Perspectives on Study Abroad as Student and Teacher

Study abroad has played a significant role in not only my career trajectory, but also in my growth as a teacher, scholar, and person. My first encounter with an international educational experience occurred when I was a sophomore in high school. For spring break, my Spanish teacher, who also taught French, organized a trip for students to Paris. I remember thinking at the time: “Who would want to do that?”—a clear illustration of my lack of interest in this opportunity. But little did I know then how much my thinking would change in just a few years.

As a first-year undergraduate at UCLA, I enrolled in an Italian language class thinking that it would be fun to learn Italian. And from that class, my interest in Italy and its culture was sparked, leading me to eventually studying abroad in Siena, Italy for a semester during my senior year. That experience was life changing. Not only did my interest and passion for learning about Italy, its culture, its people, and its history increase, but I also grew as a person.  First, the experience of being immersed in a foreign culture and living away from home for the first time gave me confidence in myself and in my ability to accomplish things I had not done before. 

My semester abroad consisted of various moments when I realized my increased confidence and sense of empowerment. One, for example, occurred during my spring break trip when I successfully navigated the Paris metro without knowing French nor having any substantial experience with a subway system since I grew up in Los Angeles and had only taken the London tube a few times prior. Second, having the opportunity to travel to Italy and different countries, experiencing other cultures and interacting with new people in the process, expanded my understanding of the world—one that became more outward looking and dynamic as I continued to think and look beyond environments with which I was familiar and in which I felt comfortable. 

The interest in Italy that was sparked as a first-year undergraduate and study abroad participant contributed to me becoming an historian of modern Italy. Studying Italy’s connections with the United States has afforded me the opportunity to travel to Italy for research and to other parts of Europe for conferences, which has further enhanced my understanding of the world. These international experiences and the perspectives I have gained from them informs the week in Rome I spend with my HIS 1000 students as a faculty leader for the Global Passport Program.

I encourage my students to observe their surroundings and to really take note of what they are experiencing and how it might be different or similar to what they know here on campus or elsewhere in the States, such as the difference between ice cream in the States or gelato in Italy; or, the immensity of history in the Italian capital, whose story stretches much farther back into the past than that of the U.S., and what that tells us about cultural exchange, our place in the world, and being part of an international community. Overall, for my students in the Global Passport Program and all students participating in international educational opportunities, I hope that their international educational experience will have the same significant impact that studying abroad had on me.