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Scholarship, you are eligible for
a $1,000 summer study abroad
scholarship. Recipients must
have at least an overall 3.00
GPR, must be taking study
abroad courses which are
approved by A&M and must
register for a minimum of six
credit hours for the summer
study abroad program.
F^izk-Finne says the
benefits of studying abroad far
outweigh the costs that
accompany such programs.
She says that studying abroad
makes learning take on a whole
new meaning since you see
what you’re learning. It makes
one examine personal values
and become more tolerant of
other cultures.
“Studying abroad helps
prepare you for the kinds of
things you face on a job, ” she
adds. “It’s the kind of thing an
employer looks at because that
applicant has done something
really special and can deal with
unforeseen situations. On a
professional level it really makes
you grow tremendously. ”
Ted Callahan, a senior
geophysics major, echoes Rizk-
Finne’s arguments, adding that
studying abroad opens one’s
eyes to the way America is.
“It gives you a backdrop in
which to view things and gives
you perspective,” he says. “It
makes you stand away from
yourself. ”
Callahan was one of the first
A&M students to study at
Stirling University in Scotland
from 1984 to 1985. He got
involved with the program
because he had always wanted
to study abroad and chose
Scotland on a whim when he
walked into the Study Abroad
Office and the flyers for the
program had just come off the
mimeograph machine. He said
that his year in Scotland did put
off his graduation for a year, but
that it was worth it.
“I think about it sometimes,
and I can’t imagine a year of my
life I would have rather spent in
any other way, ” he says.
“There’s no reasonably
imaginable thing I would have
rather been doing. It took up
the time, but I can’t imagine
spending it in a better way. ”
T
A he program that
Callahan participated in was a
reciprocal exchange program.
The Study Abroad Office
currently offers three such
programs with different foreign
universities: Tubingen
University in Germany,
University of Stirling in Scotland
and the Monterrey Institute of
Technology in Mexico. A
minimum grade-point ratio of
3.0 is required for all three
programs, and language
proficiency is a must for
students planning to study in
both Germany and Mexico. All
the programs last one full year
and participants live in
dormitories with the other
students in the university. The
exchange programs are
designed for students entering
their junior year, but the places
are limited, so admission to the
programs is highly competitive.
Students who wish to study
in places where A&M has no
program can find help from
other U.S. institutions,
independent study abroad
programs, or the foreign
institutions themselves.
However, any of these options
could involve problems with
transferring credits, so students
should make sure their overseas
studying will count when
transferred back to A&M.
Finally, the Study Abroad
Office can provide interested
students with information about
international internships which
are available through
Educational Programs Abroad
and Beaver College. Although
interns are not paid for their
work, they gain valuable work
experience abroad and possibly
some academic credit.
C
V^>allahan says that
he has only found one main
drawback in studying abroad —
coming back. He says that it
took almost a year to readjust to
American culture since he
expected to come back to what
he had left behind. Instead, he
found that things looked
different because his
experiences abroad had
changed his perspectives.
He says that he would like to
try studying abroad again, but
that he’s almost scared to.
“I can’t believe that any
place is as nice as that was,” he
says. “There’s a kind of dread
that when and if I go back, it
can’t possibly be as good as I
remembered it. ”
Summer Study Abroad
Hie summer study abroad
programs offered by A&M usually
attract more people than do the
regular semester programs as many
students would prefer not to fall
behind in their courses. The Study
Abroad Office currently is offering a
dozen programs for the summer of
1987.
First, through a joint effort by the
Colleges of Liberal Arts and
Architecture and Environmental
Design, seven separate programs
will be offered in six different
countries.
Italy will host both an
undergraduate and a graduate level
program this summer. Students in
the undergraduate level program
will choose six hours of course
work from the following: ARTS 111
(Drawing I), ARTS 350 (Arts and
Civilization), ARTS 485
(Problems), HUMA 201 (Music
Appreciation: Survey of tie Italian
Masters) and THAR 305 (Theatre
and Civilization). Graduate
students will choose their course
work from ARCH 647 (Recordding
Historical Buildings) and ARCH
685 (Problems). AH courses wtfl be
taught in English by A&M faculty
members, so no previous
knowledge of Italian is necessary.
The students will be in Italy May
20 through June 25 and will study
and lodge at La Poggerina, a
converted monastery outside of
Florence and will travel to Venice,
Parma, Assisi and Sienna. They will
also be allowed free time to travel
to neighboring cities and countries
during their stay in Italy,
The United Kingdom will serve as
homebase for another study
abroad program for
undergraduates from July 11
through Aug 14. The classes
taught include ENGL 231 (Survey
of English Literature), HIST 213
(History of England) and GEOG
489 (Historical Geography of
Britain).
The partidpants will be taking
morning classes at Imperial
College, London, and making
exploratory trips in and around
London. They will also spend two
weeks in Scotland, studying at the
University of Stirling and visiting
Glasgow and Edinburgh, and one
week at Keble College, Oxford,
visiting Bath, Stratford-upon-Avon
and Stonehenge. Finally, the
students will have a chance to tour
the countryside, exploring
Hadrian’s Wall, the Pennines,
Durham, York, Nottingham and
Sherwood Forests, Winchester,
Canterbury and Cambridge.
Graduate students will also be
visiting the United Kingdom during
both summer sessions. Through
the College of Education, graduate
students will spend 4Vz weeks
studying in and visiting London,
Oxford University. Wales, the lake
country of England, and Scotland.
Students participating in the
program during the first summer
session will tke two courses, one in
teaching the basic concepts of
mathematics and tire other in social
studies in elementary and
secondary education. During the
Second summer session program,
students will take two courses in
Educational Curriculum and
Instruction, one which allows
students to study English, Welsh
and Scottish Literature, the other
which emphasizes the comparative
study of English/Language Arts.
The other four programs offered by
the College of Liberal Arts involve
studies of the modem languages,
with Spain, France, Germany and
Russia each playing host to a
program. Students wifi spend six
weeks in the country of their choice
and will gain first-hand experience
in speaking the language of the
land.
A minimal knowledge of the
specific language is a prerequisite
and students will gain six hours
credit for their work. Partidpants
will be living with a host family
during their four weeks of studying
and then travel with the rest of the
A&M group for the remaining two
weeks.
The College of Engineering offers a
short, non-academic tour for
students interested in exploring
engineering abroad. Offered
between the spring semester and
first summer term, the two-week
program involves touring German
and Hungarian factories.
Partidpants stay with local families.
The College of Business
Administration offers students two
chances to study business trends
overseas. During the first summer
session, students will visit Europe
with a program coordinated solely
by the Colege of Business
Administration.
During foe second summer
session, from July 11 through Aug.
7, business students can become a
part of a very special and unique
study program in foe Orient. The
program involves an In-depth look
into the business-government
relationship in Japan, Korea and
Hong Kong. The seminar-style
class (MGMT489: The Orient:
Comparative Legal Environment of
Business) will be combined with
on-site visits to corporate offices,
financial institutions, legislative
bodies and regulatory agendes in
each of foe countries.
Studente interested in any of foe
above programs, or in any other
type of overseas studying, should
contact the Study Abroad Office in
Room 161 BizzeH Hall West for
more information.