Travelling band

  Illustration by JARRETT QUON/Daily Bruin

By Matt Goulding
Daily Bruin Contributor

Fourth-year theater student Matt Hobart studied abroad hoping to
be exposed to real English culture, but he ended up revealing more
of himself than he thought.

Participating in Exeter University’s Safer Sex Ball, an annual
fund-raiser for AIDS research, Hobart and four friends performed an
11-minute choreographed dance routine in front of 3,000 people
which culminated in the English “full monty.”

“We got oiled up and just let it all hang out,”
Hobart said. “It was one of those things you only do
once.”

Hobart is part of the steadily growing crop of students who are
taking advantage of the opportunities provided through UCLA’s
study abroad programs.

Because of an increased interest among students to participate
in such studies, UCLA programs give students many options to study
outside of the U.S., according to Jessica van der Valk, the
administrative director of the Education Abroad Program.

And because of the demand, study abroad programs are no longer
limited to students majoring in foreign languages.

Physiological science students can make rounds in Danish
hospitals, biology students can discover the the behavior of howler
monkeys in the Costa Rican rain forest, and economics students can
analyze the effects of the U.S. gross domestic product on the
Japanese stock market.

These types of experiences cannot be taught in the classroom,
van der Valk said. Students will take what they learned abroad with
them for the rest of their lives.

As the only official University of California study abroad
program, EAP enables students to take classes all around the world
for the price of their UC registration fees.

“All coursework is pre-approved by the Academic Senate and
students can expect to find a curriculum comparable to
UCLA’s,” van der Valk said.

This is important for students, van der Valk said, because units
are then automatically transferred back to their transcripts.
Whether or not the units can be substituted for credit towards a
participant’s major is at the discretion of individual
departments, but with the support of the Academic Senate, students
shouldn’t have a problem making progress towards their major
while studying abroad.

Though van der Valk stressed the importance of the cultural
experience, she advised students to stay focused when studying
abroad.

“We expect students to keep their eyes on the
prize,” van der Valk said. “We want them to perform
academically.”

Second-year history student Ryan Falvey, who spent three weeks
in Greece on UCLA’s Summer Sessions Program, said that this
can be a difficult task.

“You have to constantly fight the temptation to leave your
notes and books behind because you need room for more important
things,” Falvey said. “When you study abroad, you tend
to get a lot less sleep, sometimes partying into the morning and
just showing up at class or maybe just going to the
beach.”

Despite the temptations, Falvey said being constantly submersed
in the culture and in the lessons of the classroom helped him focus
in Greece.

Learning to balance academic and social aspects remains an
essential part of studying abroad, said Eva Walthers, International
Programs Counselor for the EXPO Center.

“People don’t always want to stress out about grades
when studying abroad,” she said. “They want to go out
and experience the culture.”

EXPO, which functions as a part of the UCLA Career Center in the
new Strathmore Building, places students in programs suitable for
their ambitions abroad.

Placing more than 500 students in foreign universities for the
current school year, EXPO deals with all programs not covered by
the the UC’s EAP office.

“The reason why more people chose to go outside of EAP is
that they have more options,” Walthers said.

Through EXPO’s range of opportunities, students can take
intensive language courses in France, study geography in Fiji, or
explore the traditions of Buddhism in Tibet.

While options vary for those students seeking guidance from
EXPO, program participants don’t have the comfort of UC
pre-approval for their curriculum.

With the proper planning, however, students shouldn’t have
any problem getting units transferred, Walthers said.

Despite the different programs available, both the EAP and EXPO
said more students have applied to study abroad in recent years
than ever before.

In a recent press conference, Chancellor Albert Carnesale said
sending students abroad is one of the ways the university is trying
to absorb the surge of students expected to enroll in the UC in the
next decade.

With more than $130,000 in scholarships given annually, students
aspiring to go abroad can find money from a variety of sources to
finance

their trips.

Students already receiving financial aid from UCLA can apply
these funds to their studies outside of the country, Van der Valk
said.

The popularity of the study abroad programs has resulted in a
large increase in the number of students seeking graduate degrees
abroad as well. Both EAP and EXPO offer a range of programs to
accommodate these students.

“There are great one year masters programs abroad,”
Walthers said, “especially in English-speaking areas like the
U.K., New Zealand, and Australia.”

Though both graduate and undergraduate students seek the comfort
offered in English speaking programs, the allure of Barcelona,
Madrid, and Seville has made Spain the number one country for UCLA
students, said Walthers.

“It has a lot to do with the language, but the culture is
a great contrast to American culture,” Walthers said.
“People don’t realize there’s another way of
living until they go to a place like Spain.”

Andrew Wulf, a fourth-year economics student who spent last fall
in EAP’s Cordoba, Spain program, said his immersion in to the
local culture taught him about himself as well.

“It’s almost like a drug. It engrosses you so
much,” he said. “Seeing the culture on a daily basis is
so much different from being a tourist.”

“It’s the difference between sinking your teeth into
the culture and just glossing over it,” Wulf added.