Cornell Abroad 'vets' exchange stories and academic adventures

By Annie Litvak '02

Amid the sounds of a lively folk band, more than 50 undergraduate students shared their adventures in travel and education at Cornell Abroad's reception in the Big Red Barn Aug. 29. The semiannual gathering helps welcome back students from their semesters abroad and introduces some prospective participants to study-abroad veterans.

At the Cornell Abroad undergraduate reception Aug. 29 in the Big Red Barn, Mary Kiang, left, a junior in operations research and industrial engineering who spent the spring semester in Japan, talks with Cornell Abroad director Dick Gaulton. Frank DiMeo/University Photography

Study abroad has evolved into a significant element of the Cornell experience. More than 550 students spent at least one semester abroad last year, studying in more than 40 countries on five continents. The reasons students give for their choices vary from gaining background in a certain culture or learning a new language among native speakers to having an educational experience in a warm-weather environment.

And for some, it's even a return home. Born in Hungary, senior Kata Mihaly moved to the United States at age 10 and has always felt an attachment to her native country. In the spring 2000 semester, Mihaly, a policy analysis and management major, spent a semester in Budapest at the Budapest University of Economic Sciences.

"I took classes, tutored a high school student in English and did an internship at a Hungarian investment company," Mihaly said. "You find out things you never knew about yourself, 'expand your mind' as the cliché goes, and realize that yours isn't the only way of life," Mihaly said of her experience. She added that she is considering moving back to Hungary after completing college.

Eric Gold, a senior economics major, had a similarly eye-opening experience. He spent the fall 1999 semester in Seville, Spain, working on his Spanish and learning about Spanish culture. "It's an experience of a lifetime -- to live within a different culture, in a different country, and to speak a different language for a semester will change your life forever," said Gold. Since his return to Cornell, he has continued his involvement with Cornell Abroad through his work as a peer adviser with the Student Information Team, an organization of students who are committed to promoting study abroad opportunities. "I was anxious to talk about how wonderful my experience was and to make sure as many students as possible know about the opportunities that exist to study abroad," he said.

Uday Ram, a senior majoring in government and economics, attended the London School of Economics during the 1999-2000 academic year. He, too, has gotten involved in spreading the word about Cornell Abroad since his return; Uday will be the Cornell Abroad webmaster in the coming year, having created a site for the Cornell-Brown-Penn UK Centre while in London.

"Although Cornell can be a wonderful place to spend four years of your life, it doesn't hurt to see what the rest of the world has to offer," Ram said.

"Cornell Abroad is constantly changing to give students a diverse set of options to match up with the academic diversity at Cornell," said Dick Gaulton (B.A. '67 and Ph.D. '80), director of the program.

This diversity has given rise to a substantial expansion in the countries of interest for students looking to study abroad. Although the most popular destination is still Europe, with the United Kingdom seeing the majority of study abroad participants, developing countries are gaining appeal both for their exoticism and their opportunities for research.

The Cornell Abroad experience comes in different shapes and sizes. Students can choose from a range of programs, offered either by Cornell or through institutions in the countries to be visited. Programs of study vary in accordance with the academic requirements of Cornell's different colleges. Interested students should begin early to investigate how a semester or year abroad can be part of their Cornell education.

And Cornell Abroad is continuing to identity quality opportunities for student participants and expand the range of offerings. For example, Gaulton said, "We want to promote study abroad in Latin America as part of our goal to broaden our spectrum of opportunities."

For more information about Cornell Abroad and its scheduled informational meetings, visit the program's web site at http://www.einaudi.cornell.edu/cuabroad or come by the Cornell Abroad office at 474 Uris Hall.