Departing Programs
Access to university-sponsored study abroad opportunities are becoming more limited.
Story by Caroline Kammerer
Design by McKenna Christy and Ellie Sabatino
Over the years, Ohio University has increasingly focused on experiential learning. This includes hands-on education with community engagement, creative activity, internships, leadership, research and studying abroad.
The Office of Global Opportunities (OGO) became a part of the Center for Advising, Career and Experiential Learning in 2023. OGO helps students discover study abroad programs suited for them, along with aiding in any advising or financial information. OGO connects students with a variety of programs, from OHIO credit-based programs to third-party affiliate study abroad providers such as the American Institute for Foreign Study or CIS Abroad.
Kristen Leibensperger in Grenoble, France. Photos provided by Kristen Leibensperger.
On OHIO credit-based programs, the group of students and their supervising professor are all from the university, and the credit from the program is received directly by the school without any interference.
While credit can still be accepted from affiliate providers, students first must fill out Global Experiences Transfer Credit Approval Process paperwork. This process contains additional steps that the OHIO credit programs do not require.
Even though the university encourages international education through studying abroad, there is a decrease in opportunities sponsored by the university, particularly in the Modern Languages Department. The College of Arts and Sciences currently offers two bachelor’s degrees in modern languages, Spanish and French, in addition to minors and certificates in German and Italian.
Aside from the college’s course requirements for all its majors, these require additional language classes, an Oral Proficiency Interview and a minimum of five weeks studying abroad in a country where that language is spoken. However, university-sponsored programs that brought students to these countries with OU professors in the past have since disappeared. Language programs in Austria, China, Ecuador, France, Japan, Mexico, Russia and Spain have been cut, with only Japanese and Italian language programs remaining. Dr. Molly Morrison, associate professor of Italian, has directed a summer language program in Florence, Italy, since 2009. She also led the first group of students studying abroad post-pandemic to Florence on the Tuscan Travel Learn program in 2021. Although it was not a language-based trip like her summer program, students had the opportunity to learn about Italian art, food and culture firsthand.
During the pandemic, OGO had to seek alternatives with which programs to offer and how to offer them since their funding from the school decreased while international travel was banned. Since then, its funding has begun to increase as travel restrictions were lifted. In the fall of 2022, OGO changed its method of determining program offerings. It implemented a proposal process for faculty and staff to propose programs for students.
These proposals would then go on to be reviewed by a committee to decide which experiences to offer. Catherine Marshall has been the director of OGO since 2006 and has worked with the office since 2001, when it was still called the Office of Education Abroad. “We knew going in we can’t fund them all, we don’t have the staff, we don’t have the money, but we wanted to see all the good ideas out there,” she says. “Then, let’s make that catalog that serves as many students as possible.” After the selective proposal process, only one of Morrison’s Italian programs was selected, with many modifications as well.
The program originally included first and second-level Italian language courses and a literature course. Now, the program is designed for students who need to fulfill a language requirement, allowing them to complete it in the five weeks of the trip instead of over the course of a year. The courses will be introductory-level classes, with no additional literature class. Morrison is an advocate for university-sponsored programs over those provided by third-party affiliates. “I think that if a person is looking for a very good program and personal attention, that cannot unfortunately be provided by a third-party program.” says Dr. Molly Morrison, Associate Professor of Italian
Morrison and her class in Florence. Photo provided by Molly Morrison.
“For Ohio University to have their own language-based programs [includes] the aspect of a very good, custom made, first-class program that would be given by an OU faculty [member] with OU students,” Morrison says. “I think that if a person is looking for a very good program and personal attention, that cannot unfortunately be provided by a third-party program.” PROGRAMS However, OGO may be shifting toward third-party providers for language programs in the future.
“I do feel that there’s a place for third-party providers, but I don’t think that they should take precedence over the university having [its] own programs and certainly language programs because they offer benefits that other providers can’t,” Morrison says.
As for the decrease in university-led language programs, Marshall explains that it is because programs like that already exist elsewhere with affiliate providers. “Those full-load programs [with] 15 credit hours, those exist,” she says. “We can help students connect with those, so we’re focusing more on the ones that fit for our students.” Marshall and OGO want to focus on programs that can be unique to OU students and benefit the largest number of them.
This includes hosting programs during winter and spring breaks instead of a full semester or year. “With human and financial resources having limits, [we’re] looking at how we could maximize what we do with facultyled programs in a way that best serves our entire student population,” Marshall says.
These experiences are typically geared toward academic programs with many students, like health sciences or media. There are also a variety of programs that do not pertain to specific majors at all. “I think the value of bringing in different people from different backgrounds is really [important] because that’s life, we are constantly interacting with people who do lots of different things,” Marshall says. While this is beneficial to other students seeking to broaden their worldview, it becomes difficult for modern language students who have had their study abroad programs cut.
While OGO still provides connections through third-party affiliates, participating in an OU-sponsored program is more appealing for some students. Maya Watson is a junior studying media arts production, creative writing and Spanish. In the summer after her freshman year, she participated in the Spanish Language and Culture program in Toledo, Spain -- a program which is no longer offered. “Having the comfort of people and professors from my university and just knowing that my university had my back was a huge part of me feeling comfortable to take the experience in the first place” she says.
“I don’t know how comfortable I would have been if it wasn’t sponsored.” Kristen Leibensperger, a junior studying in physics and French, feels differently about her study abroad program in Grenoble, France, with third-party affiliate Academic Programs International (API). “Personally, I enjoyed going third party because I was meeting a whole new group of people, and it did push me outside of my comfort zone,” Leibensperger says. “I had to be social if I wanted to have friends.” As she worked with a small team from API, Leibensperger felt satisfied with the third-party program she selected.
“[API] gave us all the information we needed for visas, how to get flight deals and they helped you a lot while you were there, which was really nice.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story misattributed Molly Morrison in a quote said by Kristen Leibensperger about API study abroad program opportunities. The error occurred as a result of a design edit.