Courtesy of Steven Duverge
By Peturla Scarlett
Joseph Kenny, the Education Abroad Program Advisor at the University of South Florida (USF), spent a semester in Shanghai when he was a student. He said the insightful experience ultimately helped him navigate life outside of school.
“Personally, I learned a lot about myself,” Kenny said. “That was useful as I got older and tried to navigate post-college life because…I had to get a very clear idea about who [I am], what am I comfortable with, what do I do, what do I not want out of the study abroad experience, and I think that translates later in life to having a better sense of self.”
Kenny’s experience is just one of the outcomes that traveling programs at USF hope students obtain from whichever journey they choose—a richer outlook on life that transcends college.
On March 12, a group of USF St. Petersburg students spent a week on a community service spring break trip in Atlanta. There they were able to collaborate with different organizations centered around providing assistance to people struggling with homelessness and food insecurity. For a one-time payment of $300, students not only experienced a different state but gave back to the community as well.
“The students learned a lot of gratitude for their own circumstances and then just service skills in general— how to reach out, how to find service that they can provide in their own communities,” said Kasey Szel, the coordinator for Leadership and Student Organizations at USF St. Petersburg.
Months before the trip began, students met weekly to do team bonding activities as well as discuss what to expect and why it’s important. According to Szel, these meetings were done to better acquaint everyone with each other before the trip.
Szel said the meetings created “A big sense of camaraderie…where it feels very sad at the end of it [because] not only have you been spending the week with everybody, you’ve been spending the last four months with everybody.”
Steven Duverge, a sophomore majoring in Political Science, was one of the students who went to Atlanta.
“This trip was very structured and I appreciated that…when we finally went on the trip, we were all pretty acquainted with each other, we weren’t really strangers,” he said.
As of now, these trips —which are called the UnBULLievable Service Break— planned by the Student Life and Engagement department at USF St. Petersburg, only happen once a year during spring break. Nashville and New York are currently being considered as potential locations for next year. Images and more information about the trip can be found on the iam_usfsp student’s Instagram account.
For those who’d like to cross bigger borders, USF World offers various study abroad opportunities.
This summer, starting June 27, students will embark on a four-week trip to London. The courses offered range from American Sign Language (ASL) to psychology. There are also classes related to film, medicine and ethics.
“I personally think that interaction with another culture or another situation is one of the biggest growth experiences that you can have personally…you begin to challenge your own preconceptions about what anything is because your entire framework is based upon the world around you,” said Rene Sanchez, Assistant Director of the Education Abroad office at USF World.
This interaction is a part of the program’s goal of promoting global competency in order to prepare students for the ever-changing diversity of the world as well as helping them keep up with the different expectations in modern work environments.
“A key component that employers are looking for is someone who can talk across borders and someone who’s a calculated risk taker, someone who understands how to make those connections with people from a completely different background, and I think that’s a key element that travel teaches you…that’s probably one of the biggest lessons; that it’s difficult for us to teach in a classroom, that it’s easier for us to teach when we take that classroom someplace else,” Sanchez said.
Although the trip to London is no longer accepting applications, USF Education Abroad offers a course catalog where students can search for trips based on department, college and country among others. Those interested can see dozens of trips being offered and plan accordingly. Each opportunity varies, however, in most cases everything except food and plane tickets are covered. This is done to give students the chance to get to the location at their own convenience and indulge in the local cuisine they’re interested in.
Once it’s decided that studying abroad is the right step, Kenny said, “Students always begin the application process with Education Abroad, we do not charge an application fee and students are not financially liable until they actually reach a certain stage in the application.”
Students curious about any of the trips the university offers are encouraged to review the information on the department’s website and reach out to any of the staff there. After each trip, the Education Abroad program introduces students to others who have been on similar trips so they can further discuss their experiences if they wish. That way the experience remains relevant.
As for his service trip to Atlanta, Duverge said, “I really, really enjoyed the experience and I would like to do it again if given the opportunity…doing it through the school definitely eased the burden a bit because I didn’t have to worry about things like housing, I didn’t have to worry about finding a place to stay, because all that was kind of already done for me.”
