This summer, we were very fortunate to spend our vacation touring a number of nations in Eastern Europe that were new to us. In addition to engaging in cultural experiences and performances; meeting remarkable people in every community we visited; seeing spectacular art, architecture, and scenery; navigating new languages; and relishing diverse cuisine; we were overwhelmed by a newfound appreciation for the history of the region.

One city we visited has been taken over militarily 144 times since the departure of the Romans. Every community had been shaped by invasions, wars, religious domination, and communism; and yet everywhere we saw resilience, pride, and tempered optimism.

These are the kinds of lessons that cultural immersion and travel make possible. They are at the heart of why study abroad is so meaningful and important. “Educational tourism” has its own value, but real study abroad benefits from meaningful cultural immersion. That is what helps us to really appreciate our place in the world and the complexities each of us faces in an ever more global order.

Modern study abroad turns one hundred this year. In 1923, Raymond Kirkbride, a French professor at the University of Delaware, took a group of students to Nancy, France for intensive language classes, and then they went to Paris to take classes at the Sorbonne. This program was called Junior Year Abroad. It soon became the model for other intensive study abroad programs.

About a decade later, the Junior Year Abroad program was acquired by Sweet Briar College, but stalled for another decade framed by the prelude to and recovery from World War II. It relaunched as Junior Year in France (JYF) in 1948, and over its history, thousands of students from colleges and universities across the Unites States spent a year or semester studying in France on that program. Sadly, it closed in 2020, in part due to the pandemic.

With St. Andrew’s University in Scotland, Sweet Briar also created one of the first international-exchange programs in 1932. Students would complete one year of study at the sister institution as a “regular” residential student.

As Dean at Sweet Briar, I had the privilege to be the Doyen (Dean) of JYF for eight years, which along with some very meaningful administrative endeavors also afforded me with opportunities to attend occasional classes at the Alliance française and to participate in cultural events with our students.

The semester students had life-changing experiences, but when I would ask the year students what was different about the second semester, the response was almost always, “Sometime during the second semester, I started dreaming in French.” That’s immersion.

Study abroad helps us to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of home, it prompts us to consider different worldviews and cultural values, and it challenges us to rethink where each of us fits in a global society.

Immediately following my master’s degree, I was fortunate to participate in the Oxford Summer Seminar, which was sponsored by the University of Massachusetts at Trinity College, Oxford. It was such a formative experience.

I had been given a scholarship that was tied directing a choir from the seminar participants. Most of the students on the program were studying English Literature or Art History, but a group of volunteers from the student body and the faculty came together as a cheery and earnest group. We performed a concert of British music from eight centuries and group of American folksongs and African-American Spirituals. An enormous side benefit was that I could use the chapel as a studio/teaching space.

Studying in Oxford gave me a deep appreciation of the quote, “England and America are two nations divided by a common language,” which is typically attributed to George Bernard Shaw. It was surely even more true in the 1980s than it is now. Culturally, politically, and linguistically, I found myself asking “Why” dozens of times each day. Being at a 900-year-old institution gave a new scale to what working with primary sources could mean, and the tutorial component of my studies has shaped how I teach ever since.

Susquehanna University’s GO (Global Opportunities) program is a remarkable component of our curriculum. Every student has the opportunity to study away. About 95% choose study in another country, but some students select options that immerse them in a culture different from their own within the U.S.

Our students can do this in three ways:

• GO Short — These are usually 2- to 6-week academic experiences led by members of our faculty. They include significant experiential-learning components.
• GO Long — These are semester-long programs, some led by our faculty and many offered by third-party partners who often oversee program affiliated with universities in the host country.
• GO Your Way — These are self-designed projects that are put together with support from our faculty and staff.

All GO programs have three things in common: students must have an immersive experience in a different culture, each GO experience must meet the program’s learning goals, and students complete a pre- and post-experience class. Those classes are unique to Susquehanna. They help students make the most of their GO trips, and they help them interpret what they learned and how they have been changed by the experience.

Our students cite the GO program as one of the most meaningful components of their college careers. Study abroad has been more broadly identified as one of the highest-impact practices in higher education.

What was seen as a bold experiment in 1923 has become a highlight of the collegiate experience.