The road less traveled

With spring break just two weeks away and the halfway point of the semester in front of us, as much as we try to resist the urge, we start thinking about what comes next in our Duke careers. Now knee-deep into the semester, battling midterms, summer plans and campus activities, many sophomores are also starting to think about where they will be next semester and the possibilities of studying abroad. My column this week is for you. 

This time last year, the big questions about studying abroad were constantly at the back of my mind. How can I make the most out of my Duke experience? Will I join the approximately 47 percent of undergraduates that study abroad during their four years at Duke, or will I stay on campus to take advantage of every moment here? Where should I go for my semester abroad? Since my first year I assumed I would study abroad, and as a school that prides itself in providing a global education, it’s no surprise that so many students do study abroad. Yet, weighing the pros and cons of going abroad and deciding whether to go or not is challenging, and no one can answer those questions for you but yourself. There are definitely lessons learned abroad that your classes and campus activities cannot teach, but there is no doubt that you can stretch yourself right here on campus.

The first and probably most important thing to consider is that no “typical” study abroad experience exists. Regardless of where you study, your experience will be different from the person next to you, in the same program, as it will be different from the experience of your best friend in a program across the world. It will also be just as challenging in different ways. As obvious as that might sound, it is similar to the notion that there is a typical college experience. We are hard-pressed to think about these experiences as a dichotomy, but in reality each is unique and shaped more by what you make of it than where you are. This was something that took me my entire semester abroad to learn and continues to be an important reminder for me in all aspects of my Duke experience.

When it comes down to choosing where to study abroad, many Duke students concentrate in certain areas of the world. According to the Office for Global Education at Duke, during the 2014-2015 academic year, the top three places to study abroad were Spain, U.K., and Italy. Wanting to take the road less traveled, I chose Salvador, Brazil. Now, a few months into my semester back at Duke, I want to provide some thoughts that I found helpful to keep in mind when making my decision of whether and where to study abroad.

When you ask someone why they studied abroad, you get a wide array of answers, but they all generally revolve around similar themes: wanting a break from the rigorous Duke we are all too familiar with, learning a new language or improving a language, studying and experiencing life in a different place, professional and/or academic reasons or a combination of the above. My reasons also fell into some of these categories, but there were additional factors that contributed to my decision:

• 1)Duke-less: I wanted to do a non-Duke program, with non-Duke students and without Duke classes. For me, part of the draw to studying abroad was doing a program where I would be with students from a variety of schools–not just Duke. Being away from “all things Duke” challenged me to create my own support network and build a community within Salvador. This time apart also reminded me of all the aspects of Duke I take for granted when I am here: the small classes, incredible professors and engaged peers. I came back to campus with a clear mind, ready to dive into the rest of my time back in Durham.
• 2)Experiential: I was much less concerned with the academic courses and credit (although that always helps) than I was with being able to learn more outside the classroom than inside the classroom. This was certainly the case for my time abroad. I had the access to engage directly and grapple with the global health issues I was studying. The opportunity and time to do this would just not have been something we have at Duke.
• 3)Unconventional: One of my goals for my time abroad was to be uncomfortable and to learn to be comfortable with that feeling. Yes, it may sound odd and potentially crazy, but I think this is an important and inevitable part of a semester abroad experience no matter where you choose to go. I can confidently say that spending three and a half months in a city like Salvador, so different than what I am used to, helped me met this goal. I learned valuable lessons, even from everyday activities. Much of my time was spent uncomfortable—maneuvering the transportation system, staying safe on the streets, avoiding food poisoning and attempting to communicate with others in a language in which I was not fluent. However, it is because these moments of discomfort and learning to be okay with them that I appreciate my time abroad as much as I do.

So, to all of you deciding whether to go and where to go abroad, I offer this advice from my own experience and from conversations with other study abroad students: know your own reasons and goals for studying abroad, and then decide what location and program will help you fulfill those goals. Realize that wherever you go, you will be challenged in different ways than your friends spending their semesters elsewhere and in different ways that you are at Duke. And, finally, recognize that with the immense privilege to experience and learn from different cultures around the world, wherever you decide to go, we all have the responsibility to do so with open minds and open hearts.

Sofia Stafford is a Trinity junior. Her column runs on alternate Wednesdays.