Students that study abroad are having global experiences outside of the classroom. Otterbein is beginning to make efforts to extend this opportunity to all of its students.
There are many different study abroad opportunities coming up in the spring. Otterbein will be enrolling students in courses that offer the opportunity to travel to Malawi, Vienna and Uganda in the near future.
Students will take a course, generally meeting once a week in the spring semester, in order to travel in May. According to the Center for International Education and Global Engagement (CIEGE), the program offers students credit for studying abroad in different subjects. This flexibility allows students to get credit for INST, DYAD and SYE courses. Trips through Otterbein generally cost around $3,500, not including the institution’s course fee for the four credit-hour course.
At Otterbein, students traveling abroad will participate in many different activities. Some trips are educational and involve visiting tourist attractions while others are based in a service project. Students studying abroad in Malawi will design their own service project to complete. Previous projects done abroad involved raising money or health awareness, and one future project will build classrooms overseas. Some students studying abroad will be placed with host families for a period of time to build lasting relationships.
Otterbein’s mission statement describes the development of locally and globally engaged citizens and studying abroad is one way to accomplish this. The global education starts with integrative studies courses, so studying abroad is one way to increase the span of Otterbein’s global goals.
Glenna Jackson of the religion and philosophy department has traveled abroad with over 120 different students on roughly nine separate trips, and many students learn about studying abroad while taking one of her courses. Jackson has been to Africa on seven Otterbein trips and will be returning with students to Malawi in the fall.
“Everything that we learn in the classroom, whether faculty or students, suddenly it becomes real, it becomes alive when we go someplace else,” Jackson said.
Jackson said she believes in offering all students an international experience within a global education. She also said that it is Otterbein's responsibility to give students these opportunities regardless of their circumstances.
A group of roughly six Otterbein students have been focused on raising awareness of studying abroad. The new Guaranteed Opportunity Fund (GO Fund) will allow incoming freshman who are accepted into certain majors to receive a grant of $2,500 to study abroad during their junior year. These six students have been talking to FYS classes and students all over campus about this window of opportunity that Otterbein has given its students.
Matt Hofacre, a junior focused on globalization, said he hopes to see Otterbein become the leading university in global education. Hofacre said he is working toward sustainability in the place he studied abroad, Malawi. He said he wants to raise awareness so that students will continue to go to Malawi and other countries that need the help Otterbein students could provide.
“If you have even an inkling that you want to study abroad, run with it,” Hofacre said. He also said how important it is to be asking questions to make sure this is something you want to do. After all, once you get to the airport, there is no backing out.
With trips averaging $3,500, many students cannot afford to study abroad. The GO Fund is the framework for making these opportunities available to students of all different backgrounds. Providing this grant is Otterbein’s hope to make studying abroad more accessible to all its students.
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