Of course there are limits to what short-term study abroad can do, but in my experience that incredibly important first short-term trip abroad often leads (for many students who might not otherwise have ever grown abroad at all), to additional study abroad and/or foreign language study upon return to the home campus, both wonderful things in and of themselves.

In addition, over and over again I have seen my students make almost unbelievably huge leaps in gaining a greater global awareness in just a few short weeks abroad, even when they are not “immersed” in the local culture. In my short-term literature programs abroad, I choose literary texts that help focus attention on and accelerate my students’ examination and comprehension of cultural differences, cultural assumptions, and that help raise important questions that might not otherwise occur to them in such a short period of time. In addition, their informal encounters with local people they meet and talk to (including the conversations in which they find themselves on the defensive as Americans abroad) can be used to help them learn an amazing amount, and truly open up their global perspective in a very short period of time. I also use journal assignments to help push them to think more deeply about the culture they are observing, as well as to consider the relationship between America and the rest of the world, to grapple with the assumptions people in other countries hold about Americans, and to ask themselves questions about what it means to be a “good” American as well as a good citizen of the world, and why these things are important.

I hope that the Five Tips for Americans Studying Abroad that I have posted on my website will also be a helpful resource for study abroad teachers and their students, one more way of getting the most out of time spent abroad, whether it’s for just a few short weeks, or a longer time.

Tony

Urbino is a World Heritage Site city that retains much of its Renaissance-era charm. It’s off the beaten path but as a college town it has a lively nightlife. Students will have weekends free to travel to Florence, Rome, Venice and other sites in Italy.

Participants will write and edit stories, shoot photographs and design pages for the second edition of Urbino View magazine, an English-language magazine about Urbino and the Marche region. We still have a couple of slots available.

The $3,900 cost include room and board in a University of Urbino dorm, equipment, guidance from a professional magazine editor. Find out more at http://theurbinoproject.wordpress.com/ and http://ieimedia.com.

Emily G

When my brother was in Europe in the fifties, he travelled from Scotland to Belfast before proceeding on to the Republic. On the ferry to Belfast he fell in with a group of Orange men. He sang them some traditional Irish tunes, and they taught him their Orange songs. Say what you want about the evils of drink, but the drinking helped them create a jolly cultural interchange. Throughout his life my brother was quite fond of singing those Orange songs. It was a shame that he could not carry a tune, but he had great fun nonetheless.