Dear
diary: Study abroad stories
by
Jessica Petzel, posted Sept. 17, 2007
Balloons fluttered. Voices swirled.
Excitement hung in the air.
The College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources held
its Study Abroad Fair twice at the beginning of the month.
As new students gear up to take their studies adventuring,
other students and professors reminisce about their own past
experiences.
Beauty of Culture
“There are two kinds of Americans: those who have been
to Thailand and those who have been several times,”
said Robert Sites MU professor of entomology. “All year long, I look forward
to the next time I can go to Thailand.”
Sites is leading the three-week Thailand
program during the winter break and has led the program since
2000.
Before leaving, students take a preparatory
class where they learn just enough Thai to negotiate the markets,
have a speaker from religious studies to give background of
Buddhism, get scuba certified and start learning about biodiversity
and conservation, which is the theme of the program.
“We take care of all the academics before
we leave,” Sites said. “That way when we get off
the plane, everyone is up to speed.”
Sites and 15 students will start in the capital,
which Sites calls the “cultural crown jewel.”
The group will also visit the national park to perhaps glimpse
one of the four to eight tigers that roam the open park,
see wild elephants and experience the bird fauna all in order
to better understand biodiversity and conservation.
“Once we get there, I don’t burden
them with quizzes and exams,” Sites said. “I just
want them to soak up the experience.”
The next
stop is the zoo, where one of Site’s friends runs a
clouded leopard breeding program. Students from last year
who interacted with the program, which is run by the Smithsonian
Museum, had the chance to hold four leopard kittens.
 |
A resident of Khao Yai National Park. (photo courtesy Robert Sites) |
 |
| Kate Meinhardt, a senior studying animal science,, shows off her muscles during a dive. (photo courtesy Robert Sites) |
The
exotic island vacation hotspot is next on the itinerary. There,
students will work with mangrove tree conservation. In the
past, students have gone sea kayaking among the trees’
aerial roots as they learn that the tide rises to feed the
trees, allow fish to swim among the roots and how the trees
prevent soil erosion.
“People who go to Hawaii don’t
know what they’re missing,” Sites said.
Sites’ favorite part of the program
is the next stop, an island where students have used coral
fragments to build a reef to bring the topic of conservation
to life. Groups in the past have also gone on dives to reefs
damaged by human mismanagement and healthy reefs to compare
and contrast the state of the coral, colorful fish and other
sea creatures.
“This is it. Students that hesitate
committing to a program like this because it’s so far
or so different, if they can just break past that mental barrier,
they’ll regret not having done this earlier,”
Sites said. “It opens up an entire new perspective of
thinking.”
Snapshots of a Different Life
Laura Denker, a senior studying agricultural education leadership,
studied in Ireland. The program is four weeks at the beginning
of the summer.
Denker said she always wanted to study abroad
but was leery of the language barrier, so she wanted to go
to a country that spoke English. Her love of Ireland’s
history also motivated her.
She really enjoyed sightseeing, like holding
a $400,000 golf trophy and visiting several historic sites.
Students going this year will get to kiss the Blarney stone,
see several farms and view the spectacular scenery as they
move from site and site, according to the brochure.
“It’s one of those things that
you can’t really show in pictures and explain,”
Denker said. “Like a 600-foot bluff. That was amazing.”
“I loved the time when we were eating
breakfast at a farmhouse and saw a rainbow in the field. A
bunch of us went running outside to chase it. The farm lady
said, ‘Oh, you Americans, there’s not such thing
as leprechauns. But you chase them every time.’”
She was impressed by the knowledge of residents,
especially the agriculture people.
“It
made me think of a different perspective of individuals, more
about world and culture. They are very efficient in what they
do. They can produce as much as we do with ours. It taught
me that you might not have as much as everyone else, but as
long as you’re smart, you can do just as well.”
Value
of Community
Lucas Naeger, a senior planning on going into the Peace Corps
after graduation in December, spent the first semester of
his sophomore year in South Africa.
“Ever since I was a little kid, I always
wanted to go to Africa,” Naeger said. “I went
on a 10-day trip to Europe after high school, and it just
didn’t do it for me. There was too much fast paced touring.
It was like, it’s another castle, it’s big, it’s
beautiful, I don’t care.”
Naeger said he wanted the individualistic
experience where he actually got immersed in the culture in
order to learn about and enjoy it. With the semester program,
he had every weekend off to make his own decisions about travel,
what he wanted to get involved with and generally build his
own program.
“The trip changed my viewpoint on the
world and how it works,” he said. “A lot of the
culture there is not as materialistic as American culture.
The world there doesn’t depend on how much you have.”
Another reason Naeger said he loved South
Africa was because of the relationships. He said that American
relationships are location or circumstance specific, like
a friend from work or a friend from class. In South Africa,
they have much more endearing and close relationships.
“I loved how they used the words brother
and sister,” he said.
While
there was no typical day, classes usually started at 7:30
a.m. and Naeger had practicals, or lab classes, where he worked
at the dairy or chicken or other farm, before class from 5:30
a.m. to 7 a.m. Classes were not set up the same way they are
in the states, but they would meet at different times all
throughout the week. Students are locked into courses for
the semester, which allows the university to align the classes
wherever they want them to best fit the professors.
“There’s
not as much flexibility in coursework as there is here,”
Naeger said. “There are three times as many students
with half the faculty, so availability with professors is
a lot lower.”
Hurricane Katrina occurred while Naeger was
gone and he said it was fascinating to experience that without
the perspective of U.S. news and publicity.
“I think going abroad changes your life,
one way or another,” Naeger said. “It changes
your view of other worlds and culture, and your world. You
get a chance to view your culture, your society from an outside
perspective.”
Bring It Home
Roy Robinson, program director of CAFNR’s study abroad
program, has been on many of the opportunities the program
offers students.
“I just love it,” he said. “I
changed when I studied abroad. I was a new person when I came
back, in a better way.”
Robinson named off the many benefits for
students studying abroad, which include advanced career opportunities,
maturity, learning to deal with people from different backgrounds,
all besides the general education.
He said studying abroad gives you the mentality
that if you can overcome the fear of the unknown and accomplish
goals in unfamiliar territory, “there’s no stopping
me when I get back in the states.”
