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Essay B Library Research Essay
“I think I gained a lot of self confidence while being abroad because it’s such an independent thing,” voiced Kirsten Hoaby, president of Student Association for Living and Studying Abroad (SALSA), in an interview, “you can do what you want, you have to figure things out, you have to go to the store and ask someone to help you with something in a different language. Even just little experiences like that are like huge. There are some days when I literally leave the house and go to the store and come home and it’s the only thing I do all day and it was a huge event to just go to the store. I felt so accomplished after that. Every small thing is an accomplishment. When coming back, I felt like I can do anything. I figured out how to live in another country with a different language, I can do anything now” (30 Jan. 2014). Studying abroad has drawn many college students to partake in and travel around the world. According to Northwestern University, studying abroad is important for students to participate because our world is globally interconnected and to learn to be a “global citizen,” immersing in another culture will allow the students to learn how to analyze global issues with a broader perspective and develop global competence. Students develop a global competence while studying abroad by “developing new perspectives on academic subjects and real-world issues;” “achieve proficiency in a foreign language;” “experience personal growth;” and “develop valuable career skills like critical thinking, independence, and adaptability” (“Why Study Abroad?”). At Concordia College, SALSA is a student organization that notes and reflects upon students’ abroad experiences and what they learned while abroad. SALSA incorporates students that have studied abroad and students planning on studying abroad to help prospective students prepare and allow the veterans to constantly reflect upon their experiences. After doing intensive research on SALSA, I have found the importance of discussion and reflection on
experiences with studying abroad during and after participating in the program to comprehend the beneficial knowledge the students are receiving. With this research, I can weigh in on the discussion of the best ways students can document their transformative experiences by providing evidence through my research with SALSA. Studying abroad offers students a variety of benefits academically, mentally, and cognitively. Numerous studies have been done to test where students have grown after their experience abroad. Natalie Graham and Pat Crawford have conducted a similar study as noted in their essay “Instructor-Led Engagement and Immersion Programs: Transformative Experiences of Study Abroad” where they found that “epistemic and philosophical learning transformations and personal adaptive transformations” occurred the most. Paula Haeder, vice president of SALSA, noted her personal adaptive transformations in an interview: “I can’t even come close to the pain I felt when I came back the first three months after studying abroad. It’s different coming back—people are the same, everything is the same, but I’m different so I see things differently. The problem is that we use the cliché, ‘we found another home’ and it’ll (the host country) always be a part of you because it changes you so much since I had so many changing experiences while there. Right when you get used to it, you’re no longer that stupid American, you’re confident, you have to go back home. It feels like a regression” (30 Jan. 2014). Haeder could tell she had many “transformative experiences” when she came back to a setting where her old self used to exist. Philip H. Anderson and Leigh Lawton agrees to a certain extent about personal transformations in “Intercultural Development: Study Abroad vs. On-Campus Study” that personal growth does happen while studying abroad, but the amount of personal growth depends on the individual. Hoaby mentioned the difficulty of combining her “Argentinian self and American self” when coming back because she knew that she couldn’t be the person she was in Argentina and couldn’t be there person she was before she left, she had to take what she
as a global citizen (6 Feb. 2014). As addressed earlier, the point of studying abroad for a student is to develop him or herself as a global citizen, and he or she is able to do so by learning through their host country about itself and more on their home country through its host country’s eyes. For students to fully grasp and understand how they have personally changed and how they have developed as a global citizen, they must reflect upon their study abroad experiences while abroad and upon returning to their home country. Scholars that have conducted studies on the effects of studying abroad have noted this inquiry and have researched the effects of reflection and what types of reflection are successful. In Anderson and Lawton’s research, they have seen that “a person can witness an event without ever experiencing it” and note that reflection is “the impact of an experience is a function of one’s ability to categorize events” (87). Anderson and Lawton also observe that students have difficulty in finding ways to express the ways they have changed. Greg Downey and Tonia Gray made this same observation in their article “Blogging with the Facebook Generation: Studying Abroad with Gen Y,” stating that students don’t have the ability to express what they have learned and use bland words such as “awesome,” “great,” and “wonderful” to describe their experiences for a lack of better words to specifically describe their experiences (12). SALSA provides a place for students to detect “the impact of [their] experiences” by talking about their memories and observations of how they changed which allows them to re- experience the events. During the reflection meeting, some students did use “bland” terms and phrases such as “it was simply amazing” or “I had an incredible time in India.” Although these phrases do not do justice for their experiences abroad, members voiced at times that they were at a lost for words to describe how extraordinary their experiences were because either words could not justify what they had encountered or they had not fully grasped what they had undergone. Although students find it hard at times to detail their experiences abroad, reflecting upon events
abroad help them find the words and understanding of what has/had happened to them academically, cognitively, and mentally. For students to apprehend what they are learning while studying abroad, the student must do some type of reflection on their experiences. Jeffrey R. Watson, Peter Siska, and Richard L. Wolfel addresses in their article “Assessing Gains in Language Proficiency, Cross-Cultural Competence, and Regional Awareness During Study Abroad: A Preliminary Study” they conducted a study where the tested students before and after the studied abroad in various areas of learning. Their research exhibited that “structured reflection and analysis activities that are carried out throughout the period spent abroad… help students reflect on successful and less successful language encounters, overcome cultural misunderstandings, or draw regional connections” (73). SALSA establishes this “structured reflection and analysis activities” by addressing hard questions such as, “what were your greatest and worst experiences while abroad?”, “what do you miss about your host country?”, and “what have you learned about yourself as a global citizen?” in their reflection meeting at the beginning of Spring 2014 semester. Addressing the difficult questions about varying aspects of the study abroad experience brings forth to the student what they have learned and how they can utilize their new knowledge in their daily lives now. Reflection afterwards is not only needed when one has the study abroad experience. Watson, Siska, and Wolfel spotted that a need exists to provide pre-sessions before studying abroad to help manage culture shock (64). SALSA invites prospective students into their organization and provides different sessions that focus on certain countries that allows the students to receive a preview on the country’s customs, food, transportation systems, and more. Lauren Nelson attended a country-focus meeting on Spain before leaving for her trip. In an email interview, she stated that the meetings were helpful: “we literally just fired off questions and they
a similar experience they had (6 Feb. 2014). Having interaction with storytelling not only helps students relate to each other, they help them internalize and broaden their experiences. Downey and Gray found that by allowing students to read others’ posts did they “gain a broader perspective on variations of culture, notice that they are not alone in their own problems adjusting, and gain greater analytical appreciation of both their hosts and home” (8). SALSA has members that have traveled to India, Spain, France, Scotland, Argentina, and more. SALSA provides an environment to allow the students to gather together where they share their problems, successes, and perceptions on their host country. Creating this environment where students can globally connect establishes the same benefits of the blog environment. Although blogging is an important way for students to reflect, other ways (like orally conversing, the basics of SALSA) exist and prove to be just as helpful as blogging. In conclusion, studying abroad provides many benefits for students. Some of these benefits include language proficiency, regional awareness, and cross-cultural competence (Watson, Siska, Wolfel 63). To ensure students are understanding what they are learning, “they need to be able to communicate (verbally, non-verbally) and express what they have learned both during and after the study abroad experience” (Brewer 196). Some believe writing or blogging is the best way to reflect upon experiences (Downey, Gray 5). SALSA has proven that there are more ways to reflect upon experiences—oral reflections are SALSA’s medium for reflection. Through this research should colleges notice and suggest to their students to do some sort of reflection while studying abroad to enhance the student’s learning experience, an experience they can take with them for the rest of their life.
Works Cited Anderson, Phillip H., and Leigh Lawton. "Intercultural Development: Study Abroad Vs. On- Campus Study." Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal Of Study Abroad 21. (2011): 86-108. ERIC. Web. 23 Mar. 2014. Brewer, Elizabeth. "Study Abroad And The City: Bringing The Lessons Home." Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal Of Study Abroad 20.(2011): 195-213. ERIC. Web. 23 Mar. 2014. Downey, Greg, Tonia Gray, and (AARE) Australian Association for Research in Education. "Blogging With The Facebook Generation: Studying Abroad With Gen Y." Australian Association For Research In Education (2012): ERIC. Web. 23 Mar. 2014. Graham, Natalie, and Pat Crawford. "Instructor-Led Engagement And Immersion Programs: Transformative Experiences Of Study Abroad." Journal Of Higher Education Outreach And Engagement 16.3 (2012): 107-110. ERIC. Web. 23 Mar. 2014. Haeder, Paula. Personal Interview. 30 Jan. 2014. Hoaby, Kirsten. Personal Interview. 30 Jan. 2014. Nelson, Lauren. Email Interview. 9 Feb. 2014.
