This chapter focuses on the importance of internationalstudy in American universities and on how to mentorstudents to develop a global perspective.

International Study for OutstandingStudents: A Case Study

Mary Gage

As the twenty-first century begins we find ourselves living in a world nearlydevoid of boundaries. We turn on the television, open newspapers, cruisethe Web, and gather information from every corner of every continent. Inbusiness, diplomacy, journalism, and strategic affairs, it is now more impor-tant than ever to produce future leaders who understand the intricacies ofother cultures and other languages, and universities have a unique respon-sibility to give their students a sound international education.

The Undergraduate Fellowships Office

My task at The Pennsylvania State University is to work with academicallyoutstanding students. Our previous president realized that some of PennState’s best students might be at a disadvantage because, unlike students atsmall liberal arts colleges, they might go through their whole four years inlarge classes without any personal mentoring. As a partial remedy, he cre-ated the Undergraduate Fellowships Office (UFO) to encourage suitable stu-dents to apply for national scholarships, and in 1992 I was given the task ofcreating that office. I have worked with wonderful young people who are asimpressive as their counterparts at the most prestigious private universities,because often they achieved academic excellence in spite of rather thanbecause of the prevailing undergraduate culture. Often no mentor hadguided them into the laboratory or the library; they have used their elbowsand knees to get research positions. By the time I meet them, they havealready proved themselves self-motivated scholars, committed to their cho-sen areas of study.

NEW DIRECTIONS FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING, no. 85, Spring 2001 © Jossey-Bass, a Wiley company 43

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I try to identify outstanding students early in their undergraduatecareers so that I can alert them to suitable scholarship opportunities. Theadmissions office helps by sending a list of the forty incoming freshmenwith the highest SAT scores. This allows the honors college to forge con-nections to its most academically successful freshmen, and faculty membersmay identify some of their most promising students.

The Case for International Study

While it would be desirable for all students to take part in internationalstudy programs, they will often opt not to participate. Many students are thefirst in their families to attend college. They may come from a one-hundred-acre farm in western Pennsylvania or from inner city Philadelphia; they maynever have traveled outside the state, let alone the nation. Their parents maynot hold passports and the only news they hear about the world is negative.What would be the point of learning a language they cannot imagine using,and maybe delaying graduation and entry into the workforce by a wholeyear just to pursue international study? Why leave friends and familybehind and go somewhere unfamiliar and alien to their sensibilities?

The mentoring process begins with a discussion of how students mightmake the best use of their time at Penn State. There is a tendency for reallybright students to drop their cocurricular activities once they move fromhigh school to college, in order to focus on their studies. However, it’s likelythat they will have a much more rewarding experience if they continue todevelop their interests both in and out of the classroom. International studyshould be regarded as an essential part of a multifaceted undergraduateexperience that includes, but does not take precedence over, cocurricularactivities such as community service, music, writing, and participation insports.

Efforts to get these future leaders to study in another country tie inwith Penn State’s plan to internationalize the university. One goal is for 20percent of any graduating class to have participated in international studyand the proportion has now risen to around 11 percent. In addition to con-tributing to this overarching goal, there is a more prosaic reason for pro-moting international study. If these students decide to compete for nationalscholarships, they will be much more likely to win them if they have a fullrésumé as well as first-hand experience of another language and culture.

There is a choice of 105 international programs giving direct credittoward a degree at Penn State. To study, work, and live in another culture asa young, unattached adult is a mind-opening endeavor, and students willlearn at least as much outside their classes as in them. Because their peersare the most effective advocates for international study, e-mail messages areshared from other Penn State students describing their time in various inter-national destinations as the most valuable experience of their entire under-

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graduate career. Examples of recently returned students sharing storiesinclude an electrical engineering student from Egypt with a transformedview of Arab culture and an architecture student from Prague so inspired bythe buildings that he is applying for scholarships to return. These studentshave a fresh perspective that has transformed their view of themselves andtheir place in the world and the United States.

How to Choose an International Study Program

Once persuaded to consider international study, students should be directedtoward a program that matches their needs. Those who have never traveledto another country or are not yet fluent in a second language may be betteroff on an “island” program, where students travel in a group and are taughtseparately by teachers familiar with the U.S. system of education. They canuse this opportunity to expose themselves to the prevailing culture by join-ing local societies, sharing dormitories with native speakers, or lodging withhost families. Whenever possible, students should consider the option ofexchange programs in which they drop into an international university,indistinguishable from other students. Only by immersing themselves inthis way can they truly learn another language and take part in another cul-ture’s social and academic life, frequently making friends and contacts thatwill last a lifetime.

Exchange programs may be the ideal way for students to study inter-nationally, but there are many complex curricula that allow little opportu-nity to spend a semester or year in another country. For students in suchrigorous majors, an appropriate choice might be short-term immersion inanother culture. Popular and successful short programs, such as a tropicalbiology course in Costa Rica, occur during the winter break or the summervacation. These programs not only give international opportunities to stu-dents who could not otherwise fit them into their curricula, they also allowadventurous students to experience something different. For example, engi-neering students may go on the London theatre program or the Mexicanand Italian art history programs and find refreshing ways to step outsidetheir majors.

Because many professionally oriented students are particularly focused,an international internship is an excellent way to get a taste of the globalworkplace. International business students can learn about British businesspractices at the University of Manchester, England, before experiencingthem first-hand through internships with British firms. National consortiarun inventive programs, such as the Institute of International Education’sGlobal Engineering Education Exchange, where engineers study beforecompleting international internships.

Altruistic students who enjoy helping others through volunteer activ-ity can join programs run by service-learning agencies such as Volunteers

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for Peace. In these programs, students can spend a summer helping othersand gaining international experience at the same time. Students live in workcamps along with volunteers from many other countries, helping commu-nities in ways as varied as building basketball courts in Mexico, organizingconsciousness-raising groups on concentration camp sites in Germany, ordeveloping plays to promote peace in the Netherlands. These varied andindividualized experiences can be intense and even life-altering for the rightstudents, instigating some to seek out additional experience in agencies likethe Peace Corps, and leading them to careers in areas like internationaldevelopment or with agencies such as the State Department.

Finding the Money for International Study

By being offered such a varied menu, students can be attracted to interna-tional programs, but there remains the major problem of paying for thesecostly opportunities. While Penn State keeps tuition for international studyat the same rate as its own in-state tuition, students must consider fares andsometimes higher living costs. They often have to leave behind a job. Iencourage students to start by exploring financial aid within the university.At Penn State, there is some help for traditionally disadvantaged students tostudy overseas and, thanks to a generous benefactor, one large endowmentfinances international travel grants for up to 150 honors students a year.

Some of the external scholarships pay directly for international study. TheNational Security Education Program (NSEP) is for undergraduates who aspireto be future leaders in business, science, engineering, and international poli-tics. It awards money for all kinds of international study in countries outsideWestern Europe, Canada, and Australasia. These stipends range from a sum-mer program for freshmen and sophomores to semester- or year-long programsfor upperclassmen. Students can also benefit from finding suitable offerings atother schools and consortia as well as from Penn State. For example, one fresh-man started her study of Mandarin in Beijing and a junior enrolled in Brazil-ian business internships. The NSEP has a service component, which requireswinners to complete a paid internship with a government agency for the samelength of time that they spend on their international study program. This canbe a useful experience for students interested in strategic and public policy, andcan lead to employment within their area of interest.

Penn State students have had the most success with the U.S. StudentFulbright Program, which sends graduating seniors and graduate studentsto study, do research, or teach in another country for one academic year. Thisprogram is a wonderful vehicle for outstanding students who use their owninitiative to set up an international project. More than one hundred PennState students have gained grants through this program since the Under-graduate Fellowships Office began in 1992. They have studied lizards inCrete, tuba playing in Sweden, stars in Australia, pharmaceuticals in Singa-

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pore, and transportation in West Africa. No matter the field of study, theexperience often leads to long-term relationships between Fulbright granteesand their international mentors.

The Advantages of International Study

International study is certainly an asset for any national scholarship appli-cant. If students have traveled to other countries to further their interests,they already demonstrate concrete evidence of their energy and initiativethat makes all the difference on their applications. Even in purely academicscholarships, international study helps to ensure an applicant’s success. TheJacob S. Javits Fellowship, for example, awards money to cover four years’graduate study in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. One of PennState’s recent winners was an excellent young philosopher, but a unique ele-ment of her application was that during the summer of her junior year, shehad paid her own way to study Greek language and philosophy at the Uni-versity of Toronto.

International Awareness across the University

Through the Undergraduate Fellowships Office, outstanding Penn State stu-dents now win about sixty national scholarships a year, of which approxi-mately one-half are for international study. International study, however, isthe tip of the iceberg when it comes to internationalizing a university: a farmore daunting challenge is to internationalize the campus.

At Penn State, we have to work very hard on this issue since the uni-versity is unusually homogeneous, particularly at the undergraduate level.In the past six years, for example, we have managed to double the numberof international undergraduates at Penn State to approximately five hun-dred. We have to move forward on many fronts to try to enrich our students’international awareness and experience, both in and out of the classroom.The curriculum, the heart of any academic institution, has to be a focus ofour efforts. Minors in international studies, second-language acquisition,and cross-disciplinary courses are all appearing alongside internationalstudy. We are developing international exchange programs not only as thebest way to immerse U.S. students in other cultures, but also as a valuableway to import international students into Penn State. We try to use ourinternational faculty members as well as our three thousand internationalgraduate students to lecture and stage international festivals on campus.One organization on campus encourages volunteers to host internationalvisitors, pairs Penn State students with international students as languagepartners, and sends international students to speak to local schoolchildren.

In these ways we work to enhance international awareness. Our workonly forms one tiny part of a massive structure, but it is intensely rewarding

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to mentor a student from a rural or inner city background who could neverotherwise afford to study in a foreign, exciting atmosphere. We know otheruniversities across the nation are also producing outstanding internationalcitizens, and this knowledge reassures that future graduates will increas-ingly possess the necessary global perspective.

MARY GAGE is an affiliate associate professor in the College of Communicationswho runs the Undergraduate Fellowships Office at The Pennsylvania State Uni-versity, University Park.