Already this semester, students are preparing for the fall and spring of the 2001-2002 school year. Schedules are being organized, housing is being configured and offices are being elected for various student organizations.
If you are like many college students that would definitely like to visit a different state or foreign country in the not too distant future, you might want to take advantage of some outstanding study abroad programs ETSU has to offer.
The National Student Exchange Program is a consortium of 171 schools, to which ETSU belongs, that offers students the chance to stay for up to one year at a member campus for comparable costs to those of attending ETSU. Here at ETSU, two different programs are offered.
The Domestic National Student Exchange is one in which students can attend a range of schools across the U.S. and some in Canada.
The International Exchange Program offers students opportunities to learn in a variety of countries such as Spain, England, France, China, Australia, Germany, Ecuador, Hungary, Russia, Scotland and Sweden.
Maria Costa, ETSU’s coordinator of exchange programs, was once an exchange student herself, and highly recommends the program as a booster of self-confidence and personal growth.
“I would highly recommend this program to anybody,” Costa said. “It is a marvelous opportunity to experience real diversity and enrich your academic program.
“Growing as a person is a huge part of the college experience and participating in a study abroad program would positively add to this growth.”
When you visit different places you grow because values and ways of life are drastically different everywhere, she said.
“You learn a lot about the environment that you are in, but you learn more about yourself,” Costa added.
For the International Exchange Program it would be best to at least be knowledgeable in the country’s native tongue, but the current programs offered are starting to work around that obstacle.
“In a lot of places you would need to know the language, but now, a lot of schools understand that some people can’t speak certain languages fluently, so they are teaching courses in spoken in English,” Costa said.
“Students that have participated in it have come to me and said, ` I feel like I can do anything now,'” Costa said. That is what learning experiences are for.
For more information about ETSU’s national and international study abroad programs, call Costa at 439-7737.

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