Study abroad is in many ways the most academic of experiential programs and therefore has the greatest acceptance in colleges and universities. What is interesting then is how it is sometimes combined with co-op abroad to really intensify the abroad experience. This piece below by Jim and a student illustrates that.
-Jim and Shwen
Combining Study Abroad with Cooperative Education Abroad
By Jill Abbott ’10 and Jim Stellar
I have to begin by introducing Jill. She and I met a year ago when I was still Dean. I was impressed with her plan to study abroad a year in Paris at the American University of Paris to refine her French and to immerse herself in another culture in a way one can only by being there for a substantial period of time. But what really impressed me was that she also wanted to stay another year and work. I liked to say that she wanted to be able to handle French-on-the phone where it really mattered in – in a business situation where breaks would not be given for being a student. She did a follow-on cooperative education term abroad in a French firm in Paris. She also wrote a nice directed study paper for me on experiential education, and that may be a subject of a future blog, but I could not resist asking her here to simply write something about this powerful dual experience that kept her almost a full year abroad as part of her college education.
Staying another semester left me without my protective bubble, and there were moments where I felt like I was alone. While I may have been able to get my point across in the French language, the humor, subtleties and nuances I didn’t always understand. But I got better. For example, I can now speak business French on the phone and when I go out with my French friends for lunch, the conversation flies … except when it comes to the jokes, which are still a tad too fast and idiomatic.
I learned how much I didn’t really know about the French culture. On the other hand, I noticed that people acted differently towards me. I wasn’t just a tourist, but more of an ambassador for my country. People form opinions of the US based on the Americans they meet and I felt determined not to be the person they had typecast me to be. I was forced to confront stereotypes about the French culture and my own.
I do not want to turn this into an interview, but tell us about the most significant learning moment after you shifted to the company position.
Oddly this moment is not due to the French language or the culture. At my co op in Paris, I work with the India branch office of my company because they are in charge of the English speaking clients/portion of the website. For the first half of my co op, maybe more, I felt like they resisted my input and we were working against each other. Up until that point they had been the ‘experts’ on the English language, and then I came in and they seemed to take my suggestions personally, like I thought I was smarter than them just because English was my first language. Being an intern as opposed to a full time employee didn’t help. This was really frustrating because we wasted a lot of time discussing little things and it made it hard to get things done.
A couple months back I was given the project of correcting and revising my colleague’s 40 page report, the product of 5 years of research. Dreading going through it with him and defending my ideas every step of the way I made a joke asking if he was ‘ready to fight about it now?’ This led to a discussion where I was able to explain how I didn’t like having to make changes to other people’s work, but also felt that in the past my own work had benefited through other people’s ideas and we both agreed that learning through discussion is one of the ways we learn best. Something changed from that day on, I not only got along better with this colleague but with the rest of the India office. They became my advocate after that and I felt like we supported each other, which made the whole English speaking team look better organized and coordinated.
I was the only native English speaker not just in the Paris office but in the whole company, and because of that I felt pressure to facilitate smooth communication between the Paris and India offices. I felt like I learned how to get along with different people out of this experience, even people I had never met, and it was amazing to me that the relationship I had with the India office totally changed. Now this same colleague has offered to host me and friends if I ever have the chance to visit India. We no longer use the words ‘sorry’ or ‘thank you’ with each other, because in his culture ‘friends’ do not say this to each other.
Experiential Education only works if the experience is authentic and substantial. Those words “authentic and substantial” are key to me and came out (as I mentioned previously) of a task force that I helped lead a few years ago to develop this piece of the strategic plan for Northeastern University. Within limits and as long as the student is really engaged in the process, the more experience the better. Being in another country and really absorbing the culture is such an experience for Americans who largely grow up in isolation of other countries and I think staying the extra term after classical study abroad to work adds a great deal to the student’s learning and personal development. It also makes them much more employable in an business environment that is necessarily more global every year. Many colleges and universities recognize the power of study abroad. A few are starting to recognize the power of work aboard whether under the name of paid (or unpaid) internship, cooperative education, work integrated learning, etc.
So many of us have tried to integrate abroad work experiences with academic study, with or without study abroad. We would love to hear some of your experiences and reflections. Also, of particular interest is how one uses reflection to surface tacit knowledge (stored in the “other lobe” of the brain?) and strengthen the learning from the abroad experience. In our case, Jill wrote a paper for Jim, as mentioned at the outset, but what do you think works?
One Response to “Combining Study Abroad with Cooperative Education Abroad”
Ina says:
Sound like Jill had the full experience abroad. I understand her challenges at work where she was the only native English speaker. I often had to correct reports, drafts, and all sorts of writing when I interned at the European Parliament. The most difficult part for me was being in an office where English was spoken very few times (I worked for a Hungarian MEP). When sitting in the committee hearings I switched the channel to hear the speeches in different languages, like Hungarian, hoping I would recognize a few words. I was very successful but I realized how important it is to know a different language especially for students of international affairs. It is truly a new window from which you can see the world. Now that I am applying to grad school, I am thankful I have international experience in my background, and knowledge of two foreign languages. It is a definite plus for any career choice.