Increased funding supports study abroad
By encouraging donations to expand study abroad scholarship funding tenfold, CMU President Michael Rao hopes students hear his message loud and clear: study abroad is a priority at CMU.
The president’s ongoing commitment to study abroad, which is reflected in his talks with students, in speeches, and written columns, includes making study abroad an institutional priority under CMU 2010.
Study abroad aligns with CMU 2010 Priority II: Diversity and Global Perspectives.
“Study abroad provides students an opportunity to explore much of what they will experience in their careers,” Rao said. “Most organizations and companies are increasingly insisting on candidates with international perspective and experience.”
When he was in college, Rao said he assumed he couldn’t afford to study abroad and didn’t explore all of the opportunities available to him – a decision he now regrets.
“The consequences (of not studying abroad) are greater now than they were for me,”
he said.
The New York Times recently reported that employers put a premium on candidates with international experience. The U.S. Department of Education found that the U.S. is suffering from a shortage of professionals with international knowledge and foreign language skills.
Faculty play important role
One way the university is addressing the shortage is through increased scholarship funding. Rao said that professors also play a key role in promoting study abroad.
“To me, the faculty is a very important factor,” he said, noting that some of the most successful and rewarding study abroad programs at CMU are led by trusted professors.
Dianne De Salvo, study abroad director, agrees that faculty members play an important role – many of them working behind the scenes to get students interested and planning to study abroad.
“Faculty members are key in getting students abroad – they talk to students and they encourage students,” she said. “We couldn’t do it without them.”
Rao said that sometime in the next decade he would like the university to consider requiring a study abroad experience or a capstone research project for all undergraduate students.
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 Matthew Pety, a master’s student in business administration, spent fall semester in Le Havre, Normandy, France, as one of 400 CMU students who studied abroad this year.
Quick facts about study abroad
400
CMU students who study abroad each year
25
Faculty who lead CMU study abroad programs
191,000
U.S. undergraduate students who studied abroad in 2003-04
1 million
Goal for number of U.S. students studying abroad by the Abraham Lincoln Commission on Study Abroad
studyabroad.cmich.edu
Web site to learn more about CMU study abroad opportunities
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