From Various Points of View

Introduction and Conclusion by Morgan Lewis

AFTER STUDYING SHAKESPEARE and theater in London for six weeks, I remember looking out the window on that final commute, etching into memory the lively discussions that had happened under pink blossoming trees in Hyde Park, the rhubarb and custard candies, the silent walk home trying to process the emotion a performance of Dr. Faustus had awakened. There’s something about living abroad that changes a person at exponential rates. I left England different. I was more confident, carried a newfound love of theater, and had an exciting new career path. Because I was so caught up in relishing my experience, I took for granted the amount of planning and work required to trek around England with 30 people. It was a bit of a Disneyland experience  and I was blissfully unaware of the effort behind the scenery. The only time the façade broke was when Dr. Amy Petersen Jensen’s husband had an accident at the Cliffs of Dover. But then, the logistics of calling the ambulance and getting him to the hospital caused an interruption of only an hour in my life. The other director gathered up the rest of our group, and we continued to our next destination. Meanwhile, that accident continues to be a daily interruption in the lives of my professor  and her family. I recently had the opportunity to sit down again with Dr. Petersen Jensen and several other study abroad directors to learn about the sacrifices they make to maximize the experience for students 

ML: What was the impact of study abroad on you and your family?

Stephen Tuttle: On the one hand, it’s a major disruption: to miss a full year of Little League Baseball kind of means you are done with baseball. It interrupts things that, if you don’t do them regularly, you are probably never going to do again. Study abroad is fundamentally life changing. It comes at a cost, but it is a cost I would happily pay for the tremendous experiences we have had.

Did they pick up cricket instead?

Tuttle: (chuckles) No, not cricket. We watched a game of lawn bowling once, which is more complex than it appears. You really can spend a whole afternoon watching another culture do its thing, whether it’s sport or something else. No cricket, though.

Leslee Thorne-Murphy: When I went to talk to my freshman son’s school [to excuse him from the last month of the school year], the principal said, “I think this is a time when we do not want school to get in the way of education.” I thought, “Wow! That’s exactly it.” There’s a kind of education that comes from being there that can complement the classroom education and surpass it. I was really glad that the kids’ schools recognized that.

Amy Petersen Jensen: When I became an associate dean in my college, I told them I wouldn’t take the position unless they still let me go on study abroad! I do not regret that. I have to do all the work I am responsible for before I leave and still do stuff in the middle of the night, but it is worth it to have the experience.

Were there particularly challenging moments or comedies of errors unique to being abroad?

Chantal Thompson: We had the students stay with African families, and they didn’t have running water or Wi-Fi. The students ate with their hands, like Africans do. They quickly adjusted and came to absolutely love those families.

Petersen Jensen: We were in London when the Manchester terrorist attack happened. We had a general safety plan, but when those events happened, our safety plan became much clearer. I think it helped the students to feel safe but also to feel some responsibility for their peers and deep compassion for the friends and neighbors whom they had been living with for two months.

Tuttle: In Stratford we had just seen Julius Caesar, a play that has a heavy amount of suicide in it. I heard from the students that one student was not responding well. I watched them sort of surround her and protect her. I saw that happen a lot of times—when a student would start to flag and the other students would rally around. They really are like a family in that way.

What is the least-recognized benefit of study abroad?

Thompson: I would say it is what President Worthen talks about: experiential learning. You’re not learning with books or film; you’re living it. And that cannot be replaced by any classroom experience.

Petersen Jensen: In addition to that, our graduating students sometimes struggle acclimating themselves to environments where there are people who are different from them. I think students who go on study abroad have experiences where they sit next to people they normally wouldn’t sit next to. They have conversations with people they would never have had conversations with. I think study abroad better prepares them for that transition into the workplace or graduate school, where they are not going to be with a bunch of Mormons. That’s not to say they aren’t with a bunch of Mormons on study abroad, but if it’s planned carefully, there are a variety of opportunities for them to engage with the people around them. That’s a real benefit of study abroad that I don’t think we advertise.

Thorne-Murphy: Confidence. I distinctly remember hiking beside a young woman in our program—the first time we were actually summiting a mountain—and for a moment she felt like she would not make it. But she did. And she went on to summit every mountain we climbed. All the students do things that I don’t think they could do at another time. My students stay in hostels, and we cook our own dinners for the group. They have to come up with a recipe, make a grocery list, and go shopping. Everyone’s pretty tired after hiking all day. I think that, for a fair number of our students, is more daunting than the mountains!

What piece of advice do you wish a previous director had given you?

Tuttle: You can’t plan to wing it. There are times when you think you can just go with the flow because you’ve done it before. One mistake I’ve made is just showing up. There are a lot of free museums in England, but I didn’t realize that, for some museums, having 30 people just show up at their door in this time of heightened security seems threatening. They don’t like that.

Thompson: Sometimes the prep classes can be too general, but you need to create that passion and not just talk about vaccinations. I have students read a novel about life in colonial Africa that exposes them to all kinds of traditions, so when they get there, they are already in the culture. The importance of the prep class and the importance of the director knowing the country well—you can’t be discovering the place with them, you have to know it really well before you go.

Did your perspective change when you became a director? Did it change the way you teach in the classroom?

Thompson: You get to know these students really well because you are with them all the time, and you learn to love them. It makes all the difference.

Petersen Jensen: When I describe my experience as a study abroad director, I describe it as a privilege. That moment when you see the heart and mind and soul of these human beings who are going to go out into the world and do something fabulous—when you see them accessing power, gaining power it’s amazing. It’s a gift. Morgan was one of those people.

ML: I get emotional about it. Study abroad helped me to find my people. After that trip we created a group text. Every day we talk to each other, and right now we are all taking a class together. We had a book club this past summer—we read Middlemarch because we are insane! We meet each week and keep each other on track. I love them. They are my favorite people. And they are people I would never have met otherwise.

Do your families make lasting relationships with the students too?

Thompson: We still have reunions! Next week we are having a reunion, and the funny thing with this group is the way they communicate with each other. On Facebook they use the name “monkey lion” because when we were studying a novel in southern Senegal, one of the girls looked out the window while we were having this profound discussion and said, “There’s a lion over there!” All of us were suddenly outside and barefoot, running on the rocks, trying to get closer. It wasn’t a lion! It was just a big monkey.

ML: Thank goodness!

Thompson: (laughs) Right, thank goodness. From that point on, all the big monkeys were “lions.” So that’s the name we still use for each other.

Petersen Jensen: To my girls, the students are so complex, smart, and glamorous! There is nothing like being one of many in the Globe Theatre and trying to push your way up to the front so you can lean on the stage. Getting to do that with a group of 30 people is a bonding experience!

Thorne-Murphy: My children are like that too! But it also changed me substantially. I teach differently; I see my students differently. I understand the literature differently, just like my students. You have to know it well to go there, but that doesn’t mean you know everything. You still learn a lot while you are there. There is something about bringing together the intellectual engagement, the spiritual experience, the social interaction, the travel, the newness of the things you are tasting and feeling and seeing. All that comes together to make a unique experience you can’t have any other way.