With only one percent of undergraduate students studying abroad it might not seem like an affordable opportunity, but some students are willing to take on the challenge.
“These are the children; this one is the newest wife, she’s wife number nine,” said senior biology student Brooke Collins.
She said she took a nontraditional approach to learning when she spent three weeks in East Africa.
“A typical day to study in Tanzania could have been off of the island of Zanzibar, the coral reefs or on the volcanoes,” Collins said.
She said she worked during the school year and summer to save money for the trip but also received support from her parents and the study abroad fund.
Collins said “every penny is worth it… because I have experiences and pictures and all these stories to tell.”
The chances of a student receiving 100 percent of financial aid for the cost is small, but faculty at the office of study abroad tell students to visit with an advisor to talk about the different funding opportunities.
Mark Cox, Peer Advisor at the Office of Study Abroad, said that financial aid is available based on merit, need, or diversity.
“It is not about how much your eligible for but it’s really about how much effort toward getting funding,” Cox said.
He said that “a lot of people can go abroad and they even spend less to go abroad than what they would pay to go here.”
Brooke Collins said she learned more from her experiences than if she would have learned the material from a textbook.
“I would do it all again tomorrow and go back if I could,” she said.
Collins recommended students get outside the classroom and study abroad.
The Office of Study Abroad offers a Hogs Abroad info session every Tuesday and Wednesday at four p.m. at the Center for World Languages in J.B. Hunt.
-Courtesy of UATV Reporter Nanci Flores