StudentsFebruary 27, 2025

Study Abroad: Where Students Gain More Than International Education

It’s not just the learning. It’s the learning about the learning.

“Studying abroad is one of the most enriching activities any college student can do,” Dr. Mary Sobhani said. “Studying abroad engages students in all aspects of learning.”

Speaking about an international study project that sends college students studying Spanish abroad, UAFS World Languages Department Head Sobhani praised the expanded vision that comes from the global experience.

“Studying abroad promotes one’s sense of humbleness, seeing the world in a new way and one’s own place in it,” she said.

Students considering the study abroad experience meet with their faculty advisor, Sobhani, and Noah Schmidt, International Student Programs and Services Administrator. When students decide where they’re going, they consider various cultural events and notable places to experience.

The students usually spend 4-5 weeks, the length of a summer term, living with vetted host families for a fully immersive experience, Sobhani said.

The students travel independently, and they are responsible for their expenses. Their financial aid can be applied to these costs.

They complete language and culture study, usually in small groups of students with similar levels of language proficiency, groups formed once they arrive at their study-abroad location.

When they return, students “complete a paper in Spanish detailing their learning and reflecting upon the experience of studying and traveling in a Spanish-speaking region,” Sobhani said. “They’re asked to provide advice for future students embarking upon international study, as well as (to) consider how their life may be impacted by the time spent abroad.”

Sobhani said that students of all personality types and learning styles have participated successfully, but she thinks students with a flexible mindset may do best.

Catherine Gonzalez, ’19, was a Spanish major required to spend a semester abroad in a Spanish-speaking country. In the fall of 2018, she attended Universidad Tecnica Santa Maria in Santiago, Chile.

The start of her trip was challenging, Gonzalez said.

“The five months abroad started rough, as it was the first time I had ever been away from home. But the friends I met along the way, the amazing trips, and the wonderful places I experienced made it worth going,” she said. “I was able to meet people from around the world, most of whom are friends I met and still talk with.”

Once she banished her homesickness, Gonzalez got so used to her new circumstances that she did not want to leave Chile, and her return home presented its own challenges.

“Coming back home was an interesting shift from living in a big city to moving back to my hometown of Van Buren,” she remembered. She left Chile as summer began and returned to the cold start of an Arkansas winter. But that wasn’t all.

“After living a certain way for five months, I was experiencing culture shock in transitioning back to life in Arkansas, and falling back into a routine was an experience of its own.”

Five years later, Gonzalez, now coordinator of TRIO and Upward Bound Classic at UAFS, has a different view when she looks back.

“Studying abroad in Santiago, Chile, taught me to take initiative. I went from being shy, with no leadership skills or ability to make decisions of my own, to putting myself out there and gaining the ability to assess decisions and implement solutions. This experience awakened a desire to travel; with four countries (visited), I can proudly check them off my bucket list.”

But Gonzalez notes there are more countries she hopes to see. In fact, she wants to learn more about the travel industry itself and is currently in graduate school to learn more.

Jennifer Verkamp-Ruthven, ‘13, spent a month in Costa Rica in 2011. She said she was so happy she had gone the first time that she went again in 2012. She liked the progress she made in learning Spanish.

“I also came back with a greater perspective of experiencing life abroad and appreciating the similarities and differences of cultures,” said Verkamp-Ruthven, now director of Catholic Immigration Services with Catholic Charities of Arkansas.

“It allowed me to get a good foundation in Spanish, which has given me many opportunities in my career. Traveling, especially abroad, will always open your eyes to different ways of living and make you appreciate those experiences. This certainly happened to me,” she said.

Sobhani believes the students who travel benefit from the experience, and the university benefits from the students.

“The expanded view of the world that the students acquire through study in a different culture leads to individuals who are more easily able to see different perspectives, an important leadership skill,” she said. “As an institution that provides these opportunities, UAFS’s reputation for helping mold tomorrow’s leaders is enhanced.

“Our students gain confidence in knowing they can handle the unexpected, that they can problem-solve with poise, that the world is much more connected than … they had previously thought,” she said.

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