My guest on this episode of the College Faith podcast is my colleague Dr. Stephen Garrett, Vice-President of Curriculum at Global Scholars. Steve is uniquely qualified to help us understand the benefits and challenges of students taking a semester or year to study abroad, having taught in Lithuania as a “receiving” professor of study abroad students and being a “sending” parent of a son who studied abroad.

In this podcast we discuss:

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• Steve’s perspective as a “sending” parent:
  
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  • How Steve and his wife first began considering with his son the possibility of studying abroad
    
  • The value of studying abroad
    
  • How much parents should be involved in the process
    
  • The importance of realizing that every school offers different study-abroad programs 
    
  • Three different models or ways to study abroad 
    
  • Benefits and cautions about third-party study abroad companies 
    
  • Who might studying abroad not be for
    
  • Other considerations such as the language of the host university and country, the status of the host university, the weather, etc.
    
  • What he wishes he knew as a parent before sending his son off to study abroad
    
  • Allaying parent’s fears of security and safety for students studying abroad
    
  • The importance of registering with the US Embassy in the host country
    
  • Concerns about connecting and making friends in the host country
    
  • The value of the inevitable “failures” while studying abroad
    
  
  
  
• Steve’s perspective as a “receiving” professor:
  
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  • What helps students have a good study abroad experience
    
  • The role understanding different cultures plays in a good experience
    
  • What will ensure the student has a very bad study abroad experience
    
  
  
  

Resources mentioned during our conversation:

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• Your university’s Study Abroad Office (or similar title)
  
• US State Department’s website
  
• The Red Cross
  
• T. S. Eliot, Christianity and Culture: Essays
  
• The Culture Company’s Country Comparison Tool
  
• Andy Crouch, Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling