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Study
abroad stays stable For a short time after Sept. 11, Sarah Hollabaugh, a sophomore business major, considered canceling her plans to study abroad at la Universidad de San Luis in Madrid, Spain. Then she started researching the program’s safety measures and decided she wasn’t going to let fear keep her from having a wonderful experience, Hollabaugh said. “After talking with current students and teachers abroad, (my parents and I) decided that my personal safety was not at an increased risk living in Spain,” Hollabaugh said. “I had very little fears because of the fact that these terrorists are not after individual Americans.”
The number of TCU students attending the TCU London Centre dropped by three students from spring 2001 while the number of TCU students studying abroad in other countries reached 30, one of the highest numbers in the last 12 years, said Tracy Williams, education abroad coordinator. “I was really concerned people would have a lot of fear about traveling — that people would become so pro-American that they had no interest in seeing anything other than their hometown and staying in the United States,” Williams said. Williams said she hopes Sept. 11 demonstrated to Americans that they need to know who their neighbors are. “The United States has a huge presence in the world, for better or for worse, and we need to be aware of what that presence is,” Williams said. “We need to know how other people view us.” More than 30 countries have programs through TCU affiliations, but students travel to only 10 of those countries actively, Williams said. She said nationally, study abroad numbers remain high, but there has been a huge drop-off in Middle Eastern and North African countries. Many students are returning to more traditional countries of Europe and Australia because of safety issues, Williams said. Susan Layne, coordinator for the TCU London Centre, said she thinks the number of students at the TCU London Centre would have been higher this semester if the application deadline of Oct. 15 had not come so soon after Sept. 11. If they had more time to think about it, Layne said she thinks some students would have still gone. “I think the reality is that things in the world have changed, but I don’t think there’s any reason to think this spring or next fall is any more dangerous than any other time,” Layne said. Safety precautions continue to be a major issue with parents and students when considering study abroad, but the London Centre didn’t have to make many changes, Layne said. As a precautionary measure, the TCU London Centre sign was removed from the building and the physical address was taken off the Web site, Layne said. To make sure all their students are safe, both Williams and Layne constantly check the Department of State Web site (www.state.gov) to get updated information on all countries. The site also has tips and advice for Americans traveling abroad. Amy
Render, a junior marketing major, said she feels very safe even
though she has only been at the London Centre less than two weeks,
but does take safety precautions. Blending into the culture has been harder for Jenna Spain, a junior broadcast journalism and political science major, since she has been attending the Smolni Institute, a language institute for foreigners in St. Petersburg, Russia. Though she has relatively little contact with the average Russian, she said that those she does come in contact with do not treat her differently. Spain, who was in Russia in fall 2001, is still there and she said she has no intention of letting an event like Sept. 11 keep her from broadening her horizons. “We have to keep looking at the world outside, to understand things we aren’t normally exposed to and learn languages that most people wouldn’t expect Americans to care about,” Spain said. Laura
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