live, appreciating what I have, realizing I can make a difference, understanding how different and yet how alike all people are.”
• Philosophy Chair Wendy Turgeon, Ph.D.: “Students have traveled with me to Greece, Paris, Ireland and we have been able to use those experiences to reflect on the world around us and our place therein. Walking in the footsteps of Socrates or Descartes, visiting ancient sites of worship and work, we have found a richer meaning in our texts and our own lives.”

Students' Perspectives 

• “Studying abroad allowed me to experience the culture of Italy. For two weeks, I was immersed in the language, people, food, architecture, history, art, economy and geography. It was a life-changing experience from which I have gained the desire and motivation to explore and discover as much of the world as I possibly can.”
• “It was the most challenging and rewarding experience. I loved everything about the culture and people of Spain. I would do it again if I had the chance.”
• “Although it is wonderful to learn about the world in the classroom, there is something unique and gratifying about firsthand experience. One cannot completely grasp the core understanding of a culture unless there is a physical presence.”