What about the future of the industry? How do you think study abroad and international education will change over the next 10 years?
Margaret: I think that international education will become more comprehensive. It will be part of what you do on campus as well as your abroad experience. International education will become just one piece that will get you ready to work in a more global world.
The idea will be “step onto the campus, step into the world.” From day one, we will be thinking about students as people who will work overseas or work with people overseas, at least virtually.
Global curiosity about other histories, cultures, and languages is a must. The abroad experience will be more than something that you do as a junior; it will be a part of how people prepare themselves personally and professionally for their lives.
In the future, abroad experiences will be more thematic than destination driven. Furthermore, we will offer more and more opportunities to explore global problems through field research. Students will learn how to think about and to deal with the problems that matter to them in a more immersive setting than a classroom.
There will be more non-traditional destinations; especially China, and we will offer study abroad for non-traditional students like adults, those with children and family, and those who can only go abroad for a short time.
Adult experience. People will have to think differently about who the typical student going abroad is and accommodate a wider range of students, and offer a fuller range of courses STEM opportunities.
Which destination is most underrated? Conversely, which is most overrated?
Margaret: Europe remains the key destination for U.S. students who study abroad because there are so many popular cities with a lot of study abroad programs. There are 126 programs in London alone. For cities like Istanbul, Santiago, and Beijing, we have to work to show the benefits of these lesser-known destinations.
Students who study there love them, they feel that these non-traditional settings are really interesting. They aren’t as “foreign” as they might have thought, not as far away, not as different as they might have thought. More and more students want that. Students are better-traveled when they arrive at college, so they are looking for something different.
Nevertheless, the places in Europe are more than just what you thought it would be. There are unanticipated differences. If you immerse in culture and language opportunities, there will be things that feel different and things you feel quite connected to that might have been unanticipated.
Why is language learning and cultural immersion important to you?
Margaret: It’s possible now to travel, to eat in very familiar restaurants and stay in familiar hotels, and never have to speak another language because people speak English all over the world. It’s tempting to not learn a second language. There are more non-native speakers of English in the world than there are native speakers.
However, if you don’t struggle to learn a language, you are missing out on the nuances and the way that language reflects and produces a reality that without the language you will miss. What they say in the elevator to strangers, intimate relations between family members, family dynamics all can be misinterpreted when translated. Learning a language expands who you are and how you think about things.
Describe a time when you felt especially proud to be part of the SU Abroad team.
Margaret: I feel proud of it every day. I think the dedication of staff and faculty who want to develop outstanding, rigorous, and creative programs is extraordinary.
I feel that we are all working toward a common goal and common purpose. There is a real commitment to providing students a chance to study. I am proud of the programs we’re developing; for example, the new program in Poland. We are looking into programs in New Zealand and Australia as well as journalism in South Africa.
More and more we are doing important work, imaginative work, collegial work to bring students new and exciting experiences. I’ve enjoyed the people that I’ve met since I’ve been in this job.
What unique qualities does your company possess?
Margaret: SU Abroad is academically rigorous and we have incredible traveling Signature Seminars that are led by dedicated, smart program directors and faculty. There is a commitment to developing and creating increasingly relative, substantive, and contemporary programming.
We have center directors with Ph.D.s who take their roles as intellectual guides seriously and have excellent student support staff. We have beautiful facilities. Students in our programs take classes that are small enough to foster a shared intellectual enterprise with the faculty.
We also have experience, we have been in the business a long time and that experience is necessary when problems or crises happen. We are always working with faculty on campus and other schools to develop new exciting courses and pedagogies. We are very good at teaching that takes advantage of the context in which our programs reside and students have an academic relationship with the site they are in.
We also offer internships at a lot of our sites at NGOs and community organizations as well as exciting opportunities on-site like our edible garden in Florence where we teach immigrant families Tuscan cooking, and to speak English and Italian.