http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D90LIKGO0&show_article=1
Crazy ants are invading Texas! Now that’s a story. This fairly uncommon ant species known as the crazy ant has been imported by what they think was a cargo ship from Houston. The ants are extremely small, the size of fleas, and they move extremely fast.
The good thing about them is that they eat red fire ants that are notorious in Texas during the summer months. But crazy ants are also known to eat lady bugs, and prey on hatching eggs. They also bite people, but not with a stinger like fire ants.
The odd thing is that these ants are looming towards electrical cords on houses. Scientists don’t know why but they are attracted to them so much that with their numbers, they eventually short electrical wires. What a pain for Texans.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
blog post 4
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D90KSE100&show_article=1
Now, I understand we are all able to have freedom of religion, but now aliens are considered God’s children? Rev. Jose Gabriel Fumes, the Vatican Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, stated that believing in aliens does not contradict their faith as they would still be considered creations of God.
Is it just me, or does that seem a little off? I’ve traveled to the Vatican and it doesn’t seem as if that would be acceptable. It’s a strict Catholic church from what I gather. But I guess that since we haven’t really even discovered any extraterrestrial beings, there isn’t really room to argue.
Now, I understand we are all able to have freedom of religion, but now aliens are considered God’s children? Rev. Jose Gabriel Fumes, the Vatican Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, stated that believing in aliens does not contradict their faith as they would still be considered creations of God.
Is it just me, or does that seem a little off? I’ve traveled to the Vatican and it doesn’t seem as if that would be acceptable. It’s a strict Catholic church from what I gather. But I guess that since we haven’t really even discovered any extraterrestrial beings, there isn’t really room to argue.
Blog #3
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080514/oil_prices.html?.v=7
As the price of oil begins to grow, the more pissed off I become. Oil trade analyzers say that gas is $0.67 higher than last year, with its peak hitting at Memorial Day weekend. The price of gas, which is now at an average of at least $3.75, (even though I pay $4.00), is supposed to get lower after the upcoming holiday like it does every year. But now they are saying that it might not!
How are people like me supposed to afford this! I get I should be riding a bike to work, and maybe not taking 2 trips a day to the local Starbucks coffee shop for my caffeine fix. I guess we all can’t do everything right.
As the price of oil begins to grow, the more pissed off I become. Oil trade analyzers say that gas is $0.67 higher than last year, with its peak hitting at Memorial Day weekend. The price of gas, which is now at an average of at least $3.75, (even though I pay $4.00), is supposed to get lower after the upcoming holiday like it does every year. But now they are saying that it might not!
How are people like me supposed to afford this! I get I should be riding a bike to work, and maybe not taking 2 trips a day to the local Starbucks coffee shop for my caffeine fix. I guess we all can’t do everything right.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Blog Post 2
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/13/business/food.php
With our energy crisis looming, it is easy for Americans to blame countries like India and China for their high energy use. But researchers have realized that per capita, those countries use up far more resources than that of China or India.
Now critics from India are asking Americans to ‘go on a diet’, and they are ‘eating 50 percent more calories than the average person in India. They can assume that if Americans ate less, there would be more food for people is starving countries. The US is also the largest consumer of beef, which also seems to be the most costly to produce and process.
Seems like Americans are doing more harm than good, maybe we should go on a diet.
With our energy crisis looming, it is easy for Americans to blame countries like India and China for their high energy use. But researchers have realized that per capita, those countries use up far more resources than that of China or India.
Now critics from India are asking Americans to ‘go on a diet’, and they are ‘eating 50 percent more calories than the average person in India. They can assume that if Americans ate less, there would be more food for people is starving countries. The US is also the largest consumer of beef, which also seems to be the most costly to produce and process.
Seems like Americans are doing more harm than good, maybe we should go on a diet.
Blog Post 1
http://www.mercurynews.com/television/ci_9246882
The struggling CW network is at it again. As its shows have been nothing but mediocre, its new hit stems from the ever so popular 90210.
Jeanie Garth, one of the old cast mates, is going to reappear as the high schools guidance counselor. Probably the shows only hope to succeed. The updated version of 90210 will follow two rcih high school girls as they find their path through their ritzy lifestyles. Go figure…this show sounds like a winner.
The CW network should just give up and be bought by a larger network. Leave with some dignity, please!
The struggling CW network is at it again. As its shows have been nothing but mediocre, its new hit stems from the ever so popular 90210.
Jeanie Garth, one of the old cast mates, is going to reappear as the high schools guidance counselor. Probably the shows only hope to succeed. The updated version of 90210 will follow two rcih high school girls as they find their path through their ritzy lifestyles. Go figure…this show sounds like a winner.
The CW network should just give up and be bought by a larger network. Leave with some dignity, please!
Scholarly Journal-REWRITE #2
Heather Holdorf Scholarly Journal-REWRITE #2
In the journal by Karin Fischer, “Study-Abroad Officials Feel the Dollar’s Plunge,” in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Fischer explains the loss in value of the dollar and the effects it has on students when they are trying to travel abroad.
Instead of traveling to the popular western European Countries, students are almost being forced to chose different places to study. Students have been choosing less popular countries such as Argentina, Chile, China and Hong Kong. The dollar has a much more significant value than it does against the Euro.
The loss of value in the dollar may deter students from Europe, but the rates of students traveling abroad are still on the rise. Fischer states that no matter what happens with our economy, students are still interested in going overseas; that will never change.
Students are also choosing shorter terms for their time abroad to be more cost effective. The long 1 year terms are becoming less popular than the semester terms. It’s becoming much more logical for students to do a shorter terms.
This journal helps my paper because it gives me the logical view of the struggles students face trying to travel abroad. This is something that has held me back as well as many other students I’m sure.
Study-Abroad Officials Feel the Pain of Dollar's Plunge. (cover story)Find More Like This
Authors:
Fischer, Karin
Source:
Chronicle of Higher Education; 12/14/2007, Vol. 54 Issue 16, pA1-A24, 3p, 2c
Abstract:
The article discusses how the falling value of the dollar has effected college and university study abroad programs. Brian J. Whalen of the Forum on Education Abroad states that the deflation of the dollar has forced some colleges to charge students more to travel overseas. It is noted by Geoffrey Bannister of Cultural Experiences Abroad (CEA) that Europe's conversion to the euro has made the value of the dollar more obvious. Truett Cates of Austin College discusses the need to evaluate the costs of study abroad programs as it fluctuates with the value of the dollar so that students can save accordingly. One alternative is for schools to adopt programs to non-traditional countries such as those in South America or Africa.
-Increase in costs could hamper efforts to attract low-income students
As the dollar dips to all-time lows, study-abroad programs are feeling financial pressure, forcing colleges to cut costs, tap reserve funds, or increase charges to students.
In the last year alone, the dollar's value has tumbled 5 percent against the pound, 7 percent against the yen, 10 percent against the euro, and 14 percent against the Canadian dollar. Brian J. Whalen, president of the Forum on Education Abroad, an independent organization of study-abroad providers, estimates that the dollar's performance has forced colleges' study-abroad costs to rise 10 percent to 15 percent over the last several years.
Currency fluctuations, and their effect on study abroad, are nothing new, of course. In the early 1990s, the enrollment of American students in Japanese institutions fell nearly 15 percent thanks largely to unfavorable exchange rates.
Still, the dollar's recent deterioration comes amid efforts to encourage more students to study abroad. Especially worrisome, educators say, is that the dollar has taken one of its sharper slides in Europe, which absorbs some 58 percent of all U.S. students who study abroad, according to the Institute of International Education.
Western Europe's conversion to the euro has made the dollar's crash particularly noticeable. "In the past, we weren't facing a unified bloc like Europe," says Geoffrey Bannister, president and chief academic officer of Cultural Experiences Abroad, or CEA, a for-profit provider of study-abroad programs.
Thus far the dollar's weakness appears to have done little to dampen American students' enthusiasm for studying overseas. But study-abroad officials are concerned that a protracted decline in the dollar, which many expect, could prevent some low-income students from traveling abroad to study and shorten visits.
They say the drop in the dollar may also accelerate trends toward study in nontraditional destinations, where a dollar stretches farther.
Controlling Costs
Study-abroad administrators, however, are grappling with a more-immediate challenge: how to control costs for students already abroad and for those about to depart for January-term or spring-semester trips.
Setting fees has become a guessing game. Since the fall semester began, the value of the euro has increased more than 8.5 percent against the dollar, upending budgets.
"It wasn't that long ago that I was budgeting for a worst-case scenario of $1.45," Catherine C. Marshall, director of education abroad at Ohio University, said of the euro's value late last month. "Yesterday it was $1.48."
At Austin College, a small, liberal-arts institution in Texas, the falling value of the dollar has meant resetting fees for many of its four-week January programs. The price for one of the faculty-led trips, a course in Greece focusing on classical mythology and history, has been adjusted four times since it was first listed in May, from $3,955 to $4,283.
Truett Cates, director of Austin's study-abroad office, says that although just one student has withdrawn from an overseas trip because of the increased expense, he worries about constantly recalculating fees, which many students begin paying 10 months in advance. He says he has asked faculty organizers to look for savings and is exploring paying more of the costs upfront to avoid further drops in value.
"I don't want to nickel-and-dime students," Mr. Cates says.
Other program directors say they are renegotiating arrangements with local providers, cutting back on side excursions, and making contingency plans if costs continue to soar. Eric Lund, director of international and off-campus studies at St. Olaf College, in Minnesota, says he has done away with several lectures he had planned on a trip he will lead this January to South Africa, saving the cost of speakers' fees.
Mr. Lund said St. Olaf officials have been supportive of overseas study, recently increasing his office's budget by $300,000 to support semester-long programs abroad. Elsewhere, study-abroad administrators say they have been able to mitigate recent cost swings with supplemental funds or by dipping into reserves. Dickinson College is diverting about 2 percent of its revenue from study-abroad fees to ensure that it has adequate reserves to cover extra expenses, said Mr. Whalen, who is also associate dean and executive director of the Office of Global Education there.
Overhead Expenses
Campuses with larger study-abroad programs also can hedge against currency shifts by buying euros and pounds on the futures market, locking in guaranteed rates.
Buying currency ahead of time can shield colleges from midyear surprises, but institutions that operate their own centers abroad still are paying more for rent, utilities, and faculty salaries as the dollar falters.
Dartmouth College, for example, pays a daily stipend in euros rather than dollars to faculty directors on its European programs, so they are not penalized by the exchange rate, says Lindsay J. Whaley, associate dean of the faculty for international and interdisciplinary studies.
Some officials are seeking less-expensive ways to structure their programs. Dickinson has added fall-term and academic-year options on its study-abroad program in Cameroon and is considering expanding other single-semester programs to make more efficient use of existing infrastructure. Syracuse University recently opened an overseas center in Beijing but in the future may look to establish more cooperative agreements and exchanges with foreign universities, which have fewer overhead costs, says Daeya M. Malboeuf, an associate director of study abroad at the university.
Experts say that if the dollar continues to stagnate, it could drive more students toward less-pricey short-term study-abroad programs, which have grown in popularity in recent years.
And while no institution said it had plans to pull out of Paris or leave London behind, rising prices could further fuel a growing shift toward studying in less-traditional locations in Africa, Asia, and South America, where exchange rates are more favorable. Mr. Bannister of CEA says the number of students enrolling in his group's program in Buenos Aires this spring is up 52 percent over a year ago, while those going to Prague, which has not yet converted to the euro, has increased by 150 percent.
"Paradoxically, there's a good side to the dollar's decline because it's causing students to look at different destinations," he said.
To date, however, most campus-based administrators say the dollar's tumble appears to have had little influence on students' choices, in part because of college's efforts to lessen the impact and in part because the steepest declines against the euro have occurred so recently.
But study-abroad officials say they worry that sticker shock could deter the very students they are trying to encourage to study overseas -- those from low-income households -- from going abroad. Several institutions say they are working to expand the amount of need-based aid available to students studying abroad. Daytona Beach Community College, for one, is trying to set up a long-term fund to pay for scholarships to study overseas.
John K. Hudzik, vice president for global engagement and strategic projects at Michigan State University, says colleges need to find ways to control costs "or we risk reducing access and squeezing out kids on the lower rungs of the economic ladder."
PHOTO (COLOR): Daniel M. Asquino, president of Mount Wachusett Community College, inspects wood chips used to heat his institution. The wood is from renewable forests and so does not contribute to greenhouse warming, he says.
In the journal by Karin Fischer, “Study-Abroad Officials Feel the Dollar’s Plunge,” in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Fischer explains the loss in value of the dollar and the effects it has on students when they are trying to travel abroad.
Instead of traveling to the popular western European Countries, students are almost being forced to chose different places to study. Students have been choosing less popular countries such as Argentina, Chile, China and Hong Kong. The dollar has a much more significant value than it does against the Euro.
The loss of value in the dollar may deter students from Europe, but the rates of students traveling abroad are still on the rise. Fischer states that no matter what happens with our economy, students are still interested in going overseas; that will never change.
Students are also choosing shorter terms for their time abroad to be more cost effective. The long 1 year terms are becoming less popular than the semester terms. It’s becoming much more logical for students to do a shorter terms.
This journal helps my paper because it gives me the logical view of the struggles students face trying to travel abroad. This is something that has held me back as well as many other students I’m sure.
Study-Abroad Officials Feel the Pain of Dollar's Plunge. (cover story)Find More Like This
Authors:
Fischer, Karin
Source:
Chronicle of Higher Education; 12/14/2007, Vol. 54 Issue 16, pA1-A24, 3p, 2c
Abstract:
The article discusses how the falling value of the dollar has effected college and university study abroad programs. Brian J. Whalen of the Forum on Education Abroad states that the deflation of the dollar has forced some colleges to charge students more to travel overseas. It is noted by Geoffrey Bannister of Cultural Experiences Abroad (CEA) that Europe's conversion to the euro has made the value of the dollar more obvious. Truett Cates of Austin College discusses the need to evaluate the costs of study abroad programs as it fluctuates with the value of the dollar so that students can save accordingly. One alternative is for schools to adopt programs to non-traditional countries such as those in South America or Africa.
-Increase in costs could hamper efforts to attract low-income students
As the dollar dips to all-time lows, study-abroad programs are feeling financial pressure, forcing colleges to cut costs, tap reserve funds, or increase charges to students.
In the last year alone, the dollar's value has tumbled 5 percent against the pound, 7 percent against the yen, 10 percent against the euro, and 14 percent against the Canadian dollar. Brian J. Whalen, president of the Forum on Education Abroad, an independent organization of study-abroad providers, estimates that the dollar's performance has forced colleges' study-abroad costs to rise 10 percent to 15 percent over the last several years.
Currency fluctuations, and their effect on study abroad, are nothing new, of course. In the early 1990s, the enrollment of American students in Japanese institutions fell nearly 15 percent thanks largely to unfavorable exchange rates.
Still, the dollar's recent deterioration comes amid efforts to encourage more students to study abroad. Especially worrisome, educators say, is that the dollar has taken one of its sharper slides in Europe, which absorbs some 58 percent of all U.S. students who study abroad, according to the Institute of International Education.
Western Europe's conversion to the euro has made the dollar's crash particularly noticeable. "In the past, we weren't facing a unified bloc like Europe," says Geoffrey Bannister, president and chief academic officer of Cultural Experiences Abroad, or CEA, a for-profit provider of study-abroad programs.
Thus far the dollar's weakness appears to have done little to dampen American students' enthusiasm for studying overseas. But study-abroad officials are concerned that a protracted decline in the dollar, which many expect, could prevent some low-income students from traveling abroad to study and shorten visits.
They say the drop in the dollar may also accelerate trends toward study in nontraditional destinations, where a dollar stretches farther.
Controlling Costs
Study-abroad administrators, however, are grappling with a more-immediate challenge: how to control costs for students already abroad and for those about to depart for January-term or spring-semester trips.
Setting fees has become a guessing game. Since the fall semester began, the value of the euro has increased more than 8.5 percent against the dollar, upending budgets.
"It wasn't that long ago that I was budgeting for a worst-case scenario of $1.45," Catherine C. Marshall, director of education abroad at Ohio University, said of the euro's value late last month. "Yesterday it was $1.48."
At Austin College, a small, liberal-arts institution in Texas, the falling value of the dollar has meant resetting fees for many of its four-week January programs. The price for one of the faculty-led trips, a course in Greece focusing on classical mythology and history, has been adjusted four times since it was first listed in May, from $3,955 to $4,283.
Truett Cates, director of Austin's study-abroad office, says that although just one student has withdrawn from an overseas trip because of the increased expense, he worries about constantly recalculating fees, which many students begin paying 10 months in advance. He says he has asked faculty organizers to look for savings and is exploring paying more of the costs upfront to avoid further drops in value.
"I don't want to nickel-and-dime students," Mr. Cates says.
Other program directors say they are renegotiating arrangements with local providers, cutting back on side excursions, and making contingency plans if costs continue to soar. Eric Lund, director of international and off-campus studies at St. Olaf College, in Minnesota, says he has done away with several lectures he had planned on a trip he will lead this January to South Africa, saving the cost of speakers' fees.
Mr. Lund said St. Olaf officials have been supportive of overseas study, recently increasing his office's budget by $300,000 to support semester-long programs abroad. Elsewhere, study-abroad administrators say they have been able to mitigate recent cost swings with supplemental funds or by dipping into reserves. Dickinson College is diverting about 2 percent of its revenue from study-abroad fees to ensure that it has adequate reserves to cover extra expenses, said Mr. Whalen, who is also associate dean and executive director of the Office of Global Education there.
Overhead Expenses
Campuses with larger study-abroad programs also can hedge against currency shifts by buying euros and pounds on the futures market, locking in guaranteed rates.
Buying currency ahead of time can shield colleges from midyear surprises, but institutions that operate their own centers abroad still are paying more for rent, utilities, and faculty salaries as the dollar falters.
Dartmouth College, for example, pays a daily stipend in euros rather than dollars to faculty directors on its European programs, so they are not penalized by the exchange rate, says Lindsay J. Whaley, associate dean of the faculty for international and interdisciplinary studies.
Some officials are seeking less-expensive ways to structure their programs. Dickinson has added fall-term and academic-year options on its study-abroad program in Cameroon and is considering expanding other single-semester programs to make more efficient use of existing infrastructure. Syracuse University recently opened an overseas center in Beijing but in the future may look to establish more cooperative agreements and exchanges with foreign universities, which have fewer overhead costs, says Daeya M. Malboeuf, an associate director of study abroad at the university.
Experts say that if the dollar continues to stagnate, it could drive more students toward less-pricey short-term study-abroad programs, which have grown in popularity in recent years.
And while no institution said it had plans to pull out of Paris or leave London behind, rising prices could further fuel a growing shift toward studying in less-traditional locations in Africa, Asia, and South America, where exchange rates are more favorable. Mr. Bannister of CEA says the number of students enrolling in his group's program in Buenos Aires this spring is up 52 percent over a year ago, while those going to Prague, which has not yet converted to the euro, has increased by 150 percent.
"Paradoxically, there's a good side to the dollar's decline because it's causing students to look at different destinations," he said.
To date, however, most campus-based administrators say the dollar's tumble appears to have had little influence on students' choices, in part because of college's efforts to lessen the impact and in part because the steepest declines against the euro have occurred so recently.
But study-abroad officials say they worry that sticker shock could deter the very students they are trying to encourage to study overseas -- those from low-income households -- from going abroad. Several institutions say they are working to expand the amount of need-based aid available to students studying abroad. Daytona Beach Community College, for one, is trying to set up a long-term fund to pay for scholarships to study overseas.
John K. Hudzik, vice president for global engagement and strategic projects at Michigan State University, says colleges need to find ways to control costs "or we risk reducing access and squeezing out kids on the lower rungs of the economic ladder."
PHOTO (COLOR): Daniel M. Asquino, president of Mount Wachusett Community College, inspects wood chips used to heat his institution. The wood is from renewable forests and so does not contribute to greenhouse warming, he says.
Scholarly Journal-REWRITE #1
Heather Holdorf Scholarly Journal-REWRITE #1
The journal, “Effects of Study Abroad Participation on Student Graduation Rates: A Study of Three Incoming Freshman Cohorts at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities,” reflects on the effects studying abroad has on college students. There are positive and negative effects of traveling abroad including higher graduation rates for students that are behind and the advantages of traveling abroad as well.
Students that are more at risk of graduation, including students that are on the 6 or 7 year plan, are encouraged to study abroad as it may help them become more focused as there are able to get credit abroad. Not only are the students being able to experience a different culture but they are able to stay focused on school as well. The study has found that the more students that go abroad are becoming more successful when they would otherwise not be.
This study about 2 groups of incoming freshman is really trying to target the affects of traveling abroad. The study found that students that were likely to graduate in 5 or 6 years weren’t affected by traveling abroad, in comparison to the group that staying in the states.
This study is beneficial for my article on the stuggles of San Jose State student’s looking to travel abroad, because an issue that holds students back is exactly this. Students are afraid of what can happen if they do ‘step out of the box’ and go abroad. This journal solidifies the fact that it is possible to have this amazing experience and still graduate on time.
Effects of Study Abroad Participation on Student Graduation Rates:
A Study of Three Incoming Freshman Cohorts at the University of
Minnesota,Twin Cities
Jodi Malmgren, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
James Galvin, University of California, San Diego
Study abroad participation is increasing.
National and institutional resources are being
devoted to internationalization. Assessments stress
the importance of learning outcomes among study
abroad participants. The confluence of these influences
led the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities,
to gather data on graduation rates of study abroad
participants and compare them to those of nonparticipants.
We analyzed the data and the patterns
that emerge among subsets of the students by
college of enrollment and for students of color. The
data suggest that study abroad participation may
not harm graduation rates and that it is highly correlated
with high graduation rates among underprepared
and at-risk undergraduates as well as
students of color.We highlight the implications of
the study for academic advisors.
KEY WORDS: advising-as-teaching, at-risk students,
developmental advising, retention, students
of color
Relative Emphasis: practice, research, theory
Educational Outcomes of Study Abroad
Internationalization
In 2001, the American Council on Education
found that 75% of the public, with broad representation
across gender and education levels, believe
that college students should study abroad. High
school students intend to fulfill those expectations;
48% of surveyed college-bound seniors wanted to
study abroad and another 28% planned an internship
abroad (Hayward & Siaya, 2001, pp. 21–25).
While actual participation rates fall short of these
expectations, study abroad participation and diversity
of destination have increased nationally.
Between the 1994-95 and the 2004-05 academic
years, study abroad participation increased 144%
to over 205,000 U.S. students. Nontraditional destinations,
such as Argentina (up 53%) and China (up
35% on the heels of a 90% increase the previous
year), grew in popularity between 2003-04 and
2004-05. Of the top 20 destinations in 2004-05, only
5 are English speaking and 11 are outside Europe
(Institute of International Education, 2006).
Education abroad and its importance gained
U.S. government attention in 2007 with the Senator
Paul Simon Study Abroad Foundation Act. If signed
into law, the act will leverage institutional and governmental
resources to enable more than 1 million
students to go abroad annually by the year 2017. It
will also increase diversity among both participants
and destinations. The act would supplement
existing governmental scholarships and funding
for language study and help make international
study an affordable reality for many more students
than currently study overseas.
Assessing Educational Outcomes
National and institutional calls for greater
accountability parallel the rise in study abroad participation.
Study abroad is clearly a global educational
phenomenon, a “growth industry” in higher
education, and contributes to broader internationalization
efforts in colleges and universities.
In an era of ever-greater accountability and
cost-benefit analysis, hard evidence is being
demanded to demonstrate that investments in
various forms of education, including study
abroad, are worthy ones that are realizing their
learning objectives. (Paige, Cohen, & Shively,
2004, p. 253)
Outcomes assessments are being conducted by
researchers to determine the effects of study abroad
on students’ intercultural competence and global
awareness (Chieffo & Griffiths, 2004; Medina-
Lopez-Portillo, 2004), language proficiency (Engle
& Engle 2004; Segalowitz et al., 2004), disciplinespecific
expectations (Dibiasio & Mello, 2004),
as well as career goals and outcomes (Orahood,
Kruze, & Easley Pearson, 2004). Several of these
variables have been researched simultaneously in
individual studies (Ingraham & Peterson, 2004;
Vande Berg, Balkcum, Scheid, & Whalen, 2004).
Broad-based assessments of student engagement
point to positive outcomes of in-depth educational
activities (e.g., study abroad or learning
communities) on student learning and development.
George Kuh, a long-term researcher of student
development and engagement, stated, “Among
The journal, “Effects of Study Abroad Participation on Student Graduation Rates: A Study of Three Incoming Freshman Cohorts at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities,” reflects on the effects studying abroad has on college students. There are positive and negative effects of traveling abroad including higher graduation rates for students that are behind and the advantages of traveling abroad as well.
Students that are more at risk of graduation, including students that are on the 6 or 7 year plan, are encouraged to study abroad as it may help them become more focused as there are able to get credit abroad. Not only are the students being able to experience a different culture but they are able to stay focused on school as well. The study has found that the more students that go abroad are becoming more successful when they would otherwise not be.
This study about 2 groups of incoming freshman is really trying to target the affects of traveling abroad. The study found that students that were likely to graduate in 5 or 6 years weren’t affected by traveling abroad, in comparison to the group that staying in the states.
This study is beneficial for my article on the stuggles of San Jose State student’s looking to travel abroad, because an issue that holds students back is exactly this. Students are afraid of what can happen if they do ‘step out of the box’ and go abroad. This journal solidifies the fact that it is possible to have this amazing experience and still graduate on time.
Effects of Study Abroad Participation on Student Graduation Rates:
A Study of Three Incoming Freshman Cohorts at the University of
Minnesota,Twin Cities
Jodi Malmgren, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
James Galvin, University of California, San Diego
Study abroad participation is increasing.
National and institutional resources are being
devoted to internationalization. Assessments stress
the importance of learning outcomes among study
abroad participants. The confluence of these influences
led the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities,
to gather data on graduation rates of study abroad
participants and compare them to those of nonparticipants.
We analyzed the data and the patterns
that emerge among subsets of the students by
college of enrollment and for students of color. The
data suggest that study abroad participation may
not harm graduation rates and that it is highly correlated
with high graduation rates among underprepared
and at-risk undergraduates as well as
students of color.We highlight the implications of
the study for academic advisors.
KEY WORDS: advising-as-teaching, at-risk students,
developmental advising, retention, students
of color
Relative Emphasis: practice, research, theory
Educational Outcomes of Study Abroad
Internationalization
In 2001, the American Council on Education
found that 75% of the public, with broad representation
across gender and education levels, believe
that college students should study abroad. High
school students intend to fulfill those expectations;
48% of surveyed college-bound seniors wanted to
study abroad and another 28% planned an internship
abroad (Hayward & Siaya, 2001, pp. 21–25).
While actual participation rates fall short of these
expectations, study abroad participation and diversity
of destination have increased nationally.
Between the 1994-95 and the 2004-05 academic
years, study abroad participation increased 144%
to over 205,000 U.S. students. Nontraditional destinations,
such as Argentina (up 53%) and China (up
35% on the heels of a 90% increase the previous
year), grew in popularity between 2003-04 and
2004-05. Of the top 20 destinations in 2004-05, only
5 are English speaking and 11 are outside Europe
(Institute of International Education, 2006).
Education abroad and its importance gained
U.S. government attention in 2007 with the Senator
Paul Simon Study Abroad Foundation Act. If signed
into law, the act will leverage institutional and governmental
resources to enable more than 1 million
students to go abroad annually by the year 2017. It
will also increase diversity among both participants
and destinations. The act would supplement
existing governmental scholarships and funding
for language study and help make international
study an affordable reality for many more students
than currently study overseas.
Assessing Educational Outcomes
National and institutional calls for greater
accountability parallel the rise in study abroad participation.
Study abroad is clearly a global educational
phenomenon, a “growth industry” in higher
education, and contributes to broader internationalization
efforts in colleges and universities.
In an era of ever-greater accountability and
cost-benefit analysis, hard evidence is being
demanded to demonstrate that investments in
various forms of education, including study
abroad, are worthy ones that are realizing their
learning objectives. (Paige, Cohen, & Shively,
2004, p. 253)
Outcomes assessments are being conducted by
researchers to determine the effects of study abroad
on students’ intercultural competence and global
awareness (Chieffo & Griffiths, 2004; Medina-
Lopez-Portillo, 2004), language proficiency (Engle
& Engle 2004; Segalowitz et al., 2004), disciplinespecific
expectations (Dibiasio & Mello, 2004),
as well as career goals and outcomes (Orahood,
Kruze, & Easley Pearson, 2004). Several of these
variables have been researched simultaneously in
individual studies (Ingraham & Peterson, 2004;
Vande Berg, Balkcum, Scheid, & Whalen, 2004).
Broad-based assessments of student engagement
point to positive outcomes of in-depth educational
activities (e.g., study abroad or learning
communities) on student learning and development.
George Kuh, a long-term researcher of student
development and engagement, stated, “Among
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
