Study Abroad
BENEFITS OF STUDY ABROAD/ WHY STUDY ABROAD?
“It will change your life. You’ll come back a new person.” For years, the benefits of study abroad have been described in these words. Everyone in the study abroad field believed it could greatly impact a student’s life, but the exact long-term benefits were unknown—until now.
The first large-scale survey to explore the long-term impact of study abroad on a student’s personal, professional, and academic life shows that study abroad positively and unequivocally influences the career path, world-view, and self-confidence of students.
An overwhelming majority of respondents echoed Valtos’ feeling. When asked about personal growth, 97 percent said studying abroad served as a catalyst for increased maturity, 96 percent reported increased self-confidence, 89 percent said that it enabled them to tolerate ambiguity, and 95 percent stated that it has had a lasting impact on their world view.
The benefit a student can expect to gain from joining a study abroad program goes far beyond the curriculum material s/he will study. The classroom teaching style will be different, so the student is forced to develop their ability to learn. The lifestyle and social rhythms within the walls of the university or educational center will be different, forcing the student to expand their social skills in order to get assistance from tutors, teachers’ assistants, school staff, classmates, as well as to make friends among their peers. This interaction will also be the basis from which the study abroad program’s chief benefit to humanity will emerge, as we will explore later. Full participation in a study abroad program produces new and better opportunities for success as a result.
