Before college, I had never done anything on my own. I went to events in a group, and trips were with church groups and lots of people. I didn’t even like to go to the mall alone. TLU was the first step out of my bubble. After a while I was ready to take the next step: I wanted to study abroad. So, I chose an internship in London. Over the next two months, I learned the Tube routes, train schedules and made numerous excursions on my own around London and even to Dublin and Paris. In my travels I learned more about my life and culture. I came back a person who knows she can stand on her own and navigate anything.

	Angela Bathe Senior communication studies major

 
Angela Bathe was already a leader on campus – the editor of the student magazine, a Student Ambassador, a sorority officer. But it was by studying abroad that she stepped up to the next level.

Angela Bathe visits the Royal Guard at Buckingham Palace during her internship in London.

The benefits of study abroad programs have long been acknowledged – better understanding of different cultures, increased self confidence, and a catalyst for increased maturity.

Charla Bailey, director of international education, said that by studying abroad students grow personally and develop new skills for reflective learning.

“It stimulates interest in international perspectives, heightens international and global understanding, and helps equip some students for international careers,” she said.

Beginning in their first year, TLU students are encouraged to study abroad through study abroad fairs, integration into classes, and word-of-mouth.

“When students return from studying abroad, they tell their friends. It is the best way to spread the word so that others will take advantage of the program,” said Bailey.

Sarah Joy Mikolajczyk spent last spring studying in New Zealand and traveling around the South Pacific.

“It allowed me to spread my wings and see things from others’ perspective,” she said. “I became interested in study abroad my freshman year with my GEC course. It got me started and showed me how different spheres are integrated. At TLU they really push study abroad and are flexible to make it work in your degree plan.”

After graduation, Mikolajczyk hopes to move to India. “I went there last fall and explored a home for dying and destitute children,” she said. “I hope to teach English, work with my church, and explore and discover new things.” While Mikolajczyk had several experiences traveling internationally, it was the first time abroad for her friend Kathryn Taylor. Taylor also went to New Zealand to study, and her reaction to the experience was just as strong.

Sarah Joy Mikolajczyk and Kathryn Taylor during their semester abroad, studying in New Zealand.

“I loved getting to travel,” Taylor said. She wasn’t sure she would be able to afford to study abroad, but she won the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship, a congressionally funded program administered by the Institute of International Education.

She also found that most of her existing financial aid and scholarships applied to the exchange program.

Taylor studied graphic design at Massey University in Wellington, honing her skills as an artist and web designer.

When students return from a semester or year abroad, they can take a class to help them better understand their emotions and experiences. The class, Cross Cultural Reflections, is designed to close the loop on study abroad and incorporate those experiences into their campus life and life after TLU.

During the class, Taylor explained her first international experience: “My mind was expanded. There were so many lessons I learned. And I am capable of much more than I thought: academically – the program builds confidence; spiritually, I had to rely on God fully and totally; and physically – I became a stronger person.”

Taylor explained that her study abroad experience also helped her focus on a career path.

Kathryn Taylor meets a kangaroo in Australia.

“I gained a new awareness of the world, seeing things from a non-American perspective. There are so many ways of thinking, of understanding. I always wanted to use my graphic designskills for the glory of God – and now I see there is a real need. I could help places anywhere in the world. These ministries need a presence,” she said.

TLU’s international education program offers a variety of opportunities, ranging from programs where students are totally immersed to those that are short, TLU faculty-led classes.

“TLU has been open to having our students experience the level of challenge that they are comfortable with,” said Annette Citzler, professor of economics and chair of the international education committee. “While our students don’t always realize what they are capable of, we try to get them into situations where they can learn how successful they are at coping with things and how ingenious they are in coming up with solutions for problems they encounter.”

Each year less than one percent of American university students study abroad. While the benefits of study abroad are well documented, there are a variety of reasons why more students do not take advantage of the program. Some perceive a lack of fit with their degree plan and the time away from a rigorous campus schedule. For others it is a financial matter, living abroad for a semester or longer and away from a part time job. Because of this, more students take advantage of summer study abroad and short-term, in-house programs led by TLU professors. Most of the courses spend about two to four weeks abroad.

Students gained hands-on experience in the rain forest as they study environmental science in a TLU shortterm class in Costa Rica last summer.

“Even two weeks in a different culture instills in our students a better understanding – and a desire to study abroad longer,” said Alicia Gresham, associate professor of business administration who has led several short-term study abroad classes.

This semester TLU is offering four short-term courses: Global Perspectives (Mexico), Applied Animal Behavior (Norway), International Marketing in the Czech Republic; and the Arts in Central Europe.

Students usually take an on-campus class before leaving for the short-term program. Gresham explained that the class helps the students prepare for cultural differences they will see – such as why there is no toilet paper in Romania (“if you have to use your own, you’re less wasteful”).

“The thing with the short-term program is that you don’t always get out of the tourist mode,” said Bailey. “But for some students – and their parents – it is a relief to go with a group and a leader who knows the country and can deal with customs, language differences, and logistics. We have some students who have never traveled before, and it makes it easier for them. Often, once they have been on a short-term trip, they are ready to study abroad for a longer period.”

“Sometimes you have to just get them to dip their toe in the water, just to give them confidence,” Citzler said. “Putt ing people into a new environment that’s totally unfamiliar and giving them enough support to get through it so they come back thinking they can hang the moon – and some of them go on to do it – that’s exactly what we are supposed to do for them!”

For Marcus Stone going on a short-term study program wasn’t a matter of comfort as much as having a bug to travel. His parents were both in the Air Force and his father is an international pilot, so Marcus has traveled the world with them.

A business major, Stone jumped at the chance to go to with Dr. Gresham to Romania in 2006, and last summer he joined her short-term trip to London and Madrid, studying marketing and international business. He followed that up with a semester abroad in London last fall where he studied marketing and had an internship with the multi-national company Systech.

During last year’s international marketing trip, students (back row, l-r), Ashley Martinez, Aida Del Moral, Joy Sandager, Michael Flagmeier and (front row) Casha Hill and Laurel Perry visit the Reina Sofia in Madrid.

“Being there for a longer period of time you get a much better feel of what the culture is actually like,” he said. “When you go on the short trips you get to see a decent amount of things but you don’t get fully involved in what life is like in those areas.”

His internship resulted in an incredible job offer with Systech in international recruiting based in London. “They would pay for my masters while paying me a salary – then I’d travel all over the world. It is an amazing opportunity,” Stone said.

“And I still have the travel bug,” he said, explaining that he hopes to study in Thailand this summer. “It’s a completely different culture. I like getting thrown out of the box and go to a place where I have no idea where I fit in. I love doing that,” he said.

Working in France

Casey Walther

For Casey Walther, who hailed from the small Texas town of West Columbia and graduated from TLU in 1998, friendship with international students and studying abroad while at TLU led to a life working in the international arena, living in Paris, and making a difference in the world.

“I roomed with three Latin Americans, basically assuring me a foreign experience without even leaving the country, and I studied in Mexico, again providing me an invaluable experience,” he said. “It gave me the insatiable desire to travel and learn. This widened my perspective on the world and on life, and gave me an appetite to go out and try to understand this place we call mother earth and humankind.”

Since he graduated from TLU, Walther has lived abroad most of the time. He earned master’s degrees from Oxford and Schiller International University in Paris and has lived and worked in Germany, England, and France. For the past six years he has been employed by the United Nations system in Paris, working on issues such as sustainable development, the freshwater crisis, African development, and science and technology. In January, he joined the UN World Water Assessment Programme to help assess the impact of climate change on water.

While Walther, a business major at TLU, was fluent in Spanish when he graduated, he didn’t speak French countries. He said that while he is working in the sciences, his TLU business degree does provide him with certain credibility in UNESCO – project management tasks, organizing, and managing.

Walther said he has no plans to move back to the U.S and is applying for French citizenship.

“I love the life and lifestyle of living in Paris – the fact that I don’t have to have a car, the many conversations about world affairs, politics, philosophy with just about everybody without having a fear of offending someone. Paris is a very international city.”


Carolyn Roitsch

A 1973 graduate, Carolyn Roitsch also lives in France where she works for Transgene, a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the discovery and development of gene-based therapeutic vaccines and immunotherapy products for the treatment of cancer and infectious diseases.

Roitsch first went to Germany in 1972 with Dr. Ray Gerhardt during the January “interim” term and spent some time visiting the cathedrals in Strasbourg, France and Basel, Switzerland.

“It was very memorable,” she said, “but I never thought I’d end up living there.”

When she completed her Ph.D. in chemistry and biochemistry from the University of New Mexico, Roitsch considered a number of post doctoral opportunities; she chose one in Basel.

“Because I had been there, I had a vision of what it could be like,” she said. “Of course I found visiting somewhere and actually living there are completely different experiences.” But Roitsch prospered in Basel and after her five-year post doctoral fellowship was over, she knew she wanted to continue in biotech work. She considered jobs in the United States as well as Europe.

“I wasn’t ready to come home yet,” she said, “and so, since Strasbourg is the center of Europe and such a beautiful place – and it’s close to Basel, I decided to move there in 1983. I’ve been here ever since.”

Pictured near her home in Strasbourg, Carolyn Roitsch, right, enjoys a visit from fellow TLU graduates Peggy Brockenbush and (not pictured) Emily Piercy George.

Roitsch said a challenging job in an environment where there was high esteem for American scientists kept her in France. Now a French citizen, Roitsch conducts a patent watch for the research and development team of Transgene.

While her chemistry degree from TLU launched her career, “one thing that was very important to me at TLU was the music in the church,” she said. “I sang in the chapel choir, and while I didn't have much time to dedicate to music, I cherished learning and being so immersed in a place where music was so important.”

Roitsch rekindled that love when she chose to sing classical music in the Strasbourg Concert Choir, singing “Handel’s Messiah” to over 1,000 people on an Easter Sunday in the huge cathedral that she had first seen years ago on her Texas Lutheran trip to Europe.