Degree Name
MA in International Education
First Advisor
Linda Drake Gobbo
Abstract
In the field of international education, we strive to assist students in their development through a study abroad experience, by either preparing them to study abroad, by creating intentional reflective practices to allow them to understand what they are learning while abroad and/or supporting them upon return to help them articulate their experiences either to career, academic and/or personal goals.
Specifically, at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, they have adopted the philosophy of providing students with an opportunity to learn through direct experience. Cal Poly’s guiding educational philosophy, often referred to as “Learn by Doing”, is one that the Study Abroad Office has attempted to apply when it promotes the study abroad opportunities it offers as “Learn by Going”. If Cal Poly students are to “learn by doing” and the Cal Poly President supports study abroad opportunities and other co-curricular experiences as vehicles for reaching the campus vision and goals, for meeting global challenges and being competitive in a global economy, it follows that there is a need to provide a more holistic support system to all students who study abroad regardless of the type of program they pursue in order for them to understand the knowledge, skills and attitudes they are acquiring from the experience.
This program proposal is designed for Cal Poly students who study abroad as a programmatic and holistic structure that would facilitate students learning’s throughout the study abroad experience (before, during and after) and one that would facilitate the acquisition of intercultural competence. By participating in a program such as the one being proposed, students will be able to identify the specific skills to become interculturally competent, to understand how to work toward the acquisition of those skills and otherwise how to optimize their study abroad experiences. Program goals include (1) Provide a comprehensive program to encourage the development of intercultural competence in students who study abroad. (2) Increase understanding and acceptance of cultural differences in students who study abroad and increase their awareness to their attitudes towards those differences. (3)Provide students who study abroad the opportunity to reflect on and integrate what they have learned from their study abroad experience through interaction with others who have studied abroad. (4) Enable students to connect their study abroad experiences to their current experiences/situations, their campus community and to their future career, academic and personal goals.
Disciplines
International and Comparative Education
Recommended Citation
Jorgenson, Erica, "Cal Poly Study Abroad Program Design for Facilitation of Intercultural Competency" (2015). Capstone Collection. 2741.
https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/capstones/2741