From Peace Corps To International Affairs: How Service Learning Shapes Global Careers

What if the most important tool you carry into a community isn’t a stethoscope or a syllabus, but a few words in the local language and a willingness to listen? That question threads through our conversation with Chrissie Faupel—Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV) and Director of International Affairs at the University of Minnesota Duluth—who shares a candid, field-tested view of international service learning and study abroad.

Chrissie takes us inside her two years in Senegal, where a new clinic introduced Western medicine to a village that greeted it with understandable caution. She explains how learning Malinke, attending life events, and co-leading cervical cancer education with the head nurse built trust one conversation at a time. You’ll hear why education outlasts supplies, how traditional healing and clinic care can coexist, and what it really means to serve at the invitation of a host community.

We also get practical. Christy demystifies Peace Corps Prep and why it strengthens your application rather than “teaching you the Peace Corps.” She shares timely guidance on scholarships—especially the Gilman for Pell recipients—and urges students to look beyond the usual destinations. On safety, she’s direct: preparation matters, alcohol is a top incident driver, and university-approved affiliates and providers exist for a reason. We unpack how to vet programs, manage risk using State Department advisories with nuance, and choose between faculty-led, exchange, and third-party models without getting lost in options.

If you’re a student, educator, or curious global citizen, this conversation offers a clear path from curiosity to impact: learn the language, respect the culture, build relationships, and let education be the gift that remains after you leave. Subscribe, share this episode with a friend who’s considering study abroad, and leave a review to help more listeners find the show. Where will your service begin?

Recommended Podcast:

1. Changing Lives Through Education Abroad

I also want to thank our listeners for joining us as it is our goal to not only share with you our guest’s introduction to international healthcare, but also to share with you how that exposure to international healthcare has shaped their future path in healthcare. As true patient advocates, we should all aspire to be as well rounded as possible in order to meet the needs of our diverse patient populations. 

As a 50+ year nurse that has worked in quite a variety of clinical roles in our healthcare system, taught healthcare courses for the past 20 years at the university level, and has traveled extensively with my students on international service-learning trips, I can easily attest to the fact that healthcare focused students need, and greatly benefit from the opportunity to have hands-on experiential healthcare experiences in an international setting! I have seen the growth of students post travel as their self-confidence in their newly acquired skillsets, both clinical and cultural, facilitates their ability to take advantage of opportunities that previously may not have been available to them. By rendering care internationally, and stepping outside one's comfort zone, many more doors of opportunity will be opened.

Feel free to check out our website at www.islonline.org, follow us on Instagram @ islmedical, and reach out to me @ DrH@islonline.org

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

Dr. H 0:11

Hey there, I am Dr. Patrick Hickey, or Dr. H, as many of my students refer to me. I want to welcome you to another episode of the International Service Learning Experiential Medical Education Podcast. During each episode, I will be interviewing healthcare-focused students and faculty from high school to university that have had an opportunity to participate in an international service learning trip. Additionally, I will be discussing the benefits and challenges to international service with healthcare professionals that are served abroad, as well as industry leaders in healthcare, education, study abroad, spirituality, and those living in the countries being served. I'm very excited to have Christy Falpo as my guest today. I've had the privilege of having worked with Christy at the University of South Carolina, and I'm very eager for her to share with us her unique journey on international service. Christy is presently the Director of International Affairs at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, and previously had been a Peace Corps volunteer in Senegal. Chrissy has had many other international experiences which have established her as a content expert in the field of international study abroad. Well, good morning. I'm very excited to have Chrissie as my guest this morning. Chrissie and I have known each other for quite a few years through our uh roles at the University of South Carolina. Christy worked in the uh Study Abroad Department, and that's where I first met her. And we actually collaborated on bringing the Peace Corps prep program to the University of South Carolina many years ago. And I'll get Chrissy to uh speak on that. I'm excited today also because you know we're talking about international service, and Chrissy has a great service heart in that she was a member of our Peace Corps, which is really, really exciting. So I'm excited to have Chrissy on board and uh chatting today with us about international service and then about her role also. She's a director of international affairs now at the University of uh Minnesota, so she can bring the Peace Corps perspective in. She can bring in the perspective of having worked in the study abroad office at the University of South Carolina. And now her new role, which is a relatively new role, I think it's only only months actually, as director of international affairs. So I think it's going to be an exciting day. But to get us started, Chris, if you don't mind, just tell us a little bit about yourself and where you've been and and what you're doing now.

Chrissie's Path Into International Education

Chrissie 2:41

Sure. It's great to be here, Patrick. Really, really happy to talk with you about this topic. So I, uh, as you mentioned, I'm the Director of International Affairs here at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. So not on the Twin Cities campus, but their Duluth campus. And I I've worked in the field of international education for maybe about um, gosh, about 13 years now. Most of that time has been spent specifically in education abroad, but my role now oversees a little bit more than just education abroad, also all things international, I guess you could say, at this campus. And so I do miss a little bit, you know, having uh more of a hands-on role in the education abroad space and working with students who are going abroad for service learning, like we're going to talk about today, or research or study abroad. Yeah, and I would actually credit the Peace Corps with really helping me to focus on this field and to learn a little bit more about it and help to guide me a little bit. So I'm I'm really happy to be able to talk with you more about it.

Dr. H 3:31

Chrissy, let's talk about the Peace Corps number one. I'm so amazed by what the Peace Corps does. My my sole experience with the Peace Corps, in addition to working with you, of course, on bringing the PrEP program to the University of South Carolina, was when I had a fellowship in international development and I was working in the Caribbean side by side with Peace Corps volunteers. And that that was my first exposure. And I was so impressed with these people. And I remember at the time I vowed that when I get older, I want to be in the Peace Corps. And and I I don't believe there's an age uh restriction on the Peace Corps. So it's always out there, never say never. But tell us how did you get involved in the Peace Corps and and where were where did you serve your time?

Peace Corps Service In Senegal

Chrissie 4:14

Oh, sure. And if I could just say, real quickly, not an answer to your question, but something you brought up about working alongside volunteers and kind of seeing that work. I think that's so fun to see. Just last week I had a meeting with a faculty member here at UMD. He's in the School of Business and Economics, and he's from Kazakhstan originally, and he talked about how he learned English from Peace Corps volunteers, and then that really inspired him to go on and continue his education. He now has a PhD. He's working as a professor at a university. So kind of fun to be able to see that perspective. But all right, so back to my service. So I was a volunteer in Senegal in West Africa. I was there in 2012 to 2014. And I was in the health sector, I was a preventative health educator. One of the things that I found really, I guess, compelling and intriguing about the Peace Corps is that you have your job that you've been invited by the host country government to do. And I think that is an important point to note about the Peace Corps is that you are there at the invitation of the host country government. You're not sent in by this other government to say, we think you need this, but the government themselves are saying we we need and want this kind of work. So you have your primary duty, and for me, that was in the health sector. So I worked uh really closely with our local clinic. In the village that I was in, there was a very new clinic that was just built, and it was really the first time that Western medicine was introduced to this village. And so I did a lot of work with that clinic, and that's Isepei, the the head nurse who ran that clinic. But the other cool thing about the Peace Corps is that you have these secondary duties that, you know, you get to the village or the site where you'll be living, you do a needs assessment, and you start to get to know the community and and what what the people there want from you as a volunteer. And then that might take you in different directions that may or may not be with within that sector that you were invited there to be. It might be education, it might be agriculture or whatnot. So um some of my, as you could say, favorite projects were not even involved in health at all. Of course, that was the main part of my job, but I did a lot more as well, just in response to what the community needed and wanted.

Dr. H 6:07

Chrissy, when when you said you went to Senegal, one thing that comes up is language. I've noticed from doing a lot of my podcasts that some of the students shared that that we had interpreters, so it wasn't problematic, or they would use their basic Spanish if it was a Spanish-speaking country. Was language a barrier or a challenge for you? And and what languages did you need to have to work in Senegal?

Chrissie 6:33

Oh, I love this question. Language is not a barrier, language was sort of a delightful part of the Peace Cook. Certainly, you know, we have as volunteers, we have it was about three months of training before we were sent to our sites, uh, installed at our sites. They they use that language. And in those three months, part of that is language, part of that is culture, part of that is sort of the technical expertise that you need to do your work. But language is a big focus on it. And as a matter of fact, after we were installed in our sites, we were told, you know, for the first three months, I don't think they use this language, but I'll sort of rephrase in the first three months, you're not really supposed to do a whole lot of work, right? Like the idea is that in that time, you really need to get to know people, you really need to build up trust. And one of the best ways to do that is to learn the language and learn it well. And of course, after three months, you cannot become fluent at all. But but it, you know, they they their training is really phenomenal. So, you know, after that initial period of training, most of us were certainly conversational anyway. And I can just remember too that, you know, when I was dropped off by the Peace Corps van in my village, the entire village is crowded around. They're so excited. I was the first Peace Corps volunteer in this village, and so uh I was a little bit of a of a rarity, you know, and and I was asked to give a speech. I I I was operating in a language that I didn't even know existed, you know, three months prior to this. And so certainly wasn't necessarily speech ready, but I, you know, the training was able that that helped me to to get through that. But I think it's a really important component of of the service. Like I said, language is tied to culture and that is tied to trust and and and the way that we're able to operate with people and interact and engage with people in these host communities. So, you know, I would say that everybody comes in with a different level of comfort in operating in a new language. I was a French major, so I think that was why that was certainly why I was recruited to go to Senegal. And then it seemed like the the decision on which languages we would learn or speak while we were in Senegal kind of depended on whether we already knew French or not. So I was assigned to a village in a Malinke community. So that would when I said I hadn't even heard of this language before, Malinke was the language that I spoke in the Peace For. But that's in terms of Senegal, that's a very, very much a minority language. And so anytime I left the region, nobody spoke Malinke. So then I could switch to my French or, you know, the few phrases of Olaf I had or whatnot. So that was very helpful. Of course, you know, I would say that language was also in some ways sort of a struggle, you know. Like I'm just thinking about, you know, when you're learning a language, there are some things that might come easily. And then at a certain point, at least for me, you know, as people realized, oh, she kind of understands this, we're gonna maybe make it harder and harder, or maybe we're going to start doing some humor or some sort of inner how do I how do I put this? Things that really depend on understanding the culture to understand, you know, I might understand technically what they're saying, but I don't really know what what this means in in the larger cultural context. And so that was something that was was constantly, I don't want to use the word struggle because it wasn't what's the word I'm looking for, intimidating in that way. It was always a real fun thing to try to learn and to navigate. And there was an immediate payoff. You know, I think about learning languages in the classroom, which I did as a French major, and kind of the payoff is what your grade is, the reward is what your grade is. And that, you know, maybe some people are motivated that that way. In learning language in the Peace Corps, the payoff was that you have this deeper connection to a person. And that was incredible. So it really made the language learning experience really fun and delightful.

Language, Culture, And Building Trust

Dr. H 10:04

Well, Chrissy, I'm really glad you shared that about the the connection between language and the culture and connecting with the people, because you know, one thing I try to impress upon my students, especially when we go to Latin American countries, is that even though you went to Costa Rica or or or Nicaragua or Guatemala and the language is consistently Spanish, there may be some dialects, of course. But when you're taking care of a patient years ahead in a hospital setting that's from a Spanish-speaking country, and you know a few words, it immediately connects you. Even though you may not have been in their particular country or you speak a little bit of their language, and and that I I believe that's huge. And and I'm glad you you connected the dots on language equals culture equals connection to the people in the villages where you're working.

Chrissie 10:54

Yeah, that's right. It immediately breaks down barriers, I think.

Dr. H 10:57

Well, and and that's huge, and and and I appreciate you sharing that. Now, when you you said that language that you spoke, and what was it again? I apologize. Malinke. Malinke. Is that something you still retain today?

Chrissie 11:12

Oh gosh. Oh, bits and pieces. I think I would have to be speaking at pretty regularly to really feel comfortable operating at it. But I do stay in touch with some folks from the village where I live.

Dr. H 11:20

Now it's exciting that you also, in addition to being in the in the village and in that area, but you also did healthcare education. So when we render our healthcare, it's it's very basic health care when we go into some of the underserved communities. Tell us a little bit about the extent of healthcare that you rendered and what were the programs that you put in place.

Chrissie 11:41

Oh, sure. Yeah. And this was really more focused on education, so not actually doing healthcare stuff because I'm I'm I'm not qualified to do that at all. But I'll give you one example. So the the the main person who ran the health post, he had gone to a training in the area about cervical cancer and how cervical cancer, at least at the time in that region, was the number one preventative killer of women. And so he had been given these really great training materials and trained on how to how to lead sessions for women in the village to go to early detection and all of that. But in a fairly conservative Muslim village, he as a man could not get up in front of women and talk to them about their cervixes. So that's where I came in. So I don't have didn't have the expertise in that necessarily, but he provided me with everything that I needed. And then I was able to facilitate a conversation. I was able to bring the popcorn and the Fanta, because that will always assemble help to assemble a group of people. And then using his materials, I could then have that conversation with them where he couldn't. You know, I think too, there was another larger goal that I had that I didn't know about going in. And I and I only learned about this as I navigated the community there a little bit more was that for whatever I had mentioned before that there was a new health coast there, and that was the first time that Western medicine had been introduced. And so, therefore, of course, people were gonna look at that with skepticism. They didn't have an experience with it, they didn't know if they could trust Western medicine. And probably for that reason, there was sort of a hesitation to trust the nurse that was brought in to run the clinic. So he was, is, he's still alive, he's Senegalese, but from a different ethnic group in a different part of the country. He spoke Malinke much better than I ever did. But I think also part of it was because he was so busy, because he was the one healthcare worker in that village at this clinic, he wasn't able to attend the baptisms and the deaths, the funerals and the weddings and all of that, which is what I learned an important component of building up trust with people is that you you you were there for all of the significant life moments. As a Peace Corps volunteer, I had nothing but time. So I could attend everything. And that helped to build up trust. And so what I found as one of my roles was to really help to be this link between the folks who lived in the village and the health clinic there. And so if they saw that I trusted this guy and they trusted me, then maybe they would start to trust him and the medicine and you know the perspective that he represented as well. And if not, like, you know, my my goal was to never tell people to turn away from the medical practices that they had been used to for generations, but maybe just try to combine them. And maybe between the two of them, you know, the traditional practices and the Western practices, maybe between the two of them you'll get healed. And certainly for me, I remember at one point I developed a sore throat that got kind of bad. And I went to the traditional healer and, you know, spit on our hands, rubbed it on my throat. You know, that was great. And then I also went to the clinic and took some medicine and I got healed. I don't know which which one of those practices healed me, but between the two of them, I got better.

Dr. H 14:39

So well, thanks for sharing uh uh the traditional healing aspect, and and that's something we don't see very often uh anymore here in the United States, but we do see it when we go to underserved areas. I mean, I I've seen uh my fair share of it uh in the past, so uh that that is exciting that you shared that. Also, I'm I'm glad you shared your focus on education in healthcare, because one thing that I've seen through my podcast and and even from reflecting with my students after our trips uh is usually a couple of weeks after the trip, my students will filter through my office and share with me that they feel really down or depressed because the medicines that we dispensed and the treatments that we provided are are probably done by now because we've been home for a couple of weeks. And what I always consistently reassure them is the best gift that we could have given these people was the education that we provided for them. Because through education, we empowered them as best we could to deal with their situation as best they could. And this is something that you have have history with. Is that correct? Doing the edge of it.

Health Education And Community Linkages

Chrissie 15:47

Yeah, you just gave me chills saying that. I think I I completely agree with you that that will then last lifetimes, you know. Uh, you know, I think about it too. I was grateful that during the time I was there, I had been given a big old bottle of multivitamins. And when my host mom got pregnant, I just gave her the vitamins because she didn't have access to anything like that. So that was useful in that one moment. But you're right that, you know, long after we're gone, we do hope that some of these practices or these ideas that we we bring could could maybe last. And that is sort of a, I guess, a focus of the Peace Corps as well. I mean, they I don't know if this is a hard and fast rule, but from what I understand, there is a common practice that after three volunteers in one at one site, the I the hope is that you know, we've we've done what we can and we've empowered the people and connected with them with resources that can help them fulfill their goals. We shouldn't keep having volunteers go back to that site because then that does sort of represent a reliance on this external system that that education teaches.

Dr. H 16:43

Well, that's interesting. I appreciate you sharing that. That's so you put the time in, you've invested in the education, they should be able to move forward on their own, is what you're saying. Oh, good. Excellent.

Chrissie 16:52

Yeah. I mean, you know, the folks folks there are brilliant people, you know, and they have found really inventive and creative ways to survive on very little, you know. And I I think a lot of that is really just connecting to the right resources.

Dr. H 17:05

Hey, one more thing on the Peace Corps before we we get into study abroad. Let's talk a little bit about the Peace Corps prep programs, because you and I work together on that. Uh, for those that are listening, how do they find out about Peace Corps prep programs? What is a Peace Corps prep program? And how does it prepare an undergrad student that's going through whatever path they're on, whether it be geography, pre-med, nursing, you know, history, et cetera, no matter what their major is, how does it prepare them to step into the role of the Peace Corps?

Chrissie 17:38

Oh, that's great. Yes. Oh, that was such a fun project to work with you on. And you were really the inspiration behind that. You were the one who did it. And uh, I was really grateful that you pulled me in to work with you on that. So uh I think Peace Corps Prep is a pretty cool program. Not every university has one. Here at UMD, we don't have one, for example. The one at USC, I believe, is still going strong. My previous institution was at Appalachian State University in North Carolina. So there there was a Peace Corps Prep program there. It was housed within the Career Center rather than the International Office. So I will mention that the Peace Corps Prep program doesn't prepare people for the Peace Corps. I hate to say that, but there is um there's like I would say very little you could do to prepare for the Peace Corps because it is its own thing. It's you know, very unique. And you just kind of have to learn it by doing it. But but the application process has become more and more competitive and more and more rigorous since even since when I went through the application process a while back. I think part of it is that now you can apply to a certain job in a certain country. Whereas back in the day, you apply to the Peace Corps and they send you where they need you, essentially. And so now that people have a little bit more agency in the matter, I think it's become more of a popular option for people. So the the Peace Corps Prep program prepares people for that application process so that they can be more competitive throughout that process. And I would say too, the application is so rigorous that it that in and of itself kind of does prepare people for it because it really kind of shows folks that you need to be, you need to be able to persevere and really stick with it and have your mind set on this goal of doing the Peace Corps and then you'll be more successful through the process. So kind of remember the specifics. I mean, it looks at academics and courses that you can take to help prepare you, I guess in that way, that to help prepare you for Peace Corps service. Also some extracurriculars and some community service projects and things like that that you can really bring together in a strong portfolio to make a good case for why you're qualified for for Peace Corps service.

Dr. H 19:25

I'd like to think that a lot of the students that go on these international service learning courses would be good candidates for the Peace Corps. I mean, every student that I've had with me, I I look at them and I look at them and say, I think you'd be a fantastic Peace Corps volunteer, you know, you know, and it's a two-year commitment, as you said. Christy, what if if if someone's listening today and they want more information on the Peace Corps or they want to develop a Peace Corps prep program at their university or their college, do they reach out to their state representatives or how would they do that?

Chrissie 20:00

There is a way to contact the Peace Corps recruiters just on their website. I bet they would be able to direct folks to how to start the Peace Corps. And if I could just also make a comment on something you said before about how these service learning opportunities are preparing students for Peace Corps, I 100% agree with that. And I would say that your program that you've run for you know many, many years is a great example of this, and many other programs like this, where it is sort of a short-term service learning opportunity, that is like a mini Peace Corps. And so if somebody does that and then they really feel called to that kind of work, and it it lightens up something, it lights up something inside of them, then they're probably a really good fit for the Peace Forer.

Dr. H 20:38

Well, thank you for recruiting more people for international service. We appreciate that. And one last thing on the Peace Corps, explain the uh uh title, RPCV.

Chrissie 20:49

Oh, yeah, it's some inside lingo, uh, return Peace Corps volunteer. So yeah, that's what how we refer to alumni of the program. It's so funny, too. At the end of our service, you know, we're all called to the capital of the country to go through some processing and paperwork to to end our service before we're sent home. And it's very symbolic. We get an R written on our hand. We've got the R, we're R PCVs, we're no longer PCVs. It's a it's a it's a big deal.

Dr. H 21:12

That's cool. Well, thank you for your service and and everything that you've done to inspire others to go into the Peace Corps. Because I know you did that at the University of South Carolina. We really appreciate that. On to some study abroad questions. Do you feel there's enough opportunities for students to travel? I mean, having been involved in study abroad, are are they limited on the countries they can go to now because of State Department warnings?

Chrissie 21:38

Oh, interesting question. Yeah. I mean, I would say overall, there are tons of opportunities for students to study abroad, to the point that many offices are now, study abroad offices are starting to not necessarily limit the opportunities, but craft a smaller portfolio of programs that we're advertising because of that. What do they call it? You know, paralysis of choice. When students see the thousands of programs they can go on, that's overwhelming. But if we break it down into these are the 20 that we really strongly promote, and you could do any of these other ones, but let's start here, then it just makes it easier for students to navigate. So yeah, your question about the can you reword the second part of your question, actually? Well, it was or we say it again.

Dr. H 22:19

Well, it was specific to the State Department levels, levels of travel. Because in addition to are there opportunities, which you alluded to, there are many opportunities. Are those opportunities now restricted because of State Department warnings?

Lasting Impact Through Education

Chrissie 22:34

Yeah, okay, so great question. I actually just listened to another podcast, really interesting, changing changing lives through education abroad. And the guest on that show is in a similar position to mine out in Western Washington. And his PhD research focused on the Department of State Travel Advisory and how that has changed over the years. It was fascinating because that really, really does drive a lot of institutional policy about where students and faculty and staff can travel to. And it's interesting that that it's so tied to that. It's tied to that, I think, because it's an easy metric, right? Like we can see if you are if this is level three or four, we're just gonna say no, or you know, level three, maybe it's a yes, but there's some extra paperwork, and level four is just off the table. But but as you kind of alluded to earlier, these travel advisories are so so politically motivated. And so it it's it's hard to think about how institutions might be tying, they're tying it just through the Department of State Travel Advisory without maybe without using extra metrics.

Dr. H 23:32

I do recommend uh if no one has, if the listeners have not accessed the website, that they do visit the the State Department travel advisories because it it's very accurate in in that it denotes the exact area where the hotspots are, for example. So you could travel to a level three country, which I believe level three says reconsider travel. You could travel there potentially because maybe the hotspot is hundreds and hundreds of miles away from your area. So as always, be more well informed. You know, look look at the travel advisories and know what's out there. Chris, another challenge I see to international service is scholarships, you know, the financing the study abroad. What do you see in that realm? Do you see enough scholarships out there? Do you have any recommendations for where students can go to find scholarships? I know individual universities will have their own. Is there anything you can share about scholarships?

Chrissie 24:31

Oh, sure. Yeah. I mean, there's never enough funding to support students, right? There are a lot of scholarships out there. Some of them are easily accessible, some of them are very competitive. One I think that's just really phenomenal is the Gilman. And so that is a scholarship that's for Pell recipients, so high financial need. The Gilman committee also looks for diversity, which can mean a lot of different things. It's diversity of student, and there are a lot of different ways that a student can be diverse, but also diversity of academic discipline. So if we know that there are certain majors that are always studying abroad, and there are some that aren't nursing, for example. We don't see a lot of nursing majors going abroad. So diversity of discipline and then also country as well or region around the world. And so the Gilman would say that traditional study abroad destinations are Western Europe and I think Australia and New Zealand. So outside of that, those are non-traditional destinations, and they really want to encourage participants to study in some of those destinations that have a lot to offer. I think as well, this is you didn't ask this question, but my mind is starting to go here as well when we think about service learning. Oftentimes we don't think about Western Europe, right? We think about going to Western Europe because they have something they can teach us. And then if we think about service learning, we need to go to some of those less developed those. I don't, I'm sorry, I'm not sure what the term that we we use now is, but not Western Europe. You know, we look to the rest of the world, some of those less developed countries for service learning. And I think, you know, because we say those are the places we can go to help, and we go to Western Europe to learn. And I think that's a a really a mistake that we in the field have committed, just because certainly everyone in the world needs help, every place in the world needs help, including our own country. And also we have something to learn from every place in the world.

Dr. H 26:08

Oh, of course. And and I share with my students typically when we come back, you know, you've had this wonderful opportunity to go internationally to render care to underserved populations, but we have the same opportunities in our own backyard. Yeah. We we have it here. You know, you don't have to go very far and and and find underserved populations that are in great need of health care and nutritional support, et cetera.

Chrissie 26:32

Absolutely.

Dr. H 26:34

Chrissy, do you have any idea, like in a typical college or university, what percentage of students actually do apply? And has there been an increase in students applying or a decrease from what you see on the international level?

What Peace Corps Prep Really Does

Chrissie 26:48

Oh, sure. Yeah. So we know this, there's some very careful data reporting on this. So we know that less than nationally speaking, less than 10% of undergraduates will study abroad.

Dr. H 26:59

I'm sorry, what was that number again?

Chrissie 27:00

Less than 10% will study abroad during their college career. You know, individual institutions are going to be a little bit different. So here at UMD, we're right there with the national average. We're between between 10 and 12% of our students will study abroad. USC is much higher, I would say they're closer to probably reaching 20% of their students study abroad, which is pretty incredible to see. Yeah, so there are there are well anyway, I'll leave it at that. Yep. Yeah, so that when we talk to people about the benefit of going abroad, certainly uh if you if you study abroad, you are, or if you go abroad in any capacity service learning research study, uh, you are in the minority of US undergraduates, and that can really set you apart.

Dr. H 27:40

Do you feel when the students do have the opportunity to study abroad that they're intimidated by the culture and or the language?

Chrissie 27:49

Yeah, oh, definitely. I think so. We see that a lot. You know, we see that in different ways. I think as we're advising students and we we talk about housing options, for example, I think that homestays are an incredible opportunity for students, students, certainly if they're going abroad for language learning. Homestay, homestay is a pedagogical uh component, right? Because you learn so much, so much language and culture from the homestay. But also from the health and safety standpoint, I think homestays are a really incredible health and safety piece as well of a program. But uh but that can be really intimidating for students because they might feel like, well, what if I can't communicate with my homestay family? Or what if I'm limited in freedom or or or whatever. But I think that hesitation towards homestays is one way that we're seeing sort of a intimidation of um navigating a new culture and a new language.

Dr. H 28:37

Chris, you mentioned safety. You know, over my 15 to 20 years of of doing international service, I've been the faculty lead on the trips and I've made sure that there are a lot of safeguards in place. And along the way, I actually had to talk to a lot of parents to to allay their anxieties. Do you feel that that universities put enough safeguards in place for students traveling abroad? Because I I don't think the students are that intimidated, or sometimes a little bit more so the parents are. And how do you reassure those parents that you've got safeguards in place?

Study Abroad Opportunities And Limits

Chrissie 29:10

That's great. Yeah. Yeah. And I would say, I mean, certainly I can't speak for every institution, but the those that I've worked at, yes, they were, I mean, this might be difficult, but almost to an extreme degree, there are safeguards in place, you know, and that that has really changed in the field over the decades about how much of an emphasis we're putting on health and safety, how much of an emphasis we're putting on, you know, tracking students, every every movement and activity and all of that, maybe to the point that they're they're not having as a fully immersive experience as they could be. Yeah. And so a lot of times we do, just like you said, we get this question from parents, not necessarily from students, because students are just thinking about other things, other parts of their experience. And it's it's parents that are, you know, a little bit worried. And and maybe that worry is misplaced. I mean, I can remember when would this have been? This must have been at USC. During an Ebola outbreak, I want to say. So I seem to remember that we had gotten a call from a parent who was concerned about sending their child to like a very different part. It might have been like Tanzania or very different part of Africa. I mean, they were as almost as far away as you could get from this epicenter, but because it was on the same continent, continent and maybe a continent that's a little bit less understood by the majority of people. I don't, I don't know, that there were some concerns about their child's safety. And so I think, you know, one thing that international offices can really do is just, you know, first of all, we cannot guarantee anybody's safety. And if if we didn't, if we wanted to say that we're going to make sure we're not putting our students in any unsafe environments, then we would shut down the whole operation, right? There is risk that we're going to assume when we sit send students abroad. There's risk we're going to assume when we gather students to live on campus and go to classes. So we can't guarantee somebody safety, but we can certainly put in a lot of precautions in place to do our best. A lot of this, you know, comes in preparing students for their experience. And so I know at a certain point in time, certainly when I was doing pre-departure orientations at the University of South Carolina, we would tell students that the number one cause of incidence when we get phone calls about a student in some sort of an having some sort of a health and safety issue, it was alcohol related. So let's talk about alcohol use. You know, there are some students going to countries where they they might even be allowed to drink when they're not even yet allowed to drink here in the States. So let's talk about how that can be a really important component of being a part of the culture, but also how to do it safely. You know, a lot of times when students go abroad as well, they it's just such an exciting opportunity because you might be around people who don't know you and you can almost reinvent yourself. You are this one way and everybody knows you as this one way when you're in the States, and then you go abroad and you can kind of think how you want to be and then sort of reinvent yourself that way. And that's just so cool and so exciting. And also there can be some safety considerations to keep in mind as well. And so if you're not used to drinking alcohol, or even if you're used to drinking alcohol, but you're in a new environment with new people and all of that, and with a new landscape, a new city that you're navigating, we just need to be a little bit safer, maybe than we, even more than we normally are when we're um encountering alcohol at home. And so a lot of it comes into preparing the students as well to think through how to keep themselves safe.

Dr. H 32:09

Such great recommendations. I really appreciate that. Preparation is so vital. You're you're correct. Chrissy, how do students know how to pick a logistics provider for lack of a better term? They they go to a study abroad fair or they go to the study abroad office and they see all these lists and brochures and pamphlets. How do they know who to pick? I mean, it does how do they know the background behind the providers, you know, how many years they've been in practice and what what things they provide?

Chrissie 32:40

What what what a great question. And yeah, yeah. So we we call them affiliates, program providers, third-party providers. There's a lot of different terminology for these programs, but these are a really, these represent a really important type of program in the field of education abroad. They help us to extend our reach around the world. We can't have agreements with universities in every single country, but a lot of our providers can really, really help us to extend that reach around the world. They also tend to have really strong health and safety teams. If we have a student with a registered disability, we can't necessarily guarantee their accommodation with a foreign institution, but most of these providers are US institutions and have to provide with ADA laws and things like that. And so there's just a lot of support there. So, in terms of finding a good one, I would say if if there is an affiliate who is approved by the education abroad office at a student's institution, they've probably gone through a very rigorous vetting process, more likely than not. They've gone through a really rigorous vetting process to ensure that they have really strong academics, really strong partnerships in the host community, really strong health and safety precautions put into place and all of that. So it so if they're on the roster, if they're showing up with study abroad fairs, they're probably a good provider. You know, I've only heard about a small handful of issues with providers, and most of those are going to be ones that are not invited to study abroad fairs, that are sort of operating in a rogue capacity on campus. To that end, I would also encourage students if they are walking through campus and they see somebody tabling for an organization that's maybe not, they're not with the study abroad office, they're just sort of there at a table on their own, to maybe check with your institutions, education abroad office or study abroad office, just to see if they are a legitimate provider. Because we've had this happen, you know, a handful of times, including at USC, where an organization will come to campus without our knowledge, without our awareness, and they'll table and they'll promise all sorts of things to students. Your credits will transfer back. You know, your financial aid will work and all of that. And more likely than not, that's not true. Those credits won't necessarily transfer back if you don't go through the appropriate process through the education abroad office and all that. So it's a really good idea just to double check with your study abroad office.

Dr. H 34:47

Great recommendation. One last question, uh, Christy. Let's talk about faculty-led study abroad programs versus independent student cohorts traveling abroad versus single students traveling. So three different things. Do you see many faculty-led programs? Is that increasing or decreasing? Do you see independent cohorts traveling abroad? Then, of course, the individual students stepping into a program.

Funding And The Gilman Scholarship

Chrissie 35:15

Oh, yeah. Yeah, this is a great question. So I had mentioned before how there's a lot of really good data collection that happens in international education and has been for a very, very long time. It's the open doors report, which is done through the Institute of International Education. They've been around for over 100 years now. So there's a lot of great data there. And what we can see is that they don't break up their data by their enrollment, study abroad enrollment data by program type. So we would often say, you know, in education abroad, we have our faculty-led programs, we have our affiliates or third-party providers, like we were just talking about, and then our exchange program. So that's when my university has a direct partnership with the foreign university and students can enroll there, you know, for a semester or an academic year. And so the IIE open doors report doesn't break their enrollment data down by enrollment type, but they do it by duration. So what we do know is that, you know, over the decades, enrollment and program, summer programs that are two to eight weeks have just risen and they they represent the largest cohort of students going abroad, a summer program that's two to eight weeks. Now we can make an educated guess that most of those participate participants are going to be part of the faculty-led program, but not necessarily all of them. And to that point, I, you know, I heard a lot from you know colleagues around the country in the field who talked about how there is an increased interest in faculty-led programs since the pandemic, with this assumption that students need a lot more support. They are maybe a lot more hesitant to not, you know, not even just engage with students on their own campus, but then to study abroad. That, you know, that's that's scary, you know, and for people who had to go through the pandemic at a at a sort of a critical age. So we we we made a lot of assumptions about how faculty-led participation was increasing sort of on a national level and it's because of the pandemic. And so to that end, I did a very small research study a couple of years ago. I looked at four institutions of wide range, a large public institution, sort of uh mid-sized regional institution, and then two smaller pub uh private institutions, just to see if that that's actually what we were seeing. Were we seeing an increase in faculty-led participation? And why do we think that was? And you know, that was kind of statistically insignificant. So overall, I would say nothing earth-shattering in for the field. But what I did find was that yes, the the right after the pandemic, participation in faculty-led programs did increase pretty drastically, and then over time started to decrease. Whereas exchange and affiliate programs, they saw an immediate decrease after the pandemic and then slowly started to increase as well. And so uh what I think from that is that yes, I would agree students do need a little bit more support that they can get from a faculty-led program, and they have that connection to their faculty member. They know that faculty member like learning with that person and want to continue learning in this new environment. So, yes, that's certainly the case to answer your question.

Dr. H 38:03

Anyone listening today is going to have a great wealth of information. You you shared so much. I'd be totally used to it. I really appreciate your time. In parting, Chrissy, is there anything you want to share from the international affairs perspective, the study abroad umbrella and Peace Corps and service and volunteering, kind of wrapping it all up?

Chrissie 38:23

Oh, sure. Yeah, thank you for asking that question. I will say, I mean, I'm really energized by this conversation and this topic just in general. You know, one thing that we talk about a lot in in the field of Ed Abroad is that we we really want to see some sort of deep and lasting and sustained connection with the communities where we send students for many reasons. I mean, that makes for a much deeper experience for our students. It's great to have that long-term connection with the community and to know that we have that relationship with the community that can help in terms of having a community look after our students for health and safety reasons and all of that. And I think service learning is one really great way to do that because it shows that we're going into a community not just to take something. We're not just there to learn and to get knowledge, but we're there to see what the needs are and to help to, you know, of course, to aid in our own understanding as we move forward into the field and to our professions and all of that, but because we do care about these communities as well and we have something to give. So it's less transactional, it's a lot more relational. And so I'm I think for that reason I'm just really energized about this and about the idea that there are students out there that are interested in international service learning.

Dr. H 39:26

Well, well, thank you so much, Chrissy. I I really excuse me, value your time and really appreciate the the depth and breadth of your knowledge on international service and study abroad opportunities. Uh I'm I'm very excited for our the students that are presently in in high school colleges, you know, for the opportunities that they do have, which you say there are many. And thank you again for for your your Peace Corps volunteer heart. I've been so impressed with with my interactions with yourself and with the Peace Corps. Um highly, highly, highly recommend any student that's been on a surfing trip to consider Peace Corps. And I like what you said earlier. Uh you you mentioned something if you've been on a surf learning trip, it's kind of like a mini Peace Corps experience. And if you want to expand on the experience, you know, consider the Peace Corps. And again, as I alluded to in the beginning, I don't think there are age parameters. Is that correct, Christy?

Chrissie 40:25

I don't believe so. I think you could if you're healthy, you can do it and you're good.

Dr. H 40:28

Well, we we've thrown down the gauntlet. Well, thank you again for your time, Christy. I really appreciate it and and I wish you the best.

Chrissie 40:37

Thank you, Patrick. It's been a pleasure.

Dr. H 40:40

I want to sincerely thank our guest, Christy, for her willingness to join us today on the International Service Learning Experiential Medical Education podcast. But most importantly, I want to thank Christy for the passion that she has shared with us, specific to her own unique journey in international service. Through years of work with students, Christy has been able to guide many to find their own way in the realm of international travels. And by doing so, she has helped these students to become better global scholars.