Illustration by JARRETT QUON/Daily Bruin
By Matt Goulding
Daily Bruin Contributor
Fourth-year theater student Matt Hobart studied abroad hoping to be exposed to real English culture, but he ended up revealing more of himself than he thought.
Participating in Exeter University's Safer Sex Ball, an annual fund-raiser for AIDS research, Hobart and four friends performed an 11-minute choreographed dance routine in front of 3,000 people which culminated in the English “full monty.”
“We got oiled up and just let it all hang out,” Hobart said. “It was one of those things you only do once.”
Hobart is part of the steadily growing crop of students who are taking advantage of the opportunities provided through UCLA’s study abroad programs.
Because of an increased interest among students to participate in such studies, UCLA programs give students many options to study outside of the U.S., according to Jessica van der Valk, the administrative director of the Education Abroad Program.
And because of the demand, study abroad programs are no longer limited to students majoring in foreign languages.
Physiological science students can make rounds in Danish hospitals, biology students can discover the the behavior of howler monkeys in the Costa Rican rain forest, and economics students can analyze the effects of the U.S. gross domestic product on the Japanese stock market.
These types of experiences cannot be taught in the classroom, van der Valk said. Students will take what they learned abroad with them for the rest of their lives.
As the only official University of California study abroad program, EAP enables students to take classes all around the world for the price of their UC registration fees.
“All coursework is pre-approved by the Academic Senate and students can expect to find a curriculum comparable to UCLA’s,” van der Valk said.
This is important for students, van der Valk said, because units are then automatically transferred back to their transcripts. Whether or not the units can be substituted for credit towards a participant’s major is at the discretion of individual departments, but with the support of the Academic Senate, students shouldn’t have a problem making progress towards their major while studying abroad.
Though van der Valk stressed the importance of the cultural experience, she advised students to stay focused when studying abroad.
“We expect students to keep their eyes on the prize,” van der Valk said. “We want them to perform academically.”
Second-year history student Ryan Falvey, who spent three weeks in Greece on UCLA’s Summer Sessions Program, said that this can be a difficult task.
“You have to constantly fight the temptation to leave your notes and books behind because you need room for more important things,” Falvey said. “When you study abroad, you tend to get a lot less sleep, sometimes partying into the morning and just showing up at class or maybe just going to the beach.”
Despite the temptations, Falvey said being constantly submersed in the culture and in the lessons of the classroom helped him focus in Greece.
Learning to balance academic and social aspects remains an essential part of studying abroad, said Eva Walthers, International Programs Counselor for the EXPO Center.
“People don’t always want to stress out about grades when studying abroad,” she said. “They want to go out and experience the culture.”
EXPO, which functions as a part of the UCLA Career Center in the new Strathmore Building, places students in programs suitable for their ambitions abroad.
Placing more than 500 students in foreign universities for the current school year, EXPO deals with all programs not covered by the the UC’s EAP office.
“The reason why more people chose to go outside of EAP is that they have more options,” Walthers said.
Through EXPO’s range of opportunities, students can take intensive language courses in France, study geography in Fiji, or explore the traditions of Buddhism in Tibet.
While options vary for those students seeking guidance from EXPO, program participants don’t have the comfort of UC pre-approval for their curriculum.
With the proper planning, however, students shouldn’t have any problem getting units transferred, Walthers said.
Despite the different programs available, both the EAP and EXPO said more students have applied to study abroad in recent years than ever before.
In a recent press conference, Chancellor Albert Carnesale said sending students abroad is one of the ways the university is trying to absorb the surge of students expected to enroll in the UC in the next decade.
With more than $130,000 in scholarships given annually, students aspiring to go abroad can find money from a variety of sources to finance
their trips.
Students already receiving financial aid from UCLA can apply these funds to their studies outside of the country, Van der Valk said.
The popularity of the study abroad programs has resulted in a large increase in the number of students seeking graduate degrees abroad as well. Both EAP and EXPO offer a range of programs to accommodate these students.
“There are great one year masters programs abroad,” Walthers said, “especially in English-speaking areas like the U.K., New Zealand, and Australia.”
Though both graduate and undergraduate students seek the comfort offered in English speaking programs, the allure of Barcelona, Madrid, and Seville has made Spain the number one country for UCLA students, said Walthers.
“It has a lot to do with the language, but the culture is a great contrast to American culture,” Walthers said. “People don’t realize there’s another way of living until they go to a place like Spain.”
Andrew Wulf, a fourth-year economics student who spent last fall in EAP’s Cordoba, Spain program, said his immersion in to the local culture taught him about himself as well.
“It’s almost like a drug. It engrosses you so much,” he said. “Seeing the culture on a daily basis is so much different from being a tourist.”
“It’s the difference between sinking your teeth into the culture and just glossing over it,” Wulf added.