Overseas study possible with planning

Some faculty and administrators suggest that when college students study abroad they increase their knowledge and understanding of different cultures while boosting their employment marketability before and after graduation.

So why do only 30 to 50 VCU students take advantage of education abroad programs each semester?

“For the most part, a lot of students at VCU just don’t know where to go or how to find what they are looking for,” said Jennifer Ludovici, director of the Education Abroad program. “There is a lot of money out there in scholarships.”

For instance, more than 30 scholarships are available through the university’s Education Abroad program, the Kappa Phi Kappa Honor Society and various other VCU programs and departments.

EDUCATION ABROAD

Phone: 828-8471
Fax: 828-2552
E-mail: abroad@vcu.edu
www.vcu.edu/oie/eao/w_intro.html

Jeff Wing, VCU’s national scholarship coordinator, said students fail to take advantage of such scholarships as the Fulbright Scholarship, which funds 1,000 study-abroad students each year.

“We have had one Fulbright Scholar in the last two years,” Wing said. “For a campus with 30,000 students we should have upward of 30 or 40 applicants per year. This is a program that I think is way underutilized here at VCU.”

Wing and Linda Smith, a VCU financial-aid counselor, both emphasize the importance for students to prepare for their overseas trip.

“The financial aid is no different,” Smith said. “The most important thing is to start planning early and meet your deadlines.”

Smith advises students to start planning a year in advance if they want to spend a semester or a year abroad and at least six months in advance for a summer program.

She also encourages them to meet with an adviser in the financial-aid office for assistance if funds become a problem.

Ludovici, Smith and Wing contend that a better understanding of the funds and opportunities available to students should provoke more interest in the study-abroad programs. Ludovici encourages VCU students to consider pursuing such a “life-changing experience.”