The All State

Media Credit: Susan Cheek The Study Abroad Fair was held Tuesday, Sept. 30 in the MUC Ballroom. [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: Susan Cheek Interested students were made aware of the broad number of Study Abroad programs and scholarships at the Study Abroad Fair. [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: Susan Cheek Miguel Ruiz-Aviles, coordinator of Study Abroad Spain program, explains scholarship and college credit opportunities to interested students. [Click to enlarge]

APSU will offer many opportunities to venture to foreign lands through the study abroad and exchange programs in upcoming semesters.

Study abroad programs allow students to travel as a group with an instructor to a foreign country to study for a number of weeks. Exchange students travel alone and usually study for a semester or longer. A student from that country will travel here to APSU as well.

APSU currently offers programs in Austria, Quebec, France, Germany, Greece, Spain, Sweden and Taiwan. The university plans to extend the programs to Brazil, China, Italy, Japan, South Korea, the Russian Federation and South Africa.

For those concerned about money, APSU as well as various societies and clubs offer scholarships.

"Estudio Sampere gives me a scholarship in the form of a tuition waiver at the school in Spain. I split that scholarship among two students who have been to Spain before, and that way I may have two assistants who can help new students who are in the program," Miguel Ruiz-Aviles, coordinator of the study abroad program in Spain, said.

"For the exchange program, students pay the same tuition they would pay at APSU, and their financial aid still applies," Culley Carson-Grefe, associate professor of French and Spanish, said.

"The international fee that each student pays as part of their tuition has really helped the program build up a fund that will allow us to create these scholarships, making the programs more available to students," Carson-Grefe said.

Students interested in learning more about the study abroad program were able to attend the Study Abroad Fair on Tuesday, Sept. 30 in the MUC Ballroom. Students met and conversed with advisers and other students involved in the program while sampling foreign cuisine.

"The line stretched all the way across the ballroom," Carson-Grefe said. "The event was hugely successful. It was nice to be able to just sit down at a table and talk to people, rather than stand at a podium and make announcements. Many students had good questions, and I feel they had a great opportunity to get them answered," she said.

"I would recommend going on a study abroad program because it teaches you about the world which is beyond our borders. You can walk down the street and see a 10-year-old building next to one which is 500 or 1,000 years old," Ruiz-Aviles said about Spain.

"They say that here we live to work and over there they work to live. Students enjoy this pace of life very much. They enjoy going to class, then later in the day a trip to a museum, a bullfight in the afternoon and a discotheque at night."

"It is wonderful to be immersed in another culture," Carson-Grefe said. "There is no better way to learn French than to spend time studying in France.

Both professors noticed significant changes in the students that participated in the programs. "I love to see how the level of proficiency in the Spanish language improves for those students who really get themselves involved in the language. Also, for those who are going to be teachers, it is an experience which they can share with their future students," Ruiz-Aviles said.

"The students were much more confident with their French when they returned.

Most who were not previously French majors decided to become them. Some students even lost weight. Nearly all of them wanted to go back, and many usually do," Carson-Grefe said. Students who have participated in the prorams expressed their views as well.

"I can say studying abroad was the best thing I have ever chosen to do. I am much more aware of the world and what it has to offer me," Whitney Strawn, previously an exchange student at Mid-Sweden University, said. "I studied in Sweden on two separate occasions. I was there in the fall of 2006 as well as this past spring semester. I met some amazing people that opened my mind to a lot of things, and I also discovered issues that I am just stubborn about," she said.

"I managed to travel to 25 European countries, which I think is an incredible thing in general, but especially for someone who is only 21 years old. I think going abroad is a great way to learn about yourself, among other things," Strawn said.

Kristine Adams, foreign language major, traveled to Spain and Austria. "I had never really thought about studying abroad or even studying languages, even though I have always loved them. It just fell into my lap," Adams said. "I went to Spain and then came home and decided to study languages."

"Besides visiting all of these amazing places and seeing things so rarely viewed by the world, I got to experience their culture, their foods and their smell," she said.

"Over the course of all my time in the different countries, I have met some amazing people, experienced a different culture in a way that can only be done in person, and fallen in love with a language not my own but which I have made my own. Each person handles their study abroad experience differently, but one thing I think we can all agree on is that it changes our lives in a positive way," Adams said.

For more information about the study abroad and exchange programs at APSU, visit www.apsu.edu/study_abroad.

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