Some students are able to retain and empathize with subject material by looking at pictures and reading texts in literature but after-graduate success is proven to be greater for those who seized study abroad opportunities.
The emotions that run through a person when they touch real tombstones, connect with locals in the market, taste culturally authentic food, or are able to feel how deep the grooves are in hieroglyphics, help bring about a deeper understanding to any lesson.
Students who take advantage and explore norms outside of American traditions and familiarity are better prepared for what is to come after they earn their degree.
These sort of experiences are just a few reasons why Long Beach City College should prioritize bringing back study abroad programs.
Studies show that students who explore what the world has to offer outside of the United States have higher starting salaries and will find jobs quicker than their peers who did not seize the opportunity to travel during their schooling.
A survey conducted at the University of Merced showed that 97% of study abroad participants found employment within 12 months after graduating. That is almost double what their college graduate peers found with only 47% securing jobs one year after graduation.
UC Merced also reports that 100% of study abroad students found a GPA increase, and 90% were accepted into their first or second graduate program of choice.
Unfortunately, LBCC hasn’t run a study abroad program since before the pandemic in 2019, when the group traveled to Paris.
Emad Faltas, a professor of history at LBCC has spent his life traveling and has been leading tours throughout the Middle East and Europe for almost a decade.
“After I finished my first time traveling where I studied for six months abroad, I became a different person,” said Faltas. “I felt I had grown 20 years.”
In order to truly learn material, students should feel a connection to the topics and there is no better way to study foreign material than to become physically and emotionally acquainted with it.
Classroom settings can only describe varieties of culture, but nothing compares to the feeling of culture shock when American norms are broken and the comfort that the nation has to offer is suddenly dissolved.
“It is worth it. In America here, you guys have a big lack of knowing the outside world,” said Faltas.
The greater the risk, the greater the reward and pushing students to take the step to travel to grounds they haven’t yet walked on will bring the highest of rewards.
All of this combined creates a new perspective for students. New perspective minimizes the chances of making decisions with bias, judgment, and conflict wrestling around in the back of the mind.
Seeing the world through the lens of a voyager removes the blanket of comfort and familiarity, and students are forced to break their judgment and are put at the center of diversity. And that is just what study abroad can offer to students.
However, if students want a traveling program that is still able to offer credits towards their degree, there needs to be a vocalized desire coming from their end. If no one asks for these opportunities to be implemented, then who is going to assume anyone truly wants them.
If LBCC wants to continue to help their students reach higher success, higher salaries, and obtain a more well-rounded sense of the different individuals that surround them, then it is vital the school makes study abroad programs one of their top priorities.