A Message from the Study Abroad Office - Jill Russell

Rather than describing some of students exciting experiences abroad, we’d like to share with you some innovative study abroad student projects which were initiated right here at LVC.

Study Abroad Story Circle.  As part of our re-entry process for students this year,  Marie Bongiovanni introduced a weekly study abroad story circle to provide participants with a means of reflection and the opportunity to share their stories and experiences with others.  Students learned to “listen deeply and tell stories,” and they created voice overs combined with images and music, to develop their own narratives in digital form.  Please take some time to view the digital stories of Caitlin Murphy and Chantelle Simeone on LVC’s website.  We offer thanks to Barry Hill for his technical assistance in the recording studio for these projects. 

Caitlin’s digital story was viewed by our partners at the University of Maastricht, where she studied through LVC’s program in summer 2010 under the direction of David Rudd.  According to the internship supervisor, Caitlin’s digital story persuaded the university to offer Caitlin an eight-week internship in their international student office this summer.   Her internship will be funded in part by an Arnold Internship Grant.

Study Abroad Faculty-Student Research Project.  Arnold Grant funding will also support a student-faculty research project focused on Multimedia Narrative as an Innovative Portal to Transformative Learning in Study Abroad. Under the direction of Marie Bongiovanni, Andrew McVey (Psychology ’12) and Caitlin Murphy (English ’12) will collaborate across disciplines in a pilot study investigating the potential of multimedia narrative to enhance critical thinking, personal development, and intercultural competencies within the realm of study abroad.  This project will involve the participation of LVC study abroad students in Argentina, Australia, England, Germany, Greece, Italy, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, and Spain during the 2011-12 academic year.

SOC 311 Research Methods in Sociology student group project.   This semester, a group of students in SOC 311 are performing a study on Study Abroad:  Factors that Encourage and Discourage Participation using a random selection of the current LVC student population.  The goal of the study is to identify the types of students who are most likely to study abroad, in addition to those types of students who are not.  The study also attempts to isolate certain personality traits that may influence the decision to participate in a study abroad program.  Outcomes from this study will help us develop appropriate promotional strategies, while providing data to better analyze our study abroad participation rates.

The Study Abroad Office is optimistic about the potential of these projects in enhancing our students’ experiences both in Annville and abroad.