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A Parent Guide to Study Abroad
Published by the Institute of International Education and the AIFS Foundation, this companion guide to A Student Guide to Study Abroad contains critical information parents need to inform themselves and to support their high school or college student as he or she navigates the study abroad experience. Today's graduates need a global mindset and international experience to compete for jobs. Studying abroad equips students with real-life, hands-on skills that no classroom can match, while opening up a world of personal and professional opportunities. As a parent, you can champion study abroad as an essential component of your child s education. In this guide, packed with practical information written specifically for parents, the authors make a strong case for the importance of parental involvement that can influence and shape a successful cross-cultural experience.
68 pages, Paperback
Published May 1, 2015
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March 18, 2016
High school exchange program coordinators and college study abroad administrators talk about the needs of international students, the needs of host families (when that applies), and the needs, resources, and limitations of the schools we work with. It's a three-legged stool and all three legs need to be solid for a student to succeed.
But the truth is it’s a four-legged stool. Parents can be a key factor. Host parents and teachers may or may not have communication with their students' parents. If they do communicate, it may be rife with cultural and language misunderstandings. Host parents especially sometimes feel that their student's parents do not fully understand what is involved in the cultural exchange experience. Schools rarely have contact with the exchange students’ parents. Yet, solid parent preparation and understanding of the nature of an exchange and study abroad generally are key to a student’s ability to adapt and develop a healthy relationship with his or her host family, school, and community.
Certainly, there are resources about study abroad that can be useful to students’ parents. What we don’t see are books or articles exploring the parental side of the equation. Individual exchange programs and university study abroad programs do provide parent orientations, and they work hard to educate parents. Nevertheless — human nature being what it is — parents may not be able to fully assimilate all the information provided to them. Having an outside source can be invaluable.
Stacie Nevadomski Berdan, Allan Goodman, and William Gertz are trying to be that source. Published by the Institute of International Education (IIE), this book's goal is (as stated by IIE) to “arm[] parents with the right mix of practical information to get involved just enough, while also giving the students the independence to learn and grow on their own.” The three authors, all well-known and experienced international education and study abroad professionals, acknowledge that parent involvement is critical for a student’s success. But as Berdan notes in her introduction, not every parent knows where to begin; and as Goodman notes in his introduction, parents need a plan.
So what do the authors feel parents need to know to be effective? If you were to only look at the chapter titles, you might think it is almost the same advice as that given to students. Chapters in the book include the value of studying abroad; how to find the best program; addressing costs and means of paying for a study abroad program; staying safe and healthy; and how to prepare for success while in another country.
There are some nuances, however, that are different simply because a parent’s perspective is different from that of a student or that of a host family. For one thing, two chapters specifically address parents’ actions during and after a study abroad program. Parents’ knowledge and expectations in these areas an help make or break a student’s successful integration into a host community as well as transitioning back home after three, six, or nine months abroad.
Two minutes into reading the book - indeed, I hadn’t even gotten past the authors’ introductions – I found a perfect example. William Gertz, president and CEO of the American Institute for Foreign Study, compares his own three-month traveling abroad journey many years ago with his daughter’s more recent study abroad experience:
I could go on — there is actually quite a bit in this short 60-page book — but this, in a way, is the nutshell of the book’s messages to parents: help your child choose the program that is right for her, not for you; don’t overuse technology to remind them of what they are missing back home while they are trying to learn a whole new world; and let them learn what it is they went abroad to learn.
The book is intended for parents of U.S. college students. But the themes of what a parent needs to know and think about apply equally to parents whose students are coming to the U.S. and to parents of high school students thinking about a study abroad or exchange program. It’s important to have parental support. It’s important to think about finances. It’s important to think about how you will stay in touch, and how often. It’s important at all ages to “develop a global mindset so that they will be best positioned for success in our competitive, global marketplace,” as Berdan notes.
There is nothing revolutionary in this book. It’s just good, useful advice that all parents should review and periodically refer to while their son or daughter is abroad.
But the truth is it’s a four-legged stool. Parents can be a key factor. Host parents and teachers may or may not have communication with their students' parents. If they do communicate, it may be rife with cultural and language misunderstandings. Host parents especially sometimes feel that their student's parents do not fully understand what is involved in the cultural exchange experience. Schools rarely have contact with the exchange students’ parents. Yet, solid parent preparation and understanding of the nature of an exchange and study abroad generally are key to a student’s ability to adapt and develop a healthy relationship with his or her host family, school, and community.
Certainly, there are resources about study abroad that can be useful to students’ parents. What we don’t see are books or articles exploring the parental side of the equation. Individual exchange programs and university study abroad programs do provide parent orientations, and they work hard to educate parents. Nevertheless — human nature being what it is — parents may not be able to fully assimilate all the information provided to them. Having an outside source can be invaluable.
Stacie Nevadomski Berdan, Allan Goodman, and William Gertz are trying to be that source. Published by the Institute of International Education (IIE), this book's goal is (as stated by IIE) to “arm[] parents with the right mix of practical information to get involved just enough, while also giving the students the independence to learn and grow on their own.” The three authors, all well-known and experienced international education and study abroad professionals, acknowledge that parent involvement is critical for a student’s success. But as Berdan notes in her introduction, not every parent knows where to begin; and as Goodman notes in his introduction, parents need a plan.
So what do the authors feel parents need to know to be effective? If you were to only look at the chapter titles, you might think it is almost the same advice as that given to students. Chapters in the book include the value of studying abroad; how to find the best program; addressing costs and means of paying for a study abroad program; staying safe and healthy; and how to prepare for success while in another country.
There are some nuances, however, that are different simply because a parent’s perspective is different from that of a student or that of a host family. For one thing, two chapters specifically address parents’ actions during and after a study abroad program. Parents’ knowledge and expectations in these areas an help make or break a student’s successful integration into a host community as well as transitioning back home after three, six, or nine months abroad.
Two minutes into reading the book - indeed, I hadn’t even gotten past the authors’ introductions – I found a perfect example. William Gertz, president and CEO of the American Institute for Foreign Study, compares his own three-month traveling abroad journey many years ago with his daughter’s more recent study abroad experience:
When my daughter went abroad during her junior year, I was excited for her. I wanted her to have “my” experience” (first mistake). But life is different nowadays, and you can’t really unplug. While she was studying in Florence, we spent far too much time talking on Skype and communicating via Facebook. We were always connected; and while this was comforting for us both, it may have hampered the freedom she needed—the freedom of spirit, exploration, and trial and error that I had. Still, she came home a more confident, more accomplished young woman.
Her study abroad program was superbly organized down to every detail, perfect for the millennial generation, complete with ample hand holding. Days packed with detailed itineraries including learning excursions; volunteering trips and language courses were quite the contrast to my backpacking, hostel-hopping days of self discovery. Traveling by air on weekends, she probably had fewer adventures than I had traveling by rail. But I had to remember, this was her experience, not mine.
My strong advice is this: let your children breathe. Don’t call too much, don’t solve all their problems, let them make their own mistakes and find their own path.
I could go on — there is actually quite a bit in this short 60-page book — but this, in a way, is the nutshell of the book’s messages to parents: help your child choose the program that is right for her, not for you; don’t overuse technology to remind them of what they are missing back home while they are trying to learn a whole new world; and let them learn what it is they went abroad to learn.
The book is intended for parents of U.S. college students. But the themes of what a parent needs to know and think about apply equally to parents whose students are coming to the U.S. and to parents of high school students thinking about a study abroad or exchange program. It’s important to have parental support. It’s important to think about finances. It’s important to think about how you will stay in touch, and how often. It’s important at all ages to “develop a global mindset so that they will be best positioned for success in our competitive, global marketplace,” as Berdan notes.
There is nothing revolutionary in this book. It’s just good, useful advice that all parents should review and periodically refer to while their son or daughter is abroad.
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