Student Attendance Triples at Annual Study Abroad Fair

With a more central location and increased publicity, Harvard’s annual Study Abroad and International Volunteer Fair attracted more than three times as many students as last year.

The greater attendance this year comes as the College intensifies its campaign, led by Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71, to encourage students to go abroad during the academic year.

This year’s fair boasted an increase in opportunities for students to peruse, with the number of tables at the fair jumping from around 50 to over 80 tables in total, according to Leslie M. Hill, assistant director of the Office of International Programs, which co-sponsored the fair with the Office of Career Services.

Hill also said the number of tables concerning international internship, work and volunteer opportunities doubled from last year.

The offices also initiated a larger publicity effort before the fair this year, stuffing every first-year’s mailbox with a flyer, notifying House masters about the fair and postering the campus.

In past years the success of the fair had been limited by its location in the Gutman Conference Center at the Graduate School of Education, Hill said.

This year, organizers moved it to the very heart of undergraduate campus life in a tent just outside the Science Center.

Gross said earlier this fall that he would ideally like as much as a third of undergraduates to study abroad during their undergraduate years.

The number of students choosing to go abroad this fall is nearly double the number from last year at this time.

Historically, only a small percentage of undergraduates study in foreign countries during the year.

Hill said that she was thrilled with the turnout at the fair, which the offices have been planning for a year.

“I’m really impressed with Harvard’s effort to encourage study abroad,” said Reed A. Malin ’07, who said he had previously thought the College was not fully behind the option.

Hill said that Harvard’s new dedication to study abroad is not just evident in the greater prominence of the fair this year.

More generally, she pointed to the fact that study abroad services now inhabit the center of the campus.

This past January, after a three-month stay in Wadsworth House, the Office of International Programs, which oversees the study-abroad program at Harvard, moved into its new permanent home on the ground floor of University Hall.

It had previously been located on Dunster Street in the Office of Career Services.

The move was the result of the Study Abroad Office being renamed the Office of International Programs and being put under the auspices of the Office of Undergraduate Education from its former home in the Office of Career Services.

Anibal Sepúlveda, program coordinator for the regional office of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, said the center also started Harvard’s first study abroad program in Santiago, Chile, last semester.

Harvard joins a host of schools like Boston University, Brown and Duke that offer programs in other countries.

Sepulveda said programs like the one in Chile are important because they facilitate the process of applying for study abroad and ensuring the transferability of financial aid.

“Because it is Harvard-run there are a lot less hoops to jump through,” said Carlos J. Rojas ’04, who participated in the inaugural Chile program.

Students at the fair praised the opportunities that Harvard was advertising at the fair.

“I saw organizations that I didn’t know about,” said Adeline A. Boatin ’04, who said she is interested in going abroad next year. “I don’t know if I’ll pursue them all, but now they’re an option.”

Many students said they came to the fair already set on studying abroad and only seeking more information about the opportunities available.

But the fair also prompted some students who hadn’t been seriously considering going abroad to look into it.

“I just came in here on a whim, thinking I could get something for free,” said Jianhua Andy Tau ’07. “I wasn’t planning on studying abroad, but I passed through there and it became more and more appealing.”

Hill said she did not have an exact count of how many students came to the fair, but estimated that at least over a thousand had stopped by.

“I’m looking forward to how busy it’s going to be at our office—because it’s going to be busy,” she said.