Study Abroad at Seattle University has had a tumultuous spring, as the recent disaster in Japan caused Seattle U students studying there to return to the States, as well as the canceling of trips for students who were preparing to go. A terror attack in Marrakesh, Morocco led to the French-in-France program cancelling its planned Morocco visit, as the attack occurred at a well-known restaurant that was also on the group’s itinerary.
Loyola University conducted a poll recently at its Rome campus, reporting that 47 percent of the 800 surveyed American students said the Amanda Knox case had affected them as they considered studying abroad. Gina Lopardo from the Study Abroad office expressed surprise at this statistic. She notes that Seattle U students study abroad in a variety of countries – both traditional and non-traditional, as students are currently studying in Syria, Morocco and Egypt, as well as traditional countries such as France and Italy.
Lopardo explains that although major news events may affect students’ decisions about where to study abroad, the true difficulties students may face are more likely to involve student behavior, rather than the political climate of the country.
“Truthfully, we find that some students make very bad choices that impact their time abroad negatively. In other words, it’s their own actions that lead to trouble. Excessive drinking is the number one issue for American students studying abroad and being subject to crime and violence. You just can’t make good decisions if your mind is excessively impaired. This is an issue that is prevalent for all education abroad programs. If you add in the inability to use the native language with inebriation, things can get much worse.”
“I’ve been in the field of international education for about 12 years,” Lopardo said,"and the common fears tend to be basic and have to do with what directly relates to them: not knowing others on the program, being far away from home [and significant relationships], being away from home too long, not knowing the language, living with a host family, not having enough time during the quarter/semester to travel just to name a few. I find students don’t always think in depth enough to identify what their fears may be. Usually there’s the excitement of the experience that overrides the fear factors. That’s what our job is...help them think more deeply about what they want out of a study abroad program. We like to ask students what they want to learn vs. where they want to go.”
Senior Jenna Emerson who studied abroad in Florence, Italy in 2008, at the height of the Amanda Knox coverage, said, “I studied abroad just months after the incident and it affected my decision little to none. It was not until I was fully accepted into the program that someone told me about it and I did not know why it was such a big deal for me, personally. And honestly, I did not know that Italy was getting bad press in the U.S. I was really blind to all of that. My decision was in no way affected by the negative press Italy was getting in the U.S. After living in Italy I think that the press in the U.S. should be different for there is a lot of negative things going on in Italy that should be more widely covered in the U.S”
Emerson recommends that students focus on what they would gain personally from living in their study abroad country as they form the basis of their decisions, rather than press coverage of the country. Of Italy, she says the people “are friendly and welcoming and you get out of it what you put into it. “
