First blog entry

Two weeks ago I moved to Belgrade, leaving behind friends, family, and the student life that had kept me intellectually stimulated, but also incredibly sheltered. In an immediate sense, my move to Belgrade meant leading a life alone in a foreign country.  More broadly speaking, it also meant that I would be joining the almost 200,000 American students who study or volunteer abroad each year as a part of their undergraduate or post-graduate experience.

            This concept of “Study Abroad” has taken on great strength in the States.  Last fall the US Senate declared 2006 the Year of Study Abroad in efforts to bolster international awareness (the resolution itself cites the fact that almost 90% of young Americans cannot find Iraq on a map: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:S.RES.308:).  Every year American colleges and Universities ship students off to all corners of the earth, from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia to Sarayaku, Ecuador. Even Harvard College—whose response to study abroad until recently had been “What can you possibly learn abroad that you can’t learn better at Harvard?”—as demonstrated by its failure to acknowledge credits from foreign universities—has changed its tune.  Just last spring a review board recommended that study abroad be expected of all students.

            As an American who has chosen to live in Belgrade, I clearly see value in experiencing life outside of America.  The direct experience of a different culture can convey more about a place or a people than any book or lecture, and through the process of adjusting to new daily norms, you can learn even more about yourself.  Furthermore, in a world where economies and systems of defense function on an increasingly international level, it’s all the more important for Americans to be able to conceptualize the human experience of people living on the other side of the world.  What better way to instill a sense of global humanity than through bringing cultures together, face-to-face?

            For as valuable as study abroad may be on a conceptual level, however, I question its strength in practice for the growing number of students involved.  Are the hoards of college students being pushed abroad really prepared for the experience?  “Culture shock,” the process of adjusting to a new society on a day-to-day level, can be tough.  If students are forced into the situations, how much can they really get out of the experience? 

            While experience abroad can be eye opening, I wonder if the increasing emphasis on such programs among American universities simply produces farsighted graduates: Americans uninformed about their own domestic problems.  Whether attending college in Chicago’s South Side or in the mountains of western North Carolina, students tend to live in their own bubbles filled with classes, libraries, dining halls, and parties.  These students should be more strongly encouraged to meet and learn about the lives of other Americans from different backgrounds and socio-economic classes.  Perhaps the ideological fervor found in many young students, particularly after going through programs based on experiential learning, could be better applied to social issues with roots closer to home.

            Meeting students from Serbia and Bosnia—students who have minimal opportunities to leave their home countries—has reminded me that, as an educated American, I am very lucky to have the choice to live at home or abroad as I please.  I just wonder if this choice leaves America’s best educated even more removed from the reality of life in America for its noncollegiate populous.