Presentation Writing

Written By Tara Berry

I created the following presentation for the University of Georgia’s Office of Global Engagement, where the assignment was to talk about “Increasing Study Abroad Participation among Historically Underrepresented Groups at the University of Georgia.”

Transcript of presentation:

First of all, I want to thank you for your time today. And thanks for the opportunity to come and meet you all. I also want to thank you for the opportunity to do a deep dive into the topic of increasing study abroad participation among historically underrepresented students. Let’s get started.

Who are the historically underrepresented?

Currently Open Doors, the US department of State’s sponsored annual report published by the Institute of International Education or IIE ,defines underrepresented students in the following way:

• Black or African American Students

• Latine Students

• Indigenous Students

• Asian Students

Here is an Open Doors snapshot of study abroad participation of their defined underrepresented groups over the last ten years. Participation has grown by about 10% within the underrepresented groups they are tracking.

Open Doors didn’t give a full picture of how we are defining underrepresented student groups on our campuses today. Terra Dotta’s ebook, Diversity in Study Abroad, pointed out: “College students come from a wide variety of backgrounds, and there’s more to diversity than race, ethnicity, and gender.” 

So let’s also add the following categories of students to the list of underrepresented in Study Abroad:

• LGBTQIA+ Students

• First-Generation Students

• Low-Income Students

• Religiously Diverse Students

• Students with Disabilities

Why do we want to increase participation?

A formative study published in 2008 by George Kuh identifies Study abroad (SA) as one of six high-impact practices that produce exceptional educational benefits for students who participate in them.

A wealth of peer-reviewed research also confirms the personal and educational gains achieved through studying abroad, including growth in the following areas:

• Better second language acquisition

• More cognitive, identity, and professional development

• Greater general academic success

• Increased Intercultural Competence  

• Increased global learning

Population forecasts report that people of African American and Latine backgrounds will soon constitute more than half of the U.S. population and a large number of America’s future workforce (Colby & Ortman, 2015). With those predictions, it is not hyperbolic to say that the survival of study abroad programs depends on increasing participation in what will some day be the majority of students.

Since studying abroad builds global competency, the US workforce’s ability to compete globally is linked with study abroad rates. Having diverse student voices in our study abroad programs, and creating programs that allow underrepresented students to flourish bring far reaching benefits to our economy and future. Can we afford to miss the benefits underrepresented groups bring to our programs and their fellow participants?

Of course there are opportunities within these environments for micro aggressions, racism, and mistreatment from fellow participants, but with greater planning, better communication, and preparation, greater opportunities for underrepresented students to have good experiences and gain study abroad benefits can become the norm. We need to do better because the urgency and necessity to have these students participate is growing.

Let’s look at some of the benefits diversity brings to study abroad programs.

As students live together while studying abroad, they experience the culture together during classes, academic outings, and unstructured outings. Close proximity within study abroad housing and programs allows students with different identities to influence each other in positive and enriching ways.

Dr. Patrick Mendis wrote in the Harvard International Review: “After witnessing the horrors of the Holocaust, President Eisenhower likewise recognized that the surest way to break cycles of fear and misunderstanding was for people to understand one another.”

People-to-People, an organization founded by Eisenhower as a result, expands this idea of understanding on their website, stating, “Only through the direct exchange of ideas among people of diverse countries and diverse cultures can the world truly change.”

In the article, “College Students’ Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Participation in Study Abroad,” Kelly M. Bryant and Krista M. Soria report the benefits of study abroad for LGTBTQ students. Along with opportunities to explore their sexual identity outside of their home culture, and in certain countries, opportunities to live in a culture of greater tolerance and inclusivity, the study pointed to the benefit that the students brought to the program: according to the study, by integrating LGTBTQ students, other students grew in their acceptance and inclusion of LGTBTQ individuals.

I believe that this principle can also be extrapolated to all underrepresented student groups as they are effectively included in programs. Religious students seeking to practice their faith in another culture might invite a non-religious or differently affiliated student to join them on a visit to a local temple, allowing both students to experience another aspect of the host culture. A student in a wheelchair might ask a fellow student to join him for a trip to the local market, allowing the fellow student to see firsthand the challenges of navigating the area with a wheelchair. Sharing the life-changing moments of experiencing a new culture has the potential to build bonds that in many situations break down fears of “the other.”

These are some of the traditional barriers for all students who study away, but these barriers may cause more anxiety with underrepresented students.

[Financial] For most students, study abroad costs can cause sticker shock. But for underrepresented students, the financial cost can be even greater than the actual cost of the program when studying abroad means time away from work–sometimes this work is needed to make money for the next semester’s tuition.

[Safety] Students have can have legitimate fears of the unknown, but underrepresented students might add to that a fear of racism, homophobia, lack of accessibility, or violence as they think about studying outside of the U.S. or even within their study abroad program.

[Logistical] Within underrepresented student populations, logistical barriers are sometimes magnified with non-traditional schedules and/or limited finances.

As an example, at Georgia Tech in 2013, study abroad application completion required $250 application fee and a passport number. Everyone who owns a passport has experienced the expense and time that it takes to gather the right forms and ID requirements. There are also the added errands of having your picture taken, and the requirement to fill in the sometimes complicated forms correctly. This process can be an early deterrent for students who have not secured a passport or have not travelled before.

Through researching the Global Engagement and Study Away website, I found many examples of UGA’s success at pulling down these barriers for students. You participate in scholarships for passports, as well as sponsoring mobile passport services, relieving some of the barriers that I just mentioned.

You have excellent representation practices, spotlighting underrepresented students on your social media accounts, and sharing their stories of studying abroad. You publicize a wide variety program lengths to accommodate different needs. You create safe spaces for all students to discuss their hesitancies and concerns. And, you have streamlined your application process.

Roughly 32% of UGA students who study abroad are from underrepresented reported groups. This is in line with national averages, and with university enrollment. BUT, rightly so, the priority is to increase diversity across the institution. The reason that is the case for many institutions is that we want the perspectives and the strengths that underrepresented students bring!

As the university seeks to raise underrepresented student numbers, the office of global engagement plays a part in that, continually seeking to be more effective in outreach to students

Even with strategies and successes, the barriers outlined earlier for underrepresented participating are real and systemic.

Doing the research for this presentation, I sensed the weight and the challenge, so I appreciated Chrystel Perkins and the way she flips the script in her 2020 article in Frontiers.

She writes:

“Considering the wealth of capital students of color [as well as other underrepresented students] possess and bring with them to college is critical to considering the experiences of students…who participate in study abroad programs.”

Here are the capitals Perkins lists that are from Tara Yosso’s community cultural capitals in the Race Ethnicity and Education journal article from 2005:

Aspirational capital, or the ability to transcend obstacles (both real and perceived) while imagining “possibilities beyond their present circumstances."

Linguistic capital, or the ability to communicate in and navigate through various linguistic and cultural settings.

Familial capital, or the connection itself to kin and the community, and a collection of knowledge resulting from relationships with kin (immediate and extended family members, friends, and community members).

Social capital is the social network that “can provide both instrumental and emotional support to navigate through society’s institutions.”

Navigational capital, or ability to remain resilient and excel despite the institutionalized racist or bigoted structures. 

Resistant capital, or ability to leverage oppositional acts, behaviors, and perspectives to challenge dominant narratives and work toward social and racial justice. 

Perkins writes, “These capitals can be summed up in the unique abilities and skills that students have gained to transcend and succeed in the world…specifically gained from their reality of living in the world in their particular underrepresented situations.”

Perkins changes the narrative we often follow when trying to increase participation among underrepresented students. She does this by showing us that these students have super powers within them that more privileged students have not had to cultivate.

This gives greater dignity to underrepresented students, and reminds us to not sell them short! Let’s connect the capitals with our earlier discussion about students influencing each other on a study abroad program: we want underrepresented students to bring these valuable capitals to our study abroad programs, influencing other students in resiliency and new ways of viewing people and the world.

In her article, Perkins also talked about the two forces that most influenced study abroad among students of color. Those were Enabling Networks and Anticipated Gains, and are applicable to most underrepresented students. Enabling networks are individuals, groups, and relationships who give social capital to the decision maker, and anticipated gains are the decision maker’s desire and vision of increased social and cultural capital that will be acquired through study abroad.

This changes the narrative a bit as well because traditionally we depend on other factors to increase participation. One example of this has been a major push to increase representation in study abroad marketing approaches. While this is a great and needed change, Perkins is inviting us to go even deeper into motivations and networks.

With these paradigm shifts, let’s start to look at ways to adjust our engagement practices.

First let’s look at some practical ways to strengthen study abroad participation through enabling networks:

• Increase outreach to parents/families. Plan family informational and orientation events to help family members learn and ask questions while building a network or community that will also experience sending a loved one to a different country. Make details and deadlines easily available for parents and families through your website and parent and family email campaigns. Consider holding zoom meetings for parents throughout the application and orienting process.

• Expand outreach partnerships with student groups on campus. As Study abroad administrators, reach out to student groups on campus –LGBTQ+ Student Groups, Muslim Student Groups, First Generation Student Groups–to build relationships, learn ways to improve programs to welcome diverse students, and specifically invite students to study abroad at meetings and group gatherings.

• Continue to expand diversity representation online, in print, and with student and faculty ambassadors.

• Identify faculty members loved by underrepresented students and invite them to not only champion study abroad, but to lead a specific program to an area that is of interest to underrepresented students.

• Create study abroad opportunities that are majority underrepresented students in a location they choose!

For underrepresented students to understand what they will gain from studying abroad, marketing again plays a big role. In the age of selfies at famous locations, student pictures can unintentionally send the wrong message.

In the article, “The exclusionist framing of study abroad electronic advertising,” Gathogo and Horton write about how these messages can affect students and their enabling networks:

“For minority students, who are more likely than white students to come from low socioeconomic families (W. G. Bowen et al., 2009), paying for study abroad (SA) can seem like an unnecessary expense. When SA ads depict the experience as an adventure and emphasize recreational activities at the expense of academic engagement, students and their families often question the rationale for spending money to go abroad for recreation.”

What’s the solution? Show and illustrate the rich treasure trove of personal and academic benefits that students gain from study abroad:

• Use research-based academic and professional gains in study abroad marketing.

• Promote specific stories of academic and personal successes from study abroad alums. This could be a story of a student gaining a fresh perspective for their field of study at an Exchange Partner University, a student becoming conversational in their foreign language skills, or a student gaining a new level of confidence from trying something new.

• Highlight the academic components of the program, illustrating the benefit of studying the subject in an international location.

• Promote information about work-study abroad opportunities that allow students to gain career experience.

• Gather and promote stories of study abroad alumni who now have successful careers. Interview them about how study abroad benefited them and helped them succeed. 

• Talk about and promote ways to connect study abroad experiences to resumes and job searches. Share stories from local professionals who have hired study abroad alums.

In order for study abroad programs to be a benefit for anyone, they must be a safe place for learning and growth. As administrators prepare students for intercultural communication with host cultures, we must also prepare students to communicate within programs with respect. The first priority for programs is to thoroughly communicate expectations of respectful and inclusive behavior. This means training or amplifying institutional policies and standards….and building a vision for what diversity and inclusivity will bring to the experience. And to do this all continually.

After that, setting goals and benchmarks during strategy sessions will help bring clarity to when and how to adopt different marketing tactics.

Remember to revisit these strategies and benchmarks each application cycle to celebrate successes and adjust based on data and feedback.

With conflicts heavy across the globe, study abroad barriers seem to multiply each day, but building empathetic, globally competent leaders might just help bring the stability and hope that our world desperately craves.

Thank you.