Wednesday, February 20, 2008
While listening to a band during her first night in Prague in early January, Blake Coleman imagined what it would be like if the group were playing on Massachusetts Street.
The Montgomery, Ala., senior, quickly came to the conclusion that seeing them in Lawrence just couldn’t compare to seeing the performance while studying abroad in the Czech Republic.
“Seeing them in a 15th century wine cellar was just so much cooler than anything I’d done in Lawrence,” Coleman said.
Coleman is just one of the many University of Kansas students who study abroad every school year. So many students in fact that the University tied for seventh with Michigan State in a recent study of the percentage of undergraduate students who study abroad.
The study by the Institute of International Education, using data from 2005-2006, showed that about 29 percent of University undergraduate students studied abroad before graduation. The institute praised the University for its short-term programs designed to allow students the experience of studying abroad without committing to a year or a semester.
Pullquote
What: Study Abroad Fair
When: 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Where: Kansas Union, 4th Floor Lobby
Susan Gronbeck-Tedesco, director of the KU Office of Study Abroad, said the number of students studying abroad had nearly doubled since the 1998-1999 school year. During the 2005-2006 academic term, 1,346 University students took advantage of KU study abroad programs.
Gronbeck-Tedesco said the number of participants in University programs had risen every year since 2001-2002. She said the increase in participation was likely because of the variety of programs available to students as well as initiatives by faculty to create new programs. She said many prospective students came to the University expecting to study abroad during their undergraduate studies.
“I think students have changed,” Gronbeck-Tedesco said.
Despite the continued popularity of long-term programs, Gronbeck-Tedesco said many students were opting for programs during winter and spring break because they were more financially viable and lessened the stress of being away from home. She said approximately 64 percent of students opted for short-term programs.
When Coleman studied in the Czech Republic during winter break, her program lasted for two weeks. She said the short-term program worked for her because it wasn’t financially possible to commit to a long-term program. She also said that because it was during a break she was able to arrive early in order to have more time abroad.
“This was a really affordable, practical way to get an abroad experience,” Coleman said. “It’s nice because I didn’t have to miss basketball season or a whole semester of my friends’ lives.”
Andrew Stanley, Overland Park senior, spent a summer in Puebla, Mexico, and a semester in Costa Rica with University study abroad programs. He said starting off with a shorter and more structured program made it easier to adapt to living in Costa Rica for a semester.
“It just kind of gets you excited, especially if you’ve never left the country before,” Stanley said. “Just to kind of go see something new gets you excited to travel more.”
— Edited by Patrick De Oliveira
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