For the 14 students at this university awarded a national study abroad scholarship, their experiences in countries such as Egypt, Tajikistan or Russia are much more than a year-long vacation.
The Boren Scholarship and Fellowship gives students about $20,000 to live and learn in many countries where the university’s Study Abroad Office doesn’t have an official program, said Francis DuVinage, the director of this university’s National Scholarships Office.
The students undergo a lengthy application process for the highly selective program, and this year, this university had the highest percentage of student applicants admitted, DuVinage said.
“These are just not typical places study abroad goes,” said senior government and politics and history major Emily Burke, who is studying in Turkey. “It gives students the opportunity to not only learn in a different country but learn a different culture — it gives an international flavor to education.”
University President Wallace Loh said programs like this align with his vision of creating well-rounded, internationally versed students. While the National Security Education Program funds the Boren awards, this university’s National Scholarships Office is helping a growing number of students apply to receive financial assistance that allows them to take time abroad.
“One of the [strategic goals] is to make this a university without borders, especially being so close to the nation’s capital. We want to bring the world to College Park and have the international perspective permeate the curriculum,” Loh said. “We want to have a much more systematic plan of making this a global university.”
The students are placed in a hyper-intensive learning environment where they’re submerged in the country’s culture, said Rebecca Hammer, a senior economics and finance major studying in China.
She said a typical day consists of four hour-long classes, decreasing in class size, and ending with a one-on-one session with a professor.
“After that, it’s just study, study, study, study,” Hammer said, adding she is usually required to memorize between 60 to 100 new words per night and a short story, all in Chinese.
While Hammer said the workload is intense, she said knows the experience will be more rewarding than her extracurriculars, including the marching band, Images and the Honors College.
“This is just a completely different experience,” she said. “I’m very glad I did because it’s something that you probably only have one chance to do.”
Sarah Straney, who is studying in Russia, said while the country is drastically different from the United States, she said she’s glad she picked an atypical study abroad location.
“Most people want to study abroad somewhere pristine,” she said. “Russia is gorgeous, but it might look to outsiders a little bit sketchy, if you’re not used to it.”
romas at umdbk dot com
