Check out Abroad View's spring 2008 magazine. Pick up a copy at participating college study abroad offices and international centers.
Thinking about going overseas? Check out these resources:
•Planning your experience
•Resources for going abroad
•Volunteering and service-learning tips and links
•Travel basics
•Cultural preparation
•Articles about homestays
•Money matters
•Study abroad programs
•Work and intern abroad
•Health and safety tips
•Learning a language
•How to minimize your environmental and socio-cultural footprint
Returning from abroad? Build on your overseas experience:
•Surviving cross-cultural re-entry and readjusting to life at home
•Career pathways: putting your international experience to work
•International fellowships
•Resources for civic engagement and activism
•Start your own initiative or join students who are working for global change
•Become a social entrepreneur!
Africa //Asia // Central and North America // Europe // Middle East //Oceania //
South America
Check out the I Am section for stories and experiences from diverse perspectives.
It Was and It Wasn't
Myth #1 – you have to be rich to travel. The furthest I agree with this statement is that one must be rich in the breadth of one’s thinkingto fully experience international travel. I am from a middle-class working family and nearly every opportunity I’ve had to travel internationally has come from a desire to “go.”
Exploring Ethnicity in Paris
I’m one of many American students in Paris, and one of twenty in my program. But unlike the typical American student studying in Paris, I’m not white. I’m the only minority in my group of twenty students, and one of the few at Reid Hall, a center for a handful of American colleges. It’s still shocking to me that this imbalance exists and that no one talks about it.
Pushing Beyond the Limits in Argentina
I grew up in a rural Iowa community near the town of Larchwood (population 788). At the age of 16 months, I acquired a spinal cord injury when I was run over by a tractor in a farm accident. Although my mind at the time was too young to comprehend it, this was the defining moment of my life. Having a disability, especially for young people, requires taking risks and diving blindly into challenges on a daily basis. In order to define my personality and succeed, I had to go above and beyond the achievements of my peers.
Generational Highway by Remy Mansfield A documentary piece about the building of a highway in Laos by China and Thailand that causes a generational conflict amongst the locals that the creator interviews.
Not Just Numbers by Komal Garewal, Ali Schaffer, Erin Rockey and Prerna Seth
A documentary that conveys not only statistics, but the personal stories and jarring images of women around the globe who are the victims of hate, injustice and violence. Made in a 2006 First Year Seminar, Story and Ritual, in affiliation with the Women and Global Peace Organization.
Brasil by Britt Neuhaus
A creative video short about Brazilian culture and politics, which the creator put together with video clips, images and stories from her semester abroad in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
MAGAZINE HIGHLIGHTS
Tastebud Tourism
It’s hard to beat the pizza in Naples—a slightly charred crust provides a perfectly crispy base for fresh tomatoes and gooey mozzarella. Unless, of course, its competitor is a bowl of pho in Vietnam—clear broth steaming while slippery noodles slide soothingly down your throat.
Artistry Abroad
Creative expression crosses boundaries. Immersion in the artistic environ-ments of cities like Paris and Florence can provide you with an opportunity to realize your creative potential.
Finding Volunteer Work Abroad Looking for an inexpensive and worthwhile experience volunteering internationally? You may want to follow in Michelle Hunscher’s footsteps and organize your own experience as an alternative to an organized program.
Peru's Seeds of Hope
“Hola profesora!” the children say, as they scamper around the room giving each of us volunteers a kiss on the cheek. I may have limitations with the Spanish language, but I know what the ritual means.
Finding a Rhythm: For one dancer, the fears and uncertainties of living in Madrid fade with the beat of salsa music.
Clicks & Smiles: A volunteer at a South African hospital learns more than the skills he needs to practice medicine.
Midnight Matzoh: A Jewish-American student in London redefines her Passover traditions in one late-night meal.
How the World Sees America: Recent Harvard graduate Amar Bakshi is traveling to Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, the Phillipines, South Korea, Columbia, Venezuela, and Mexico as a
blog reporter for the Washington Post’s “PostGlobal” site.
Fulbright-mtvU Blog:
Aaron Shneyer is in Jerusalem developing a year-long music program that brings together Israeli and Palestinian high school students; Larnies Bowen is studying Panamanian Reggae music as a vehicle for understanding West Indian-Panamanian identity, culture, and collective experience; Phally Chroy is studying the rediscovery of the Golden Era of Cambodian music, and James Collins is in South Africa to create a documentary film exploring the impact and influence of marching band music on under-privileged South African youth.
Peace Corps: What's It Like to Volunteer Weblogs: Ian Jobe, 23, is serving in Georgia as an English teacher; Erika Kraus, 23, is working as an environmental action volunteer in Benin, West Africa; Jeremiah Marquis, 24, is working in Paraguay as a municipal services volunteer; and Michelle Ross, 28, and her husband Thad are both volunteers in rural China, where they are teaching English at a college designed to train future teachers.
Adventures in the Land of a Thousand Hills: Washington and Lee Senior Logan Gibson’s summer 2007 travels took her up Kilimanjaro, through the Serengeti, and over to Kibungo, Rwanda, where she used a Projects for Peace award to help set up a small library.
Blogging the World: This Middlebury College group weblog features “The Wild East” blog, “Mollie in Russia,” and “The Middle East and More!”
Voices from Cornell Abroad: Explore life in Paris, Beijing, and Dakar through postings by Blog Journalists Jill McCoy, Amy Lin, and Emily Dally.
Meg in China: Abroad View’s microfinance columnist Meg Young writes about “a year in the trenches of development, idealism, and rabbit dung.”
The Red Gate: Daniel Knowlton, Abroad View’s Teaching English in Japan columnist, writes about living and working in Japan, with a focus on adapting to Chinese culture.
Fueled by Rice: Bloggers from a musical cycling team write about their encounters with local people as they “spread the spirit of tolerance and cooperation around the world, one pedal stroke at a time.”
Living Routes: Students at eco-villages in India, Mexico, Scotland, Peru, Senegal, and Brazil write about issues of sustainability and community.
