Study Abroad for Low Income or First Gen Students

When I was growing up, my parents made a commitment to take me and my siblings on summer vacations to as many out-of-state locations as possible.   I vividly remember visiting my maternal grandmother in New York City, building sandcastles on the beaches of South Carolina, and pretending to be Rocky Balboa as I ran up the steps in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  

Those traveling experiences were invaluable, in part, because they moved me outside of my geographic comfort zone and taught me the world was meant to be explored. 

Although I have been fortunate enough to visit 23 states, my experiences travelling overseas are limited.  A lack of maturity kept me from travelling or studying abroad as an undergraduate student and I have had the privilege of prioritizing domestic academic opportunities over international opportunities as a graduate student.  I traveled outside of North America for the first time about six years ago and I really wish I had done so sooner.  Traversing Costa Rica broadened my cultural horizons and helped me clarify who I am as a person and an educator.

I recently read an article about the reasons many first-generation students and low-income students are unable to study abroad.  The number of students studying abroad has tripled in the last two decades and institutions of higher education have established satellite campuses and programs in other countries to meet the growing demand.  Sadly, low-income students are far less likely to study abroad for financial and cultural reasons.  More specifically, low-income students are often unable to pay the tuition, airfare, passport application fees, and incidental costs associated with studying abroad.  Low income students may also lack familial support for studying abroad and the cultural capital needed to identify study abroad scholarships and grants. 

As someone who is interested in instructing international service-learning courses in the future, I took the initiative to identify external funding sources for students who want to travel abroad.  NAFSA: Association of International Educators has an extensive list of study abroad scholarships and grants.  All Abroad, an offshoot of the Project for Learning Abroad, Training, and Outreach (PLATO), also provides a pretty robust list of study abroad scholarships.  I encourage all student affairs educators, not just those working in study abroad and international education, to introduce internal and external study abroad funding to their students.  

For many low-income students, studying abroad is seen as an unfeasible opportunity reserved for students who come from affluent families.  I believe it is our duty as student affairs educators to actively dispel this myth.

 Jabari Bodrick is the Assistant Director for Service-Learning and Engagement at the University of South Carolina. He enjoys three-day weekends, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and the musical stylings of Eddie Hazel.