Study Abroad
Participating in study abroad is an opportunity that many Geneseo students hope to embark upon during their time at school. Unfortunately, though, the pandemic put a halt to this travel experience. Students have not been physically able to go abroad since March 2020, when the pandemic got worse. In an email interview, Director of the Study Abroad Office Samuel Cardamone gave a thorough overview of this semester’s abroad experience and how the future of this educational opportunity will look.
Study Abroad for the Fall semester of 2021 will not be in person. Cardamone explained that Geneseo, along with other SUNY schools, has worked together to come up with a relaunch plan for the Spring 2022 semester.
“The study abroad relaunch plan has been through multiple iterations, and its function is to provide guidance to campuses on their responsibility to students as well as students’ responsibilities and outline approves by which a campus must undergo a campus-level and SUNY-system-level review to reopen a study abroad program,” said Cardamone. “The plan also outlines some specific study abroad program cancelation triggers.”
Given the suspension of study abroad back in March of 2020, enrollment has remained at zero. Cardamone remains hopeful, though, that enrollment will return to its higher percentage within the next few years, as long as the conditions of traveling are safe and return to pre-pandemic levels.
Cardamone also explained that the school’s relaunch plan focuses on students’ safety. Some of the content of this plan consists of data, as well as health notices from the Center for Disease Control (CDC), in addition to other travel risk warnings and entry and exit requirements pertaining to each country.
“The study abroad relaunch plan outlines a number of data points that a campus must review including CDC travel health notices, US Department of State travel risk warnings, entry/exit requirements for each country, healthcare access and quality in a country as measured by the Healthcare Access and Quality (HAQ) index and a number of other data sources. This data taken together with feedback from our partner universities abroad is used to determine if it is appropriate to resume study abroad in a specific location,” said Cardamone. “Once a location is approved, then the Study Abroad Office begins its job of [educating] students to be responsible travelers.”
Cardamone emphasized that the safety of students and staff traveling abroad is always a top priority, but that they cannot eliminate risk. He added that their responsibility is to put risk mitigation protocols and resources in place to assess a location and further determine if it is appropriate to operate.
There are still different kinds of virtual global education experiences available for students and these could still be good, convenient options.
“A virtual global education experience is an opportunity to participate in online learning with international partners, which could take the form of coursework delivered by universities abroad taught by local faculty members or virtual internships connecting students with local non-governmental organizations doing grassroots development,” said Cardamone.
Even though students may not be able to participate in a study abroad program in person, one can still participate online and have a fun and meaningful experience.