To step outside of your comfort zone is to push yourself. If you’re an introvert, that may come to fruition by engaging with groups larger than you normally choose. On the other hand, extroverts may be challenged to spend some time alone, investing in themselves.
But why? Why challenge yourself? Why step outside of your comfort zone? For students who have completed study abroad trips in the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences, the answer is simple: to grow.
The Bumpers College International Programs Office (IPO) assesses students’ international experiences each year. In these reviews, students share some of the important reasons why they chose to study abroad and how their experiences changed them. The IPO is working to share those experiences.
As students of the food and fiber industry, we commonly discuss what it takes to grow the food we eat and the fibers we use to clothe ourselves in today’s latest fashions. But what we may be missing out on is one facet of this industry that needs cultivation – our students.
Study abroad programs offer exactly what today’s students need before they enter the workforce: cultural cultivation. The experience, the demand for independence, the full immersion into a different culture and society offers students a perspective they simply cannot get in class.
Growing Self
Comparison can sometimes be thought as the “thief of joy.” Without comparison, however, we lose the ability to discern for ourselves the differences between our lives and the lives of others – our “normal” and their “normal.” It is that very comparison that gives students on international experiences the ability to identify how American culture is different and the effects that has on their personal realities.
Take for example Emily Keeling. Keeling is a human nutrition and hospitality innovation major with a concentration in dietetics. Her experience abroad at the La Salle University in Beauvais, France, helped her adapt to unfamiliar circumstances by learning to ask for help from her peers in the program.
By understanding her limitations and making the effort to overcome them, Keeling was able to experience a truth she had always believed in.
“No matter where a person lives, what they eat, or what language they speak, we are all the same people,” said Keeling.
Growing Academics
Witnessing new perspectives helps develop students who travel abroad both personally and academically. Students who study abroad are able to broaden their horizons when it comes to the power of the education they receive here in the United States.
Laura Ortega, a crop science major, participated in a program at the University of Ghent in Belgium that took her understanding of sustainability in agriculture to the next level.
“As a future scientist of the agriculture industry, I believe the topic of sustainability is a key concept to research,” said Ortega. “The European insights gained from the lectures of scientists have enabled me to think more outside the box when dealing with global issues.”
Growing Career
International experiences not only enrich and enhance the personal and academic opinions of students, but also their outlook on professionalism and career prospects.
Students often find immersion into another culture provides them with the purpose they desire to have in a career. Whether that purpose is to find a solution to a problem, to help others or discover new options for people today, international experience can push them in the right direction.
Zachary Tipton, an environmental, soil, and water science major, began to find inspiration for his future career path through the European Agriculture – Food Chain Sustainability program in Ghent, Belgium.
“Every lecture brought new questions that I want to explore,” said Tipton. “I’ve never been so stimulated to go out and solve issues before. The Ghent experience really helped me decide how I want to proceed in my life.”
Whether you chose to go for a week, two weeks, a month or even a whole semester, the impact an international experience has on you is immeasurable. Immersion into another culture and society leads students to open their eyes to worlds and realities not their own; an experience that brings sudden clarity to their career plans, the reason behind their academic endeavors and, perhaps the most impactful, the ability to push past their comfort zone.
For more information about international experiences offered through the Bumpers College, visit http://bumpersinternational.uark.edu.
About the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences: Bumpers College provides life-changing opportunities to position and prepare graduates who will be leaders in the businesses associated with foods, family, the environment, agriculture, sustainability and human quality of life; and who will be first-choice candidates of employers looking for leaders, innovators, policy makers and entrepreneurs. The college is named for Dale Bumpers, former Arkansas governor and longtime U.S. senator who made the state prominent in national and international agriculture.
By: Hanan Southard
