Southwestern Magazine | Spring 2019

Southwestern students, staff, and faculty learn—and grow—abroad. B Y D E B B I E R I T E N O U R INCREDIBLE JOURNEYS CORTNEY GRAVES ’12 WAS GOING TO BE A LAWYER. She had it all planned out: After receiving her degree in international studies and political science, she would enroll in law school and become a prosecutor. This had been her goal since middle school, when she spent a day at the Williamson County Justice Center watching trials, speaking with judges and attorneys, and discovering how fascinating the field of law can be. Then she spent the spring semester of her junior year studying politics and the Chinese language in Beijing, China. Suddenly, her life took a different turn. “I had never been out of the U.S. before,” says Graves, who taught in Myanmar for a year after completing her degree. “I discovered that I had a passion for everything international.” Today, Graves helps Southwestern students prepare for their own potentially life-altering study-abroad experience as assistant director of intercultural learning. She counsels students on their various options, ensuring they find a program that fits into their degree plan and matches their interests. While she spends most of her time with students before they head off on their adventure, the most rewarding part of her job is seeing how much they’ve grown when they return. “Students develop independence and leadership skills when they study abroad,” she says. “They come home confident they can navigate tough situations they’ve never had to deal with before, frommanaging a budget to balancing their personal and academic lives. Some students come back a completely different person.” New experiences, new skills Approximately 100–200 Southwestern students study abroad each year. They can choose programs that are taught by Southwestern faculty and are available only to Southwestern students, or they can select programs offered by a third-party provider and attended by students from a number of universities. In total, the University approves more than 1,500 study-abroad programs that allow students to study everywhere from Argentina to New Zealand. Once students are accepted for a study-abroad experience, they must attend at least two predeparture meetings, in which they learn how to properly and safely conduct themselves abroad. The meetings also cover the challenges they may encounter. “Studying abroad is uncomfortable. You don’t know all the rules. You may not know the language. You have to figure things out,” says Tisha Korkuś, director of intercultural learning. “But mistakes are good. If you aren’t making mistakes, you aren’t learning anything.” Korkuś herself studied abroad, first in Argentina for a year in high school and later in Costa Rica for a semester in college. The experiences greatly affected her both personally and professionally. “It would be easier to say how I wasn’t impacted than how I was,” she says. Korkuś notes that in today’s interconnected world, studying abroad gives students an advantage when they enter the workforce. “You learn how to interact with people who are different from you. Every workplace you encounter will have people from different cultures,” she says. “You also learn how to be flexible and adaptable. When you’re studying abroad and your train breaks down or there’s a delay on the subway, you solve the immediate problem and then make better decisions in the future, like leaving earlier next time.” In fact, students who study abroad make $6,000 more a year on average at their first job out of college. They also aremore competitive when applying to graduate school. Photo by Joshua K. Jackson 23 SOUTHWESTERN