By Julia Weis
Berlin, Germany. Seoul, South Korea. Budapest, Hungary. Evan Chambless, 21, has wanted to study abroad in all three of these places. After a two-week trip to Berlin through Trinity’s political science department her freshmen year, she was determined to find the opportunity to go studying abroad for a full semester.
So she went to speak with staff at the Center for International Engagement (CIE) of Trinity and, with their consultation, worked out a plan to study abroad for a semester during her senior year.
Chambless is one of many Trinity students who was able to go study abroad with the help of CIE. The center, launched in the summer of 2015 as a part of Trinity's Trinity Tomorrow Strategic Plan, is making an effort to push Trinity students to expand their knowledge of the world through the classrooms, other campus activities, and studying abroad.
The CIE is led by Katsuo Nishikawa, who is a professor in political science. Nishikawa explained that while many students are interested in studying abroad, they often don’t think that they have the money or time to travel. The CIE is trying to focus their efforts on those students by working with the administration to provide financial assistance and by creating a variety of programs of different lengths to fit students’ schedules.
“We want to change the culture of study abroad,” Nishikawa said.
Some of the study abroad programs offered are summer programs, such as the Costa Rican Ecology Program, the Madrid Summer Internship Program, and the Trinity Japan Program. If students want to go abroad for a full semester, there are exchange programs that connect students to universities in Japan, Mexico, South Korea, China and Taiwan. Trinity also has connections to outside program providers that can bring students to countries all over the world, ranging from Ghana to the Dominican Republic to Greece.
The CIE has also worked extensively to establish the home-tuition model, where the cost to study abroad for a semester is equal to the cost of tuition for a semester here at Trinity, including financial aids. This would allow some students to study abroad who otherwise cannot afford it.
Nishikawa believes students should take the opportunity to travel to unusual places that aren’t the common tourist destinations.
“Why go to a place that you’ll be able to go to in your 30s and 40s, with kids, or as a senior citizen? Paris will always be there. This is the time to go to Bangladesh, to go to South Africa, places you wouldn’t go on your own. Those are the places that have more to teach you,” he said.
The three main areas where the CIE wants students to grow are skills, attitudes and knowledge. Nishikawa argues that these three categories complement each other and go along with the center’s mission of graduating individuals with a capacity to engage with the world.
“We want to make you aware of what place your own culture plays in the world you see. We forget that the way we look at the world is filtered through this lens, and we need to give you skills and be aware of that lens that’s there,” he said.
Ultimately, what CIE tries to develop through studying abroad is the sense of empathy. “Empathy, for me, and for those of us who work here, is the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes,” Nishikawa said. “You understand that an event means something to you culturally, but what does it mean to the other person? The ability to see that, empathize, why or why not they are having issues, is where the communication breaks down.”
Although she initially had her hopes set on something else, Chambless, now a senior studying economics and art, decided a semester in Eastern Europe would be just as rewarding.
“I was almost overwhelmed with how many options I had,” Chambless said. “I ended up choosing Hungary because when I was looking at the things I wanted to get out of a program, I wanted more independence and something that I hadn’t experienced before.”
Sophomore Kara Killinger has never been outside the United States before, and is looking forward to the opportunity to expand her education at Trinity beyond the classroom.
“I wanted to go a full semester because I think you get the better sense of a country when you’re actually living your life there, instead of just there on vacation for two weeks,” Killinger said.
Killinger, 20, will spend the fall of her junior year in Edinburgh, Scotland, continuing her studies of English literature.
Killinger and Chambless both felt that the CIE did their best to help them go abroad, answering their countless questions and working through their visa issues. Now it’s up to them to make the most of their experiences.
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