Ella Sweigert, director of education abroad, (left) and Tanith Fowler Corsi, assistant vice president for global education.
A record number of Catholic University students will be studying abroad this spring, the result of new educational opportunities and outreach efforts.In all, 137 CUA students will be studying in 12 countries from Italy to India. Ninety-eight students are participating in educational opportunities provided by CU Abroad . In addition, 39 students from the School of Architecture and Planning are spending the semester in Rome or Barcelona, Spain, as part of an architecture foreign-studies program.The number of students participating in CU Abroad programs has more than doubled since spring 2009, when 40 students studied overseas.Tanith Fowler Corsi, assistant vice president for global education, attributed the increase in part to improved outreach to the CUA community and additional educational destinations around the world offered by CU Abroad , the education abroad unit of the Center for Global Education. "Our students are taking advantage of our newly affiliated education programs in non-traditional locations and going to places such as Argentina, India and New Zealand," she says. Ten destinations were added to the offerings this year, with two students each choosing to study in Argentina, Ireland and New Zealand and one student each studying in Australia and India. "We do have adventurous students," Fowler Corsi says.Karissa Ronkin, a junior from Medford, N.J., is among those who welcomed the new destinations. "I'm a huge Eastern religions junkie, and I have wanted to travel to India ever since I can remember. I instantly decided that is where I would be going my junior year."The psychology major who will be in New Delhi for the semester says, "I'm hoping to come out of the experience with a better grip on who I want to be and how I want to relate to the rest of the world. The promise of meeting interesting people, having amazing times and tasting delicious vegetarian cuisine doesn't bother me, either."Emily Laursen, a philosophy/pre-law major from Wilmington, Del., agrees that studying abroad is "a great opportunity to experience a place and culture you otherwise may never get to discover." She and her twin sister, Nicole, are spending the semester in New Zealand. Emily, a junior, will be taking philosophy, politics and history courses at the University of Auckland. "I am excited to get to meet new people with different experiences and to do things that I would not have the opportunity to do here," she says.
Ryan Winn is spending spring semester in London, working as an intern for a member of the British Parliament.
Rome is the most popular destination, with 19 students from the School of Arts and Sciences studying there in addition to those in the architecture foreign-studies program, according to Ella Sweigert, director of education abroad. Eleven students are participating in a new Oxford Honors Program in England in which students are paired with Oxford instructors.Ryan Winn, a junior, will be working as an intern for Nigel Waterson, a member of the British Parliament, during his semester abroad. "Initially, I was not planning on studying abroad," Winn says. "However, after seeing how many of my close friends were going, and assessing the opportunity, I realized not applying to work in the English Parliament would be something I would regret long after I graduate." Winn, a politics major from North Attleboro, Mass., says, "Having the chance to see firsthand the operation of another nation is fascinating in its own right, but the chance to bring my experiences back is what I am really looking forward to."The Center for Global Education also is developing faculty-led, short-term studies this summer in Chile, Mexico and Italy.The number of opportunities abroad will be even greater in the 2010-2011 academic year, when the center offers new programs in Poland, Ireland and Mexico. An exchange program with the Australian Catholic University also has been finalized, enabling five nursing students to study in Australia for a semester.
