Wednesday, the Study Abroad Office helda symposium as part of International Week.

“We really want to highlight the academic or personal impact that Study Abroad can have and allow faculty and students to share that with others in the University community,” Ingrid Schmidt, director of Study Abroad, said. “We also wanted to show that Study Abroad is important for everyone, not just those who go abroad, but those who remain here can benefit when students go abroad and come back to share their insight.”

According to Adam Steckler, assistant director of Study Abroad, the three previous years showed steady growth until last year.

“The year before there was a 25 percent increase over the previous year, but last year it just stayed the same,” Steckler said. “I think it was the bad economy. Basically, a lot of people held back on things like that.”

Last year, the Study Abroad Office reported on its Web site that it distributed a total of $171,500 in funds and gave 204 awards to students. This year, they report receiving a grant of $20,000 for more scholarships.

“We’re already seeing signs that it’s picking back up again. A lot of students have already applied in the summer and the fall,” Steckler said.

According to Steckler, most students apply for CHASS Study Abroad programs. The most popular of these are usually foreign language programs, such as the Spanish program in Peru or Arabic in Egypt, and the most popular destinations for students are Europe and Australia.

  “I think it’s more difficult for engineering students to go abroad because of internships or they’ll be working over the summer,” Steckler said. “We’re starting to have more programs designed just for engineering and science students, so we’re encouraging more engineering [students] to go abroad.”

According to Schmidt, students are choosing shorter programs, somewhat because of problems with their curriculums, to fit Study Abroad into their schedules. Students are attracted to programs that might shorten their four years here. There are more discipline-specific programs.

“Our job is to facilitate their international experience, so if they want short programs, we’ll give them short programs, and we’ll make high quality ones,” she said. Schmidt said students are more interested in experiential programs, such as volunteer work or service learning abroad, so they can grow their leadership skills through a guided reflection.

“We’re encouraging faculty to incorporate more of those things into their programs,” Schmidt said.

Steckler said one thing that deters students from looking into studying abroad is cost, but it can often be more affordable than students realize.

“The thing we always tell students is that they can definitely get credit for studying abroad, you can count it towards your major and it’s affordable. Most students think it’s too expensive,” Steckler said. “It’s becoming more standard for students to study abroad, I think people look for that when they look for people for a job or a graduate program, they look to see if they have that experience. It’s really crucial.”