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Most Kalamazoo College alumni remember study abroad as
one of the most transforming experiences of their lives.
However, College faculty and administrators have become
increasingly aware that the study abroad experience is often
bracketed off from the students’ other academic and
life experiences. They are also aware that the most significant
learning takes place when students have theoretical frameworks
that help them to structure their experience, opportunities
for significant reflection on the experience, and venues
in which to share that experience with others upon their
return. For these reasons, Kalamazoo College Provost Gregory
Mahler, and Center for International Programs Director Joseph
Brockington, launched a new initiative in 2002, designed
to help students to benefit more fully from the study abroad
experience and to communicate the richness of that experience
more effectively to others after returning home.
With support from the Andrew J. Mellon Foundation and the
McGregor Fund the College has created a pilot program that
helps students place their study abroad experience within
a larger framework allowing them to connect lived experience
with theoretical understanding, the host culture with the
home culture, and personal experience with the articulation
of that experience to others. The first group of student
participants in the program returned to campus in the
spring of 2003, and two new groups of students began the
pre-departure phase of the program at that time as well.
It is hoped that this program will one day be a part of
the study abroad program of every Kalamazoo College student.
Historical
Context
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