mathmom

I think the best solution is to spend a year in a foreign country either after high school or after college and before grad school, but that's a pretty expensive option unless you are lucky with fellowships. I do agree with those who say try to find a program that doesn't ensconce you with too many other Americans. The fact that he speaks excellent French should be a big help.

tokenadult

To respond to the OP: studying abroad is an excellent idea, very educational, and sure to be a way to learn things you can't learn by reading books.

To various other participants: my observation, in the foreign countries I have lived in, is that expatriates group themselves by common language--which means that multilingual expatriates have the broadest social groups. Some expatriates are quite committed to learning the host country language, but many others are not. Someone who speaks a language spoken in many different countries will be able to make friends with many different expatriates. Such has been my observation, in one region of the world where I was an expatriate during two separate three-year stays.

interesteddad

That's why I think it's reasonable for parents to set some expectations for a study abroad program. Good programs can provide educational opportunities that NO college or university can offer.

For example, my daughter toured a Nike factory in Shanghai this week and talked with plant managers on production in China. Now, she could take endless Economics courses on global production and not come away with the concrete first-hand glimpse into the realities underlying all that as she got this week.

Last week, she spent several days living in a government "Socialist rural village" outside of Beijing with organized sessions with the village leaders. Is there any way to duplicate that glimpse into the rural/urban dichotomy dominating the developing world from a classroom in the United States?

The week before that, she was given a tour of the center of Chinese contemporary art in Beijing. Her tour guide was one of the two student organizers of an unsanctioned public art exhibition at the end of the Cultural Revolution in the 1970s -- an exhibit that drew 200,000 viewers, forced this gentleman into exile for several decades, and marked a key turning crumbling point in the end of Cultural Revolution restrictions. She could study art history and contemporary art for a dozen semesters and not get that kind of exposure to the real power of art.

http://www.magicalurbanism.com/?p=155

Last month, she spent two days seeing the extremes of "ecology" in Buenos Aires -- a day at the official waste disposal/landfill operation and a day with the Cartoneros, a sanctioned group of people who make their living collecting and separating trash for recycling.

http://www.magicalurbanism.com/?p=149
http://www.magicalurbanism.com/?p=147

And two different days touring shanty towns in Buenos Aires:

http://www.magicalurbanism.com/?p=150

I can't imagine how much better prepared she will be for understanding issues that are global in scope. Reading about them is one thing, but so abstract compared to actual first-hand experiences. I have no doubt at all that she is learning more this semester than during any other semester in college, perhaps more than all the other semesters combined.

stargirl

Hooray for study abroad! I'm doing my own stint overseas next semester in New Zealand (University of Auckland) and really can't wait. It's going to be so awesome and I'm really glad it worked out, since it can be quite a hassle for science majors to do so somtimes...