Natalie Clay spent the spring semester in Beijing. She believed if she wanted to be marketable in the field of journalism, she would need to be able to communicate with a variety of people, she said.

Clay, a senior broadcast journalism major at Syracuse University, wanted to know what it would feel like writing a story with Mao Zedong looking over her shoulder, to understand censorship and propaganda for what it was, not what it is portrayed as by a PowerPoint at SU, she said.

‘Beijing is a city where old meets new; a city in a constant state of transition. I wanted to be there to witness it,’ Clay said. ‘You’ll never quite understand Beijing or be able to wrap your head around the idea that this city is in a constant state of transition.’

As part of a national trend in study abroad programs, SU students are choosing to go to more non-European locations, like Beijing. Other students are attending shorter programs. All of these students represent a wider variety of majors than in the past.

One of the national trends is a growing interest in programs located in Asia, Africa and Latin America, according to a November study done by The Chronicle of Higher Education. SU Abroad is in line with this trend and has programs in Beijing, Hong Kong, Costa Rica and Santiago, Chile.

‘It’s true that SU students’ interest has diversified,’ said Jon Booth, SU Abroad’s executive director. ‘We launched a program in Chile in the spring of 2008, and it’s a good, healthy program. We currently have 22 students in Chile. Beijing was launched in the spring of 2006 with nine students enrolled in the program. There are now 23 students studying abroad there this year.’

There are also 66 students from SU studying this year in Hong Kong, compared to 25 who studied abroad there five years ago, Booth said.

While the number of students going abroad for a semester’s length has remained steady, the SU enrollment for London, the top abroad location, has dropped off in the past few years. In 2005 to 2006, there were 473 students studying in London, Booth said. In 2009, 442 students are expected to study abroad in London.

But while interests in locations have diversified, four out of the top five places to study abroad remain in Europe, he said.

Another new national trend in studying abroad is going for shorter periods of time – during summer, or on Spring Break, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. SU has seen this too.

Five years ago, 350 students participated in summer study abroad through SU. For the last two years, there have been more than 400 students studying abroad each summer, Booth said.

Students with busy schedules are attracted to short-term study abroad sessions, said Amy Sloane-Garris, director of recruitment and outreach at SU Abroad.

‘For athletes, people involved in student government and for people with jobs, summer abroad programs are a good idea,’ Sloane-Garris said.

While enrollment for summer programs has gone up, enrollment for Spring Break abroad programs has gone against the national trend. SU provides students opportunities to go abroad for 10 days during Spring Break. The Spring Break study abroad trips are part of a class that the students are in, Booth said.

‘Those programs started about eight years ago, though the participation rate dropped this year,’ he said.

Booth said this may be because the class that sends them abroad requires an extra fee.

‘People figure they have to pay for their basic education and can’t add on,’ he said. ‘Whereas for a semester program you would be paying for tuition and housing at SU, and then likewise you pay for it abroad.’

There has also been an interest from students in a wider range of majors now choosing to go abroad. SU Abroad works with all of the different SU schools and majors to create programs that work for every student, no matter their course load, Sloane-Garris said.

There are new abroad programs being designed for Martin J. Whitman School of Management students, with Hong Kong becoming an increasingly popular destination, Sloane-Garris said.

Programs for sport management majors, science majors and hospitality majors have also been in the works.

This fall, a trial for a program in Florence, Italy, was launched for hospitality majors to take courses in culinary arts and food management. There were seven students who traveled on the program, and the program is expected to become a permanent option, Booth said.

‘We also developed a music program in Strasbourg (France) that approximately 10 students are currently taking part in. The students are training to be violinists, pianists and are taking courses taught by the SU faculty members at a conservatory in Strasbourg,’ Booth said. ‘The students have indicated that the program gave them confidence as musicians in the performing arts.’

rltoback@syr.edu

Published on December 6, 2009 at 12:00 pm