|
news
Travel
beckons students
Cassady Jeremias
Summer On-line Forty-Niner
It is hot outside.
It is so hard to come to class in July and sit through lecture
with your skin stuck to the tiny plastic seat beneath you.
Imagine, with a little bit of planning and motivation, you
could be sitting on the rocky coast of the Italian Riviera
eating gelato, sipping wine and getting credit for taking
Italian. Fourteen Cal State Long Beach students are doing
just that, joined by 5 San Diego State and 12 Cal State Fullerton
students as part of the CSULB Study Abroad Center’s first
ever summer program.
Historically, summertime
is not the most popular time to travel with students, said
Jeff Webb, a student assistant in the Study Abroad Center.
“Students think summer is a good getaway, but it ends up being
more expensive for the amount of time away than in the fall,”
he said.
Sure rent is still
due, and you may miss your significant other, but as Webb
points out, “in most cases, it is less expensive to study
abroad than to stay here.”
This is in part
due to the high cost of living in Southern California, compared
with many foreign countries.
Cell phones are
pre-paid for like phone cards in London, says Suzanne Waterbury,
an international studies major who studied for one semester
in London. “They are so cheap to buy over there. It’s around
20 pounds for an orange one. That gives you so many minutes.
You never end up with a bill,” she said.
Other places may
be more student friendly, as in Europe, where taking busses
and trains are a much more common form of transportation,
costing a couple dollars a day at most. Compare this with
car payments, gas, insurance, and parking permits here.
Imagine giving
all that up for one semester, or one summer. You may come
back and decide to never drive again. For students, there
is hardly a better time to see the world than now, when we
can receive credit for it too. During the semester there are
opportunities to go to almost any country in the world. If
you plan it right you can still graduate in the same amount
of time.
Right now some
CSULB students are in Cuba, some just got back from Brazil,
and starting in the fall 2002 semester, some will be going
to London. Some exchange programs go through the department
that the trip is for. For example, those in Cuba went with
the Chicano/ Latino studies department and teachers from that
department. The Brazil program was a two-week trip centered
around a world press class, a required class for the journalism
department, taught by Professor Raul Reis, who hails from
Brazil. The trip is over, but he and a few students stayed
behind for a while.
Waterbury said
she liked her experience in London so much, it was what made
her decide to major in international studies. “I liked learning
about other cultures. They were more aware of what is going
on in other parts of the world, the press was more intense.
They covered U.S. elections for president, Bush and Gore got
major coverage” she said.
Wherever you go,
traveling provides perspective on everyday life once you return.
International students must see some benefit in traveling,
as CSULB hosts around 1700 right now. Compare that with
the 40 to 50 CSULB students a semester who study elsewhere.
It looks like we need to get traveling. Webb has an explanation
for the low numbers of travelers out of CSULB. He explains
that CSULB is a commuter school, most students live off campus,
work full time and may be married. This is an obstacle, but
the Study Abroad center is an entire department dedicated
to the traveling urges of the student body. Indeed, certain
departments have strict rules for what classes can be taken
abroad and used for credit here. Most departments are supportive,
especially with general education credits and core credits.
Waterbury advises
that “it is probably better to do it when you are not so far
along; some of my G.E.’s had already been covered” she said.
A benefit of going through the Study Abroad Center is the
security of having an actual Cal State University center on
campus at the foreign school of your choice. This means the
transcripts there are linked with ours here, a great security
for the first time traveler, or for those who don’t want to
worry about credits transferring.
Most of the students
in Florence right now recieved financial aid, Webb said. This
is necessary considering the price tag of nearly $6000 for
8 weeks. Fall trips can be more cost effective, imagine $6000
for four or five months instead.
So, for $1000 a
month, sublet the apartment, garage the car, suspend the gym
membership, newspaper delivery and get a scholarship. Bingo,
there you are, snowboarding during the day in the Andes Mountains
of Chile and surfing at night in the Pacific Ocean, as Krystal
Solorzano plans to do in her junior year.
Solorzano, an art
major, began planning a trip her freshman year, and is still
not finished planning as her sophomore year begins. She chose
Chile because she wanted to be immersed in Spanish, and the
culture and art of South America. She will be gone for a year,
and plans on renting out her room and giving her car to her
younger brother who will be 16 by then. It takes some
preparation to go for that length of time, she had to pass
intermediate Spanish with a B or better, take two Latin American
courses, and have a 3.0 GPA. She is choosing to stay with
a family in Chile instead of renting an apartment because
she wants to be immersed in the culture.
For her year abroad,
Solorzano said she estimates the cost to be around $11,000.
She says she spends around $700 a month here for everything,
not including school. That is $8400 a year to live, not including
tuition. The $11,000 for Chile includes airfare and tuition
at a private institution in Santiago. It also includes money
for the host family to provide meals for her and some still
left for personal expenses. Students also have ten weeks off
between semesters, in which she plans to travel around to
other nearby countries. Solorzano is receiving grants and
scholarships to cover her trip.
If Waterbury had
to do it again, she would have applied for financial aid.
It may be easier than you think to get a little help.
“I got different stories from the school and from the people
I traveled with,” she said.
Stacy Tamburino
and Carla Graichen both won $1000 scholarships for their trip
to Florence.
However there is
also work to be done. Professor Carlo Chiarenza, a native
of Italy and a professor at CSULB is teaching Italian Cinema
to the travelers in Florence. They are also learning art history,
European Literature and taking Italian language classes. They
will spend a certain amount of time in class, broken up with
overnight and day trips to Venice, Naples, Pompei and Rome.
These lucky students also observed St. John the Baptist Day,
a local holiday on June 24 in which CSULB had classes, but
the Students in Florence had free.
However, if these
places don’t suit your fancy, the Study Abroad Center has
a list of countries sure to pique the interest of even the
most choosy student traveler. China, New Zealand, Chile, Australia
and Taiwan are few among plenty of others. There are some
places to avoid right now, as anyone who follows current events
will tell you, but according to Webb the figures of traveling
students are actually the same as before September 11. “It
has been some time now, and billions of people have made it
to Europe and Asia,” he said.
Many students are
here from other parts of the world too. Paul Lewis, the director
of the center says most international students come from Japan,
Korea, Taiwan and China. There are also many from the Middle
East, and up to 70 different countries.
John Moutou, the
Associate Director for International Student Services, says
the majority of international students study business, engineering
and the arts. But anyone can benefit from it. Just stepping
into the Study Abroad center forces you to soak up some traveling
flavor. The walls are covered with serene pictures of lakes
and mountains from far off places, along with hints on how
our international students can open a bank account, apply
for a social security card or a California driver’s license.
Most international students have good things to say about
the experience. “We tend to hear that overall, their experience
at CSULB has been a positive one, and they feel that they
are better off as a result,” said Moutou.
The center is located
in Brotman Hall and is full of staff and propaganda to get
students to travel. The purpose of the center is to make it
as easy as possible for students to get along in a foreign
country, and it provides a great resource for visiting students
from out of the country. What better way to study so many
subjects than going to another country. If an opportunity
comes up, grab it. It will be well worth the time and money,
and keep in mind your fellow students back here at home stuck
to our seats in class in mid-July.
|
|
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Search our site
DEPARTMENT
OF
JOURNALISM
ONLINE 49ER
DEPARTMENTS
ADVERTISING
ADMINISTRATION
DAILY
49ER ALUMNI
SUBSCRIPTION
SERVICE
GIVE
FEEDBACK
|
