Posted by Huiqiang Zhao on
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
As an immigrant from China, I am so happy to have the opportunity to live and study in the U.S because I have gained and learned so much. I feel more self-aware and socially-aware. But for a lot of American students, I encourage you to take advantage of the study tour programs because it gives you a life learning and fulfilling experience. For example, it helps you create global awareness; it helps you promote international security; it helps you enhance academic learning; it helps you develop leadership skills; it helps you advance your career; it helps you experience personal growth; and it helps you learn another language and culture.
Lincoln Commission (2005) says, “For their own future and that of the nation, it is essential that college graduates today become globally competent.” The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad writes that study abroad or study tour is a key element in students’ education for careers and citizenship in a globalizing world. It provides unique opportunities for students to learn about and appreciate cultures and perspectives different from their own, to confront and explore their own assumptions, to achieve greater proficiency in another language and to overcome with the challenge of living in an unfamiliar context.”
Seattle University has been actively promoting the study tour and study abroad programs to all students. Reading thousands of books is not as good as going on a trip. Daft, Douglass H., Chairman and CEO of the Coca Cola Company says, "For almost three decades of my career at The Coca-Cola Company, I lived and worked in Asia. From Singapore to Tokyo to Beijing, I learned about different local cultures by living and working in those cultures. It gave me a profound respect for how people are different, and also for how we are the same.”
Want to hear multiple perspectives from other people who enrolled in the Study Abroad or Study Tour program, please click this link. http://www.seattleu.edu/albers/studyabroad.aspx
Written by Derek Zhao, Email: zhaoh@seattleu.edu