Study Away

Parents

We hope this experience for your student will be fulfilling and transforming. Students comment on their experience being completely life changing. It can affect their academic, professional and personal aspects of their life.

The student has been instructed to:

• Seek financial assistance
• See their advisor for assistance in choosing courses
• Attend an orientation before departure
• Keep in contact with the study away office on any new developments
• Provide a copy of their passport and flight schedule
• Request a transcript from the host school two weeks before departure
  
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  FAQ

Promoting Safety In Study Abroad: Students, Parents, And Sponsors All Have A Role To Play by William Hoffa

From The Parent's Guide to Study Abroad by William Hoffa
(Washington DC, NAFSA, forthcoming, April 1998).

Parents are understandably concerned about the safety and security of their children, wherever they may be, but the prospect of a daughter or son being thousands of miles away in a foreign land may foster new levels of apprehension, leading to questions such as the following.

1. Is traveling and living in another country inherently more dangerous than staying home?
2. Are some countries safer than others?
3. Within a single country, do study abroad programs differ in terms of safety and security?
4. What can and should parents be able to expect in way of assurances about safety and security?
5. How can parents help to minimize risks and maximize the safety and security of their children?

First, a comparative perspective. The United States is known around the world as a comparatively dangerous country, and our street crime statistics back up this view. No country has as many guns in the hands of private gun-owners, nor as many gun-related injuries and deaths. U.S. rates of drug and alcohol abuse are among the highest in the world. Although tourists and other international visitors (including 450,000 degree-seeking students) come in great numbers to visit the United States, many arrive concerned about what they think they will find.

Yet, the perception that life at home is still safer than life "over there" leads some to conclude that maybe our students should stay home, "where they belong." U.S. media coverage of the rest of the world focuses, often sensationalistically and melodramatically, on overseas political upheavals, violent strife, and natural disasters, rather than on positive political and social developments or on the richness and human warmth of life as it is actually lived. One of the first responses students who study abroad have to their overseas environment is how "normal" life seems and people are, in spite of the cultural differences. That discovery comes when they sweep away stereotypes and misperceptions, seeing things with their own eyes.

A sober and realistic assessment by students and parents of safety risks associated with any region, and the study abroad programs that take place there, is therefore strongly advised. Parents should be duly skeptical if a program or institution suggests that its offerings are completely free of risk, or if its representatives seem unwilling or unable to discuss the risks involved.