Even before matriculation, Dartmouth impresses upon its students that Language Study Abroad and Foreign Study Programs are integral to the "Dartmouth experience" and are the "best" ways to study abroad. Admissions statistics emphasize that students can choose from 48 Dartmouth-led off-campus programs on six different continents. Many students cite Dartmouth's study abroad options as a major factor in their decisions to come to the College, believing that school-run programs are superior to programs run through partner institutions.
Students are attracted to Dartmouth's off-campus programs "because the programs are led and taught by Dartmouth faculty members who have in-depth expertise on the topic and the country," John Tansey, executive director of Off-Campus Programs, said in 2009. In many ways, while participating in the Argentina FSP, I did feel as if the challenge of a Dartmouth classroom had been transplanted into Buenos Aires.
Yet as Andrew Clay '11 wrote last spring ("A Broader Abroad Experience," April 28), in designing these programs, the College neglects the most important component of language acquisition and foreign learning: interacting with local residents. Hiring Dartmouth faculty members, reserving classrooms planning elaborate group excursions is expensive. This structure of learning discourages individual exploration and seems to run counter to the College's stated "commitment of understanding, and communicating with, people of other cultures," as advertised on the Off-Campus Programs office website.
The College does a wonderful job of selling its foreign study programs. Its attention to non-Dartmouth exchange programs, however, is lacking. Many incoming students are led to believe that these options are less desirable than other programs because the Dartmouth faculty will not teach their classes. My friends who have studied with outside institutions feel differently. Whereas studying with a Dartmouth program feels at times like bringing "the Bubble" to a new place, studying independently or with local students forces people to step outside of their comfort zones, enriching their cross-cultural experiences. If the College advertised these opportunities with the same enthusiasm as it does its own programs, perhaps all students who wish to study abroad would be able to do so, and some of the strain on high-demand programs would be reduced.
Most importantly, if the College truly values international education for its students it must devote more resources to encouraging foreign travel during off-terms. Spending months at a time without seeing another American has a much more profound effect on one's personal growth than traveling in a group of like-minded individuals. My work in Kenya was exponentially more educational than my study abroad precisely because I was completely on my own, far from the safety nets and cultural familiarity endemic to a Dartmouth program. Rather than live with an upper-middle-class host family, I lived in rural communities with limited access to running water and electricity (i.e. the way that most people in developing countries live). I learned to speak Swahili not by taking classes, but by making an effort to speak the language with the local people. I learned about the country's political economy not through a textbook or lecture but through my conversations with friends and coworkers.
While funding is available for unpaid international internships and volunteer experiences, this funding is limited and highly competitive. The College should divert some of the resources that currently serve its bloated study-abroad programs to support more of these grants, and should focus some of the hype onto the benefits of international internships and volunteer opportunities. Dartmouth should publicize the resources available on campus that can provide students with advice and guidance.
According to the Institute of International Education, Dartmouth again earned the top position among Ivy League schools in for-credit study abroad participation. In a press release on Monday, the Office of Public Affairs stated, "If living and studying in a different country contributes to international understanding, Dartmouth students are some of the most globally aware in the nation." While studying abroad certainly contributes to international understanding, there are better ways to achieve this objective. Spending an off-term abroad should be advertised as a viable alternative to participating in a College-led program. Perhaps the College would lose its number-one ranking in terms of study abroad participation, but it would also produce more open-minded and globally conscious graduates.
