(Blog) Study Abroad: Ups, Downs, and Forward

Study Abroad: Ups, Downs, and Forward

Description: In this week’s blog post, Michaela Dengg, Ph.D. Candidate in the Higher Education and Student Affairs program from the Ohio State University shares their insights on study abroad. She worked as a study abroad advisor at the International Office of Regensburg in Germany, where she advised North American students studying abroad in Regensburg and German students wanting to study overseas.

Written by Michaela Dengg, Ph.D. Candidate, Higher Education and Student Affairs, The Ohio State University 

My name is Michaela Dengg, and I’m a Ph.D. Candidate in the Higher Education and Student Affairs program at The Ohio State University in Columbus, OH. I am an international student from Germany. Before my Ph.D. studies, I worked as a study abroad advisor at the International Office of Regensburg in Germany. My role included advising North American students studying abroad in Regensburg and German students wanting to study overseas. 

The best part about my job was witnessing the transformations of international students living in Germany and German students returning from their overseas adventures. After studying abroad, my students (and I) noticed that they were more open-minded and proactive in finding opportunities to develop them further and improve their language skills. Some of them could have entire conversations in a different language fluently. A wholesome moment that I always remember was when an Italian student came into my office to share that she had an interaction in German with a stranger on the bus, something she thought she could never do. Not only that, after returning from their study abroad adventures, students were more conscious of their unconscious biases and started working on dismantling them. Some German students I advised said they were initially skeptical about studying abroad. However, they now found ways to incorporate new knowledge and problem-solving skills into their daily lives, be it confrontations with their roommates or assignments at school. Most of them started volunteering for refugees in Germany after their study abroad or got otherwise involved in humanitarian causes.

I studied abroad twice during my undergraduate years, receiving teaching licensure for English and French in secondary schools. In the academic year 2013-2014, I spent a semester in Clermont-Ferrand, France, with the ERASMUS program, followed by a year as a German Teaching Assistant at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, USA. North Dakota made me feel like I had found a home in a country I had never been to. I made friends with other international students from all over the world, I helped American students understand the inscrutable German language, and I got to experience cultures and traditions I didn’t even know existed.

I started to learn that there is more to life than what I was experiencing, from simple things like figuring out how windows work in a different country to conversations about dismantling patriarchy and systemic racism. I developed professionally and personally by immersing myself in various cultures, languages, and opportunities. I received first-hand experience in developing my intercultural competence. For example, working with a diverse team of people from cultures who communicate less directly than Germans made me realize that the direct and confrontational approach I was used to in Germany might only sometimes lead to the best results.

When I returned to my home country, Germany, to complete my undergraduate degree, I expected to be relieved to be back. However, I felt more than out of place and uncomfortable as I tried to integrate my newly learned skills, convictions, and passions into my old life. I tried striking up conversations with strangers at the grocery store like I was used to in the United States, but no one wanted to interact. Once, I went to office hours conducted by a professor, five minutes before it ended, and I got yelled at because I was so late. What I was experiencing was a reverse culture shock. I missed North Dakota. I missed being surrounded by international students and exchanging stories about our traditions and customs at home. I missed my American friends whose customs I had gotten so used to. Suddenly, everyone around me was German again, yet I felt like a stranger in my home country. I wanted to go back. 

In hindsight, I wished there had been avenues or solidified support that would have helped me cope with this re-entry shock. This feeling made me want to pursue a career in international higher education to implement a program for reverse culture shock and many other issues in studying abroad. So, I decided to finish my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Germany, working as a study abroad advisor to finance it, and then move back to the United States. While studying abroad, I developed a passion for international education because my study abroad experiences made me a better person, and I wanted to help others do the same. 

I have since learned that having been able to study abroad not only once but twice was a privilege. The accessibility to participate in study abroad is a topic that is often discussed. In Germany, only around eight percent of students study abroad; meanwhile, in the United States, around ten percent of students engage in studying abroad; most of whom are middle to upper-class white women. If we were to look deeper, more than half of American students study abroad in Europe which raises questions surrounding the real reasons students partake in study abroad.

Studying abroad and international higher education generally have a reputation for being elitist, grounded in Western ideals and whiteness. Most students who study abroad are white, usually traveling somewhere in the Global North, which reflects the massive inequity of accessibility. After the COVID-19 pandemic, which hit international higher education especially hard, as it not only stalled travel but revealed and exacerbated existing inequity issues, many in the field have started asking: How can we make studying abroad more accessible to all of our students?

The most significant barrier is, of course, the cost attached to it. While there are no tuition fees in Germany, living abroad with the necessary funding can be possible. In the United States, many students already accrue debt to pursue a higher education degree. Adding the cost of studying abroad to that is an unnecessary additional burden. The inaccessibility to pursue study abroad can also relay in ways where people need legal opportunities (a valid passport, citizenship, or other legal paperwork) to go certain places. Institutions must address these barriers by creating equitable solutions for all students to experience studying abroad. These tangible actions can include paying home tuition fees abroad, providing scholarships to cover these costs, or transferring financial aid to be applicable abroad. Some scholarships cover the cost of applying for passports and programs that help students complete the paperwork to obtain one.

Not only that, language courses and intercultural training should be offered to students to help them be better prepared for their study abroad adventure. The training should also teach students how to cope with reverse culture shock when returning. Many international offices have created new or intensified their Collaborative Online International Learning Programs (COIL) where they are connected to other students and professors in different countries for collaborative projects and discussions as part of their coursework. This way, many who do not have access to study abroad opportunities can gain experience by taking online classes at another university in a different country or doing remote internships with diverse teams from all over the world. These are a few ways to help every student benefit from studying abroad. I am excited about this new future of study abroad and international higher education—a more economical, sustainable, and equitable one for all.