Ep. 82 - Is Education Abroad for Me?

In Episode 82 of the CSUSB Advising Podcast, Matt Markin chats with Ryan Griffith, Associate Dean of College of Extended and Global Education about Education Abroad (previously Study Abroad). Why should you consider to go abroad? What are the benefits? Is financial aid available? Learn more about the types of programs available to you at CSUSB!

Check out the Education Abroad website for more information!

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Transcript

Matt Markin  
Hey there, Yoties, it's time for another episode of the CSUSB Advising Podcast. Welcome back as always. This is your podcast academic advisor, Matt Markin, and today's episode is to help you learn more about something called education abroad. What is education abroad? Why should you consider it? So let's chat with our special guest today, and that is Ryan Griffith, Associate Dean of the College of Extended and Global Education. Ryan, welcome.,

Ryan Griffith  
Well, thank you, Matt. Really appreciate you having me super excited to be here and spreading the word about education abroad.

Matt Markin  
Yeah, absolutely. But before we jump into education abroad. It'd be kind of nice to learn a little bit about you. So can you tell us about yourself and your background in higher education?

Ryan Griffith  
Be happy to do so, Matt, so I'm actually a local here, born and raised in Orange County, studied international relations over at the University of Southern California. After graduation, went off to spread my wings overseas. After I graduated, I spent 10 years abroad, eight of those years in Japan where I taught, and then two of them in Australia, where I studied. After finishing up with my master's program at the University of Queensland in Australia, leveraged my experiences there to actually secure my first job in higher education, which is with University of North Carolina. After that, transitioned over to upper Iowa University, and then over to the University of the Pacific in Northern California. And now, as you mentioned, I'm currently with CSU San Bernardino, serving this great community here.

Matt Markin  
Yeah. So kind of full circle moment, in a sense, starting, you know, in Southern California, kind of getting to, kind of go all over the world, and coming back to Southern California, especially to CSUSB, which I think is the greatest university, and so, you know, I think your experience will be great. You know, to tell us more about this Education Abroad program. So if a student hears about education abroad, like, how would you define it? What is education abroad? What's the purpose of it?

Ryan Griffith  
That's a very thoughtful question. Matt, thank you for asking it. Essentially, education abroad is the pursuit of an academic objective overseas, and that can take many different forms. It can, for example, be through internships or experiential learning. It could be through conducting research or, of course, studying overseas. So that's why what we used to just refer to as Study Abroad evolved into education abroad, a larger umbrella term to encapsulate all the different opportunities students can avail themselves overseas>

Matt Markin  
And I guess going along with that, are there different types of education abroad, or study abroad, or different types of options for students?

Ryan Griffith  
There sure are Matt, there are a couple different options that are available in here at CSU San Bernardino. There are effectively two types of opportunities. On the one hand, we have our faculty led programs, and on the other hand, we have our exchange programs with the faculty led program. That is essentially what it sounds like. It is a CSUSB faculty member who is leading a small group of students, usually between 13 and 20 on an overseas mission, if you will, that's connected to an academic course that they're registered for. So this is kind of an extension of the classroom to utilize the host country, the host destination, to enrich the curriculum. Now, in contrast to the faculty led programs, which are, as I mentioned, a smaller group of students, and I'll add for a much shorter period of time, often two or three weeks at the most income. In contrast to those we do have our much longer exchange opportunities. So the exchange program is usually for one semester, but it can be for up to one year. So two semesters with the year long option. There are two variations. The first variation is going to be the academic calendar year option, which would be a fall semester and a spring semester. And the calendar year option would again, much like, as it sounds, would be January, the spring semester, all the way down to December, the fall semester. So those are, are kind of those two branches that we have for education abroad here at CSUSB, but because we're part of the CSU system, we are also able to take advantage of opportunities, exchange opportunities, specifically the opportunities through the chancellor's office, utilizing the Chancellor's office's specific network of institutions. Into over the seas, which they have kind of carefully identified and curated to really maximize the number of destinations abroad which will accommodate and host our CSUSB students to partner universities.

Matt Markin  
Awesome. That's good to know, I guess, that there are different opportunities for students, so some that may want to just maybe do the few weeks. You know, there could be an option for them, or those that are like, Hey, maybe I want to do a whole semester, or even a whole year. Hey, I can take advantage of that opportunity as well. And I guess maybe a student hearing that and saying, Okay, there's these different options. But what are some options in terms of places that I might be able to go? So how would you answer that for a student?

Ryan Griffith  
Absolutely, yeah. Destination is location, location, location. Destination is key. Well, some of the most popular destinations that we have with our CSUSB students and that are available through our CSUSB programs include South Korea, Japan. Those are super popular for the semester long exchange opportunities. And of course, as I mentioned, we do have a fair number of faculty led opportunities. And those destinations include France, Mexico, Italy, Spain, South Africa, and even the United Kingdom. But as mentioned, it's not just the opportunities that are available through CSUSB, but also through the Chancellor's Office and their Office of International Programs and those destinations kind of build upon what we have, and include locations in Australia, in Canada, in Chile, Denmark, Sweden, and even Taiwan.

Matt Markin  
Oh, yeah. So a lot of different places, a lot of different destinations. Oh, I can see a lot of students being interested just based off those locations. But I could also, you know, think of a student asking, Well, you know, why should I as a student, take, you know, consider taking this advantage of this opportunity for education abroad.

Ryan Griffith  
No, absolutely. I mean, it is quite an endeavor to to really break out of your comfort zone, to leave not just the county and the region the state, and go overseas to truly afford environment and have to adjust and acclimate to that host country, that host country's culture. So why go through all of that? It's a great question. Well these days, and increasingly, I think listeners would agree that the world is getting smaller and smaller, and so the awareness of the familiarity with global issues and concerns and perspectives is becoming increasingly popular for us all as we kind of evolve into global citizens. But also, and maybe even more concretely, there are some skills and some opportunities I think that can be leveraged through participating in an education abroad opportunity, specifically cross cultural understanding and cross cultural communication. Again, companies are looking for team members, employees that are able to adapt to new situations. They're able to support a wide variety of customers and clients. And so by having a transformative opportunity and transformative experience overseas, you're able to begin to add tools to your specific toolkit, to be able to communicate across borders and barriers, and really be able to be more concise, be a creative problem solver, having to navigate unknown, unforeseen issues. So it really helps with your thinking and your analysis. And of course, if you're staying overseas in a host country, especially for a semester, whether or not you're a legacy speaker, a heritage speaker of a language, there's certainly foreign language acquisition opportunities that exist out there. And really, what a great way to augment and enrich your resume than to secure a proficiency in a foreign language. And again, all of these examples are leading up to what hopefully resonates most with our listeners today, which is employment options, trying to get a job, and so if you're able to demonstrate to an employer through your application and through your resume that you have these international experiences and that you have these highly wanted needs that will make you a more attractive applicant.

Matt Markin  
That's definitely a great point. So they're able to take advantage of it. Now, while they're a student at CSUSB, but then what they're learning and the experience that they're getting, it's going to help them in years to come, especially after they graduate. Absolutely. And I can also hear a student probably saying, you know, well, this all sounds great. I would definitely want to take advantage of it. But what's the cost? You. Know, is it going to be expensive? You know, I get financial aid. Can I use my financial aid? How would you answer that?

Ryan Griffith  
Yeah, great, great questions, and they're completely understandable, because, as we all know, education hasn't gotten any cheaper, and so we're always looking for ways to maximize the value from our higher educational experience. So I would say with the cost, it's certainly manageable, and here at CSUSB, I think it's more manageable than some of the other universities that I mentioned at the beginning of our discussion. And I say that because, yes, financial aid does go with you if you're participating in an opportunity overseas, like with anything, planning is very, very important. So as soon as you identify a program, or you make a decision that you would like to participate in a program, whichever iteration it is, reaching out to our friends over in the Financial Aid Office is always your first step. But yes, the Financial Aid will kind of go with you on your opportunity overseas. So we can strike that one off. And as I mentioned, the institution here at CSUSB has made a concerted effort to really minimize the costs associated with an education abroad opportunity. And at the tip of that spear is President Morales and his offices $500 study abroad scholarship that he offers for students. The requirements are really minimal, and I think almost every one of our participants has received one of those scholarships, so long as they're an active CSUSB student and have above a 2.0 GPA, it's a great way to offset some of those costs. For example, some of our destinations that $500 scholarship will cover the airfare alone. But the President's office is not the only office that is keen on supporting education abroad, here at the institution, and in fact, the Office of Student Research has recently launched a cross culture scholars Research Program, which is aimed at providing up to $1,500 to students that are interested in exploring the international aspect of their academic careers here at the institution. So another office that's definitely keen on supporting that international mobility here. And I'm also pleased to announce the institution has yet again, this is the second summer in a row now has earmarked funding, strategic funding, to bring down the costs of these programs overseas. And so we're going to be announcing that for the summer 2024 faculty led season, that we have funding to bring down by $1,000 the program costs for up to 110 student participants. So this is really, really exciting in another way. So if we have a student who has that minimum GPA with to get the 500 who writes a very persuasive application with the Office of Student Research, there's another 1500 giving us 2000 and then the savings that we would have by the decrease we bring that up to 3000 essentially, that we're looking at utilizing to bring down all those costs.

Matt Markin  
Wow, yeah, that just sounds exciting, that all that is happening. And there's aside from the opportunity to be able to do education abroad, the opportunity for these scholarships, you know, so, yeah, great work there. And you were mentioning GPA from one of the scholarships, but I guess in general, for a GPA requirement, is there one across the board for these? Does it differ?

Ryan Griffith  
That's a great question in regard to GPA, and it's a very modest 2.0 so here at CSUSB, accessibility is key, and having this threshold really makes studying overseas an opportunity for all of our students.

Matt Markin  
And regarding like applying for it. Is there an application process to this?

Ryan Griffith  
Yes, Matt, as you can imagine, there certainly is an application process, and it's a fairly quick and simple application that's attached to each and every one of our education abroad opportunities, whether it be with the faculty led opportunity or with the more traditional exchange opportunity, as students are perusing our portfolio of opportunities through our website, which is Go abroad.csusb.edu, they can click the links that are attached to those specific specific programs to learn more about the courses that are connected to those programs, as well as the estimated costs associated with the opportunity. And there's a big blue Apply button. They can click on that button and then go through an online wizard to complete the application process. It's pretty quick, pretty simple.

Matt Markin  
And we'll make sure to also include that link in our show notes as well. And you know, students listen to this, and again, they're kind of based off all your answers. Are you gonna be? Excited for this. Let's say they have some more questions. You know, they want to maybe try to meet with someone who can they contact?

Ryan Griffith  
Sure, so our education abroad advisor is Amy Chen, and the best way to reach her is either via email or stopping by the Center for Global Innovation in person. We're up on the third floor of CGI. As mentioned, the email for Amy is Go abroad@csusb.edu and she'll be able to answer those questions. Or if a follow up meeting would be helpful to have a little bit of an advising session, Amy is more than happy to accommodate both in person as well as zoom requests. So obviously, Zoom can be handled via email, and then for those in person requests, just feel free to swing by CGI again. We're here up on the third floor.

Matt Markin  
All right. Sounds good. A lot of great information. I hope you already take advantage of checking out the website, maybe get in contact with Amy, and hopefully taking advantage of the various opportunities and places to go for education abroad. So Ryan Griffith, thank you so much for being on the podcast today. 

Ryan Griffith  
Matt, thank you so very much. We look forward to getting all of our youths overseas. So again, folks reach out happy to help. Thanks so much. Matt.