A few weeks ago, I googled “shit study abroad students say” after seeing the brilliant “Shit New Yorkers Say” video sensation.  I was hoping someone would do a version of this for study abroad – and today, in my inbox, it magically appeared!

(Side note: The students who made this video did call it “Stuff Study Abroad Students Say.” I am honoring the “Shit People Say” series by renaming this video with the appropriate “bad” word.)

Now watch this clever video! Laugh. Roll your eyes. Be sad. Smile.  Do whatever feels right for you.  Then read the rest of this post:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Did you enjoy that? Was it hard to watch? Did any of this sound familiar?

It sure did to me.  Four colleges under my belt and I cannot begin to tell you how many times I’ve heard these statements. They come from the young voices of (US) Americans from an incredibly ethnocentric country (see this previous Melibee post), one that is slapping together study abroad programs faster than many would like to admit.  Many are revenue driven and poorly designed, leading to students belting out statements like the ones in the video.  (Please don’t get me wrong – there are plenty of schools and 3rd party providers that put great care into study abroad program design and learning outcomes.  But many – let’s face it – don’t. )

The timing of this video really struck me. Yesterday I had the honor of facilitating an online workshop with Dr. Eric Hartman on Global Service Learning: Design/Reflection/Connection – and it couldn’t have been more timely.  Dr. Hartman spoke of the importance of partnership, culture, careful learning outcomes, mutual respect, addressing our ethnocentricity prior to departure., etc.  The gap between great global service learning program delivery and the “run of the mill” study abroad experience is clear.  These students, in my opinion, did a remarkable job of capturing that delta in this video.

This video will serve as a beautiful new resource for pre-departure, orientation, re-entry programs, classroom discussions and academic programs (international education administration/intercultural studies.)  It has so many applications!

What are your thoughts about this video?  How might you envision it being utilized? What did you appreciate about it? What frustrated you about it?  Let’s get some dialogue going about this subject.

Let me close by extending my heartfelt thanks to the Amizade students for creating not only this video, but the opportunity for all of us to reflect on how we contribute to the statements you have highlighted.  Once again, students are providing teaching opportunities.  Does it get any better than that?

While the book is enjoyable, playful, informative and engaging, there was one page that really resonated with me. That was page 113.

Page 113 spoke of the phenomenon of realizing, for the first time in your life, that you are a visible minority abroad. This page is a terrific discussion tool for pre-departure and re-entry.  Here is the quote from Ferguson who is attending a popular public event in Japan:

“I wended my way through and the crowds parted like the sea before Moses…Schoolchildren openly gawked, jaws gaping…Men watched my every move as if I might pull out a handgun and start shooting at any moment…

“A foreigner, look!” A flock of high-school girls burst past in a flurry of nervous laughter, and boys, brave after the fact, whispered “Harro!” to the back of my head. “Ah, we have a guest from American here today,” said the disembodied voice of the P.A. system, the voice of a decidedly tinny god. Maybe he will sing a song for us later.”

…That I, so very average and unexceptional, should cause a stir among these bright crowds of costumes gives a new perspective on the idea of exotic. I remember a trip to a Japanese zoo, and how the children turned their backs on the caged wildebeest and watched me instead. ‘More interesting than a wildebeest’ became my personal motto after that.  It was oppressive at times. What I wouldn’t give to be a Japanese-American, to be able to blend in without a ripple, to attend a spectacle without becoming one, to be able to relax.  When your face doesn’t fit the national dimensions you find yourself in an observer-affected universe; your presence alters actions, and the very act of observing changes that which is observed. You cannot slip by unnoticed.  You cannot forget the pigment that you present to the world. If nothing else, Japan has taught me what it is like to be a visible minority, and it is a hard lesson to learn.”

I read this and stopped in my tracks. I was immediately transported back to India, to a day that I had looked forward to for my entire life. I was in Agra, taking time off during a business trip, to see the Taj Mahal.  I started my day at the Red Fort, where I caught my first glimpse of the Taj Mahal.  It took my breath away. The light was so soft, the colors so perfect, it almost appeared to be floating.  I was in awe. Speechless.  Gazing.

And then it happened.

A group of school children approached me with cameras.  They were smiling and giggling.  They pointed.  I looked around, wondering what they were pointing at.  Was I missing something? Perhaps there was someone famous here – maybe a Bollywood star or politician? I glanced to my left, to my right.  I looked in the distance, wondering if something was going on at the Taj that I had missed?  And then I realized.

They were looking. At. me. The foreigner.  The lady who wasn’t with a group of children or her husband.  The lady with the light skin and a lavender backpack.

I suddenly became more interesting than the Red Fort or the Taj Mahal.  My presence altered actions.  I could not slip by unnoticed.  It felt strange, unsettling.  And as Ferguson said, it was a hard lesson to learn.

When one is preparing to go abroad to a place where they will stand out, simply because of their skin, hair or eye color, size or shape, how does one truly prepare?  And when one returns home, how does one take that hard lesson and relate it back to the home country? How does this lesson change the lens that one sees the world through?

I hope that this discussion takes place in both pre-departure and re-entry gatherings.  Being more interesting that a wildebeest or the Taj Mahal is a challenge, to say the least.  So today, I ask Melibee readers:  How are you making these visible minority experiences teachable moments? What did you learn when it happened to you the first time?

(If you have a visible minority lesson to share – please click on “comment.” You do not need to register to comment on the blog nor will you be added to a mailing list. But if you do sign up for the Melibee newsletter in the upper right hand column of the home page, you may win a book by one of the Melibee  speakers – Ibrahim Abdul-Matin!)

Here is a link to Will Ferguson’s book about his experience in Japan:

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Actionable ideas. That is what I want when I’m attending a workshop. I want to leave that session feeling inspired.  I want to race back to my workspace with my list of actionable ideas that I will actually make the time to act on.

I’m really proud of the work that has been put into this new teleworkshop:  Short-Term Study Abroad Crossroads: Where Planning Missteps Meet Cultural Blunders.

Really proud.

Part 1 will include budgets and marketing of short term study abroad programs. Some of that is pretty straightforward information, especially budgets. But this is Melibee Global partnering with Small Planet Studio, so there is always a twist. We will weave in how campus politics impact these two areas. When we get to marketing, we’ll explore the Joneses, cows, pins, clouds, plan B, thinking like students and much more.

I’m even MORE excited about Part 2 of this teleworkshop.  We’ll talk about safety and emergency planning – a hot topic indeed.  But when we get to CULTURE – watch out!  My co-presenter, Cate Brubaker, and I will surprise you with the content.  I think it touches on revolutionary. Ok, it is forward thinking, at least!

And actionable.

Intrigued?  I hope so.

Please join us. You may register anytime.  (Even if you miss Part 1 on July 12th, you can register and receive the recording – and then participate live in Part 2, or listen to the recording later.)

Missy Gluckmann, Melibee Global Ed Consulting

Cate Brubaker, PhD from Small Planet Studio

Please join me and Cate Brubaker, PhD (from www.smallplanetstudio.com) for a free teleclass on “The Top 5 Missteps in Short-Term Study Abroad Programming.” Cate is a talented cross-cultural trainer that I have been working with over the past few months – she, too, is a big believer in collaboration.  Please be sure to poke around her website – it has some great resources!

Here is the information from Cate’s website:

“This teleclass is the third in a year-long series of free classes for intercultural educators. Each class is hosted by Small Planet Studio in collaboration with SIETAR-USA (Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research) and will feature a guest speaker. I’m thrilled that Missy Gluckmann of MelibeeGlobal.com is joining us this month to talk about short-term study abroad.”

According to the Institute of International Education’s Open Doors Report for 2008/09, nearly 55% of study abroad programs were short-term. Although this number decreased ever so slightly from 07/08, short-term study abroad has been, for many years, the fastest growing model of program delivery.

Creating an effective and appropriate short-term program requires a great deal of planning. Unfortunately, the level of attention required often does not take place, resulting in the program not reaching enrollment goals and/or the student, faculty, staff and institution failing to work efficiently, wasting funds and experiencing disappointment.

In this teleclass, Missy will discuss the top 5 missteps in short-term program planning and how they impact faculty, staff, students and institutions, and the reputation and sustainability of short-term program development.

In this 60-minute teleclass, Missy will:

• Frame the discussion to illustrate the unique challenges of short-term study abroad program planning.
• Discuss the top 5 missteps that occur and their implications.
• Offer suggestions for improvement in short-term program development.

This free 60-minute teleclass will take place on Tuesday, May 17, 2011 at 3 pm Eastern/2 pm Central/1 pm Mountain/12 pm Pacific.

All you need to participate in the live class is a phone.

We hope you’ll join the live session, but since we know some people can’t (time zones, schedules, and all that), a recording of the teleclass (plus a handout + bonus resources) will be posted on the class web page a few days after the live call.

In Summary:

What: 60-minute teleclass + handout + call recording

When: Tuesday, May 17, 2011 at 3 pm Eastern/2 pm Central/1 pm Mountain/12 pm Pacific

Where: On our teleconference line

CLICK here to register for the TELECLASS!

CLICK HERE for details on the professional development seminar in NY that Melibee Global and Purchase College (SUNY) are hosting in June.

He really did mean "fee"....

Does your study abroad office charge a per student administration fee?  If not, are you thinking about doing so?

It is also a philosophical question: Do we charge for a special fee for a program that we believe is core to the academic experience?

There is a lot to consider here, so I’ll attempt to keep the issues as simple as possible.  Consider this an overview – and hopefully folks will comment to create some dialogue around the questions posed.

There are at least four options to consider:

1) Charge a per student fee

2) Don’t charge a per student fee

3) Charge your home school tuition and no additional fee

4) Charge a fee to all students, whether or not they study abroad.

Let’s explore each option:

1) What are the benefits of charging an per student administrative fee?  The fee can be used to offset a variety of expenses (staff, overhead, memberships in international organizations, programming, assessment tools, etc) and to create a pot for program development funds as well as necessary emergency funds. The major issue with this fee is that it would add more expense to a program that already (often) requires more financial outlay than staying at home, especially when students (typically) have to give up their ability to work while abroad.

2) Not charging a fee means that we rely on the university’s budget to cover the office’s needs in full.  In these economic times, especially if you’re a public school, this is unlikely. (Heck, even during “good times” this was unlikely in many institutions.)  If often means that you will not have a development fund or emergency fund. Needless to say, not having these two funds is rather unsafe and will cause a lot of serious problems if your faculty led programs end up in a location that is experiencing a crisis (recent examples are the earthquake in New Zealand, the earthquake in Haiti, the protests in Egypt.)

3) Charging your home school tuition (with no additional fee) is only a viable option if your tuition tends to be higher than most study abroad program fees. This is more often the case for private institutions.  The benefits are typically that the students can use all of their regular financial aid and ideally, their scholarships, for their study abroad experience.  Some schools will also pay airfare as part of this arrangement.  And if the school at least breaks even in this process, one could argue that there is funding for a more comprehensive advising team.  The challenge with this model is that some of your students aren’t on financial aid and may have selected a much lower cost program than the home school tuition – so they could feel that they’re being poorly treated by having to pay more than the actual expense for study abroad.

4) How many schools charge an internationalization fee to ALL students? Just like we charge a technology fee and a student activities fee, perhaps we need to consider an internationalization fee.  This money could be used to enhance our study abroad programs and processes, to provide additional resources for our international students and to facilitate funding to enhance the curriculum so that it includes more international perspectives.

Now, I haven’t even mentioned how fees are agreed upon – that is a much longer explanation and not one for this particular blog posting.  Let’s just say that if you work for a state school, this is not as easy as it sounds!

What are your thoughts on fees?  Feel free to comment!  You do not need to register to comment and you may comment anonymously if you prefer.

Ideally, you will have an established and practiced emergency plan in place that you can follow.  If you do, your phones are ringing and your emails are zipping across the world as you read this, and you should feel confident in your ability to handle this crisis.

If you don’t have a plan in place, here are some tips to consider during this crisis (and please note, this is NOT a comprehensive list – it is a quick set of items to consider during this difficult time):

1) Swiftly determine which of your students are on programs in New Zealand or had travel plans to New Zealand during this time. This also may include students and faculty who are abroad on volunteer/intership programs, professional development, teaching abroad, spring break trips or are conducting research. You will, hopefully, have a database that you can check from home or the office, to see if you have students there.  You will need to reach out to other departments, including the international student and scholar staff, to determine who may be “flying under the radar.”

Assuming you do have students/faculty in New Zealand, you will need to consider the following:

2) If these students/faculty are in New Zealand through partnerships, exchanges or 3rd party providers, you should immediately reach out to your contacts there. Several already have information available on line. Check their home pages if you cannot reach them by phone. Note that email and phone access may not be available at this time in some parts of New Zealand, so be sure to reach out to colleagues in more than one location as they may have access to information in another region of the world. (For example, a database might be accessible from the US office of your partner in New Zealand.)

3) Contact your senior administration and public relations teams.  Without having an emergency plan in place ahead of time, you will work your way through with less guidance and more spontaneity, but do your best if your campus plan has not been worked through yet.

4) Your home web page should include information about the earthquake and how to contact a staff member with queries.

5) Reach out to the State Department emergency number if you cannot reach your partners, faculty and students abroad.  If you have non-US citizens on your programs, reach out to those embassies on their behalf.  Have your roster of passport numbers ready!

6) Contact your emergency insurance provider. Have copies of the policy on hand and links to the policy to share with your campus leadership as well as family of any injured students/faculty.

7)  Locate your emergency contact forms and notify emergency contacts with updates.  Proactively notify contacts when everyone is fine too – don’t just reach out with scary news.  Hopefully, you will have collected emergency information regarding your faculty too.

8 ) Have your campus’ mental health team on call.  For faculty and their families, have your EAP service information available.

9)  If your faculty are injured abroad and were on university time, they should complete worker’s compensation paperwork with Human Resources (or someone should do so on their behalf.)

10) Proactively communicate with your campus at home via email – let them know you are on top of this issue.

11) When things settle down, remember to thank your staff who are working 24/7 to handle this crisis.  They may need a day off. Understand how stressful this experience is for those running interference and reward them with a day off when they need it.  Remind them of your campus EAP program also.

12)  Contact your senior administration about forming an emergency action plan committee.  If this didn’t illustrate how much one is needed, I’m not sure WHAT will.

Melibee Global is thinking of those impacted by this quake and is sending healing thoughts to our colleagues and friends abroad.  If we can be of assistance in disseminating information, please feel free to email us at info@melibeeglobal.com

I thanked her for the school’s professionalism in writing to their campus community about the alleged incident.  It shows how seriously they are taking it, and as an international educator, I appreciate that they did not attempt to sweep the alleged issue under the rug.

VP Baker was gracious, but explained that it was unlikely that she was going to be able to answer any questions because their priority is to focus on students’ privacy, first and foremost.

Understood.

I did ask the following questions:

1) Was there training, prior to departure, for faculty who lead courses abroad?

and

2) I understood (from other press reports) that Professor Brown may have been placed on leave while he and the students were still in China.  Therefore, WHO was in charge of the students at that time?

While VP Baker was able to say that she did have information, she was not able to share it.  I didn’t necessarily expect her to be able to and told her that I understood.

While many schools don’t have a formal training for faculty leading courses abroad (which is always a concern!), I was particularly interested in the second question. If Professor Brown was placed on leave while in China and the students were still in the hotel with him, this would be of concern. While I understand that Colby’s position is that they cannot  about this, it serves as a reminder of the importance of having a clear, defined and practiced emergency process in place prior to a group departing for a course abroad.

For example, did another faculty member accompany this group abroad or did they have a local partner on the ground who was there to support the students during this time? Was there a relationship with the local embassy? Did the State Department get a call to assist these students?  Was a local alum in China available to provide support? Were the students registered with the State Department prior to departure and informed to call them in an emergency?  Did someone from Colby fly to China upon reports of accusations by students?  Were there language and cultural barriersd when dealing with this alleged incident?

The media has not commented on any of this and unfortunately, neither can Colby at this time.

Nevertheless, I hope that this alleged incident has shaken all of us up.  Had it been YOUR program or YOUR student, how would you have expected this to be handled?  Would your school have had measures in place to ensure that the students’ safety was the priority?

Again, I do not write this to imply blame or point the finger at Colby College – for all I know they may have had a master emergency process in place and it may have been handled as smoothly as possible.  Yet this story reaching the major media outlets does force us to re-evaluate our faculty selection process and emergency planning processes.

What are your thoughts about this case? Are you meeting with your emergency planning committee to discuss this new scenario?  Or are you forming a committee as a result of it?  Please share your comments! (You do not need to register to comment on Melibee Global.)

Brown hid the camera in a black medical kit that he insisted stay in the women’s bathroom so that all students would know where to find it if needed.  The students found the camera hidden in the black kit after discovering the photos on the shared lap top. The students notified the university and Brown was placed on academic leave, by phone, WHILE the group was still in China.

Media reports indicate that Brown admitted to a similar act of violating students’ privacy while abroad the previous year.  He is now under investigation in Maine, but has not been charged at this time.  Evidence is apparently still being sought from China.

Colby’s President, William Adams, wrote a letter to the campus community addressing the issue the day after the trip ended.  One must credit him for squashing rumors and addressing the situation head on.  Sadly, this is not always the case.

This again raises the several issues for faculty study abroad programs:

1) Selection of faculty: Most universities do not have a formal policy in place about HOW to choose faculty for such trips. Additionally, most faculty who do go abroad are not trained specifically in expectations for leading a group. Obviously, we shouldn’t have to state that you should not film your students in the bathroom, but it raises the age old question of how many faculty and staff should be sent abroad with a group in case of an emergency.  Funding, or lack thereof, is what usually drives this decision.

2) Emergency planning: Who is in charge when something like this happens abroad?  How do you handle an employee who is being accused of such a heinous act from thousands of miles away?  This all goes back to emergency planning – as the source of the emergency, albeit rare, can be your own employee and how you handle the situation can and will impact the well being of your students for years to come.  In addition, how you handle the situation will impact the legal case that will follow an experience like this.

3) Pre-departure training: I have yet to see a training that includes a discussion of what to do if something doesn’t seem “right” with your professor.  Many schools do talk about what to do if the professor is injured, gets sick or even dies – but what do we tell students about how to handle a faculty member who drinks “too much,” is late for activities or worse yet – is caught leering at students?  Are we bold enough to have this conversation? Do we need to talk with our legal department about how to handle this sensitive matter?  This is especially difficult when the professor may be incredibly popular at home – as apparently was the case with Brown.

4) “Local” laws: How do local laws impact your ability to investigate and perhaps prosecute in a case like this?  Media reports state that evidence is still being gathered in China and that evidence has been collected in Maine (USA). However, what if the students had gone to the local authorities in China? (Perhaps they did?) Could Brown have been arrested by Chinese authorities?  How carefully do we need to train both the faculty AND the students about the local laws, especially in unique circumstances like this?

5) Human Resource Training: How many of our campus HR trainings about faculty and staff expectations, sexual harassment, etc actually cite study abroad programs?  Do we need to loop back with our HR teams to ensure that our language is clear so that no faculty or staff member ever thinks that he/she can get away with something inappropriate simply due to distance?

Note: I am waiting for Colby College to return my call. I will write about this case once I have more information from them.  Meanwhile, I’d be curious what your thoughts are about this situation. Obviously, this type of behavior is more of an indication of the individual than the institution. This post is not meant to blame Colby or any college who has dealt with this issue. I’m interested in knowing how much these types of issues concern you in your work?  As a faculty member, how do you feel about these questions being posed? Please comment on the blog posting so that a conversation can take place across the globe and not just on one listserv. (You do not need to register to comment.)

We are also aging.  Each year, my students appear younger and younger.  And then I realize that students are always going to be young.  It is me that is becoming older….or as I like to say, “increasingly wise.” 

Over the years, I have heard students talking in the halls, in campus dining rooms, and on the quad. And on many occasions I’ve had to rely on the online Urban Dictionary to have the slightest clue what they’re chatting about. Urban Dictionary is a website that houses over 5 million slang terms that are written by the site’s users. For example, when one of your students says “I got my ears lowered today,” it is slang for “I got a hair cut.”  Cute, right?

I decided to look up “study abroad” on the Urban Dictionary site and wow, was I surprised.  This is what comes up first:

Hmmmmm.  Apparently I am more out of touch than I realized.  Slutty abroad?  Really?  Is that the clever slang students have come up with for their time abroad?  Note to self:  Revisit the section of pre-departure orientation that covers health (physical and mental), safe sex and access to condoms and clinics abroad.

Here is #8:

I have to admit, I have heard many heartbreaking stories over the years of students who have been “Europed.”  Ok, I said it, Europed.  I have used a word from the Urban Dictionary.  My students would think I’m hip.  Somehow, it just doesn’t feel quite right.

Another note to self:  Revisit the section of pre-departure orientation that covers alcohol policy, alcohol abuse, AA and defining healthy relationships.

I will be thinking about my virtual stop at the study abroad section of the Urban Dictionary for some time.  It makes me think that there is a strong need for some innovative pre-departure dialogue.  And an aspirin.

There are other “gems” in the Urban Dictionary.  I won’t repeat all of the study abroad “terms.”  Some are simply references to organizations that host study abroad programs (take note marketing gurus.)  Others are the lingo of our youth that will make you gasp. And frankly, some will make you laugh out loud.

I just hope that our potential study abroad students won’t be ‘ants on a log’ this year due to the economy.  Yup, you’ll have to look that one up. It is # 29 on the urban dictionary study abroad list!