Brandi-lin Wilkins'10 and Annie Wright'10 talk about Annie's experience abroad.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Coming Back: When Studying Abroad Makes Home Feel Foreign
Before spring 2009 Annie Wright’10 had never traveled outside the continental United States. Half way through her junior year, Wright left Gordon to study in Latin America for a semester.
“Where the heck am I? I asked myself as the plane landed in San Jose and I saw hundreds of houses with tin roofs crammed together,” said Wright, a social work and sociology major from Yarmouth, ME. In Costa Rica, Wright stayed in a home that had no hot water, no oven, no dishwasher, and no car. Then she found out that Costa Rica has the second highest standard of living in Latin America.
After Wright’s stay in Costa Rica she traveled for eight hours on a bus, then 30 minutes on a rickety boat, and then by horseback until she reached a tiny stick house in a remote part of
Nicaragua. Wright and many other Gordon students who have studied globally wrestle with the contrast between their experiences abroad and at home as they re-enter life at Gordon College.
For some, months of experiences and new ideas can be extremely challenging to live with and require a lot of post trip processing. Muriel Hoffacker’12, a communication arts major from Suffield, CT was not able to understand the profoundness of her experience while studying abroad in Orvieto, Italy.
“I needed the contrast of coming home and experiencing culture shock to realize what had just happened in my life,” said Hoffacker. Though once home, Hoffacker and other returning students struggle to process and make sense of their global experiences.
Hoffacker anticipated an easy transition into Gordon life as she looked forward to reconnecting with friends and sharing her new experiences. “Although I could share my memories of Italy every day, people do not want to hear them.” Hoffacker, like many other students, have found it difficult to process their semester abroad alone.
Associate dean of students, Julie Ray, often speaks with students re-entering Gordon. “Students come back questioning their faith, church, and family,” she said. “While in this transition students don’t know what they can keep from their experience and what they should leave behind.”
Many students returning from abroad struggle to integrate their new understanding of life with old living styles. Wright feels this pull in thinking about economic disparities. “We at Gordon spend so much time addressing poverty that we don’t look at wealth,” she said. “One main thing I took home with me is that poverty corrupts the body but wealth corrupts the soul.”
While students returning to Gordon desire to share their areas of growth, many of their peers don’t seem receptive. “People ask general questions and after I answer them, they say, ‘oh how nice’ and walk away,” said Wendy Redcay’10 who studied in Thailand in the spring of 2009.
Fellow students may seem uninterested but returning students are also responsible for the lack of communication. “They need to make it clear that they need to do some debriefing and out loud processing,” said Julie Ray. “They can’t just assume that their friend knows they have something on their mind.”
After fall semester of her junior year, social work major Brandli-lin Wilkins’10 watched her entire group of friends say goodbye to Gordon and venture into new cultures. “When they came back there were a lot of tears and anger but all I could do was ask questions, listen and let them flip through every picture,” said Wilkins.
For Wright reaching for help outside her group of friends, to professors, has been key in reconciling her transition. “Coping has included finding people who have shared my previous experiences and have thought about the things that I am learning,” said Wright.
While students like Wright seek help to understand their global experiences, many students at Gordon do not. “We can’t force students to debrief,” said Dr. Liesl Smith, assistant director of global education. “We have programs for returning students but out of 80 students who go abroad only around 10 take advantage of the re-entry programs.”
Dr. Smith and the others at the global education office who have lived abroad understand the realities of spiritual floundering and academic struggles that surface after returning home. According to Smith, the pressure of returning to Gordon can be overwhelming and students don’t want to add to their schedules to seek help.
Starting next semester students wishing to satisfy their global understanding core requirements must complete a six hour pre and post trip class. The first class will help students think about what it means to be an American citizen and how they are shaped by American culture. The second post trip class is designed to help students reflect on the things they value from their own culture and the culture they were immersed in. “We want to help them form a new third culture upon coming home,” said Smith. “This class will equip them for the ongoing questioning that they will face.”
By the time senior year rolls around nearly 38% of students have traveled abroad, and those that haven’t know someone who has, says Smith. “You will continue to live in the tension caused by spending time abroad and that is okay,” said Austin Mueller’10 who studied abroad in Costa Rica. “Not all answers will come immediately but there is extreme value for everyone involved in the process.”
“Where the heck am I? I asked myself as the plane landed in San Jose and I saw hundreds of houses with tin roofs crammed together,” said Wright, a social work and sociology major from Yarmouth, ME. In Costa Rica, Wright stayed in a home that had no hot water, no oven, no dishwasher, and no car. Then she found out that Costa Rica has the second highest standard of living in Latin America.
After Wright’s stay in Costa Rica she traveled for eight hours on a bus, then 30 minutes on a rickety boat, and then by horseback until she reached a tiny stick house in a remote part of
Nicaragua. Wright and many other Gordon students who have studied globally wrestle with the contrast between their experiences abroad and at home as they re-enter life at Gordon College.
For some, months of experiences and new ideas can be extremely challenging to live with and require a lot of post trip processing. Muriel Hoffacker’12, a communication arts major from Suffield, CT was not able to understand the profoundness of her experience while studying abroad in Orvieto, Italy.
“I needed the contrast of coming home and experiencing culture shock to realize what had just happened in my life,” said Hoffacker. Though once home, Hoffacker and other returning students struggle to process and make sense of their global experiences.
Hoffacker anticipated an easy transition into Gordon life as she looked forward to reconnecting with friends and sharing her new experiences. “Although I could share my memories of Italy every day, people do not want to hear them.” Hoffacker, like many other students, have found it difficult to process their semester abroad alone.
Associate dean of students, Julie Ray, often speaks with students re-entering Gordon. “Students come back questioning their faith, church, and family,” she said. “While in this transition students don’t know what they can keep from their experience and what they should leave behind.”
Many students returning from abroad struggle to integrate their new understanding of life with old living styles. Wright feels this pull in thinking about economic disparities. “We at Gordon spend so much time addressing poverty that we don’t look at wealth,” she said. “One main thing I took home with me is that poverty corrupts the body but wealth corrupts the soul.”
While students returning to Gordon desire to share their areas of growth, many of their peers don’t seem receptive. “People ask general questions and after I answer them, they say, ‘oh how nice’ and walk away,” said Wendy Redcay’10 who studied in Thailand in the spring of 2009.
Fellow students may seem uninterested but returning students are also responsible for the lack of communication. “They need to make it clear that they need to do some debriefing and out loud processing,” said Julie Ray. “They can’t just assume that their friend knows they have something on their mind.”
After fall semester of her junior year, social work major Brandli-lin Wilkins’10 watched her entire group of friends say goodbye to Gordon and venture into new cultures. “When they came back there were a lot of tears and anger but all I could do was ask questions, listen and let them flip through every picture,” said Wilkins.
For Wright reaching for help outside her group of friends, to professors, has been key in reconciling her transition. “Coping has included finding people who have shared my previous experiences and have thought about the things that I am learning,” said Wright.
While students like Wright seek help to understand their global experiences, many students at Gordon do not. “We can’t force students to debrief,” said Dr. Liesl Smith, assistant director of global education. “We have programs for returning students but out of 80 students who go abroad only around 10 take advantage of the re-entry programs.”
Dr. Smith and the others at the global education office who have lived abroad understand the realities of spiritual floundering and academic struggles that surface after returning home. According to Smith, the pressure of returning to Gordon can be overwhelming and students don’t want to add to their schedules to seek help.
Starting next semester students wishing to satisfy their global understanding core requirements must complete a six hour pre and post trip class. The first class will help students think about what it means to be an American citizen and how they are shaped by American culture. The second post trip class is designed to help students reflect on the things they value from their own culture and the culture they were immersed in. “We want to help them form a new third culture upon coming home,” said Smith. “This class will equip them for the ongoing questioning that they will face.”
By the time senior year rolls around nearly 38% of students have traveled abroad, and those that haven’t know someone who has, says Smith. “You will continue to live in the tension caused by spending time abroad and that is okay,” said Austin Mueller’10 who studied abroad in Costa Rica. “Not all answers will come immediately but there is extreme value for everyone involved in the process.”
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