Students Flock to OIP Fair

After traveling to Paris, Hong Kong, and Cameroon, Africa through Harvard’s study abroad programs, Andrea M. Mayrose ’06 stood outside the Science Center tent yesterday, promoting the third annual Harvard College Study Abroad and International Experience Fair.

After the second hour of the fair, Mayrose said she had passed out more than 1,000 empty bags for students to fill with pamphlets. Before moving to the Science Center lawn, the fair took place at the Gutman Conference Center at the Graduate School of Education and attracted only 300 to 400 students each year, according to Leslie M. Hill, Assistant Director of the Office of International Programs (OIP).

“I’m the poster child for going abroad because I’ve done several different programs through several different offices,” said Mayrose.

The percentage of Harvard students going abroad went up over 20 percent during the last academic year and over 70 percent this past summer, according to Jane Edwards, Director of OIP. This semester, 120 students are studying abroad.

“It used to be much more difficult to go abroad than it is now,” Edwards said. “We’ve tried to get rid of as many obstacles as we can. We’ve tried to make sure students can get the funding they need and that there is no uncertainty about [academic] credit.”

The OIP squeezed a total of 88 tables under the Science Center tent yesterday. One front table featured the new Funding Sources Database for International Experience, a website that lists all Harvard funding sources for international experience. Another provided information about the new Harvard study abroad program in Argentina, scheduled to begin in the 2006 fall semester.

“I think the URL will make all the difference,” said Daphne P. Maramaldi, the URL project manager who stood by a projector screen displaying the new site. “Now students can go to one place and find funds that will support them.”

This one source will serve students traveling to a variety of destinations.

According to Hill, most students study in France or Spain during the academic year. But this past summer, 39 students from Harvard studied in Beijing, and 160 applied to the Beijing program.

“More students applied than we expected,” said Shengli Feng, professor of the Practice of Chinese Language and Director of the Chinese Language Program. “We’re looking to expand by 100 next summer.”

Last summer, the College funded summer programs for the first time ever, spending a total of $250,000 on grants.

“We’re creating programs and opportunities where they did not exist before,” Hill said.

The number of programs offered through the Harvard Summer School Study Abroad Program has increased steadily over the past three years, from three to seven to 10. This summer, the program expects to offer a total of 14.

“The more we have students studying abroad, the more it will become a rational part of the decision to be at Harvard—or, rather, to be somewhere else for a semester,” Edwards said. “I’d describe studying abroad as a perspective adjustment. The world looks different once you spend a significant amount of time in another part of the world.”