University Scholars and SU Abroad
Is there a link between study abroad and high academic achievement? At Syracuse University, the answer is a resounding yes. A five-year survey of recent University Scholar winners reveals a consistently high ratio of students with study abroad background, ranging from a quarter of recipients in 2005 to over ninety percent in 2008. Each year, 8 to 12 academically outstanding graduating seniors are selected as University Scholars by a committee of faculty from candidates nominated by the schools and colleges.
"We're delighted by this link, but not surprised," says Jon Booth, executive director of SU Abroad. "The University Scholar award is the highest undergraduate academic honor bestowed by the University, and by their very nature, students who choose to study abroad are seeking to challenge themselves and their boundaries."
Currently, about forty percent of SU undergrads graduate with at least one SU Abroad international experience. Attracted by courses in their major, cultural immersion, and practical, resume-building experience, students consistently cite SU Abroad signature features as the most valuable experiences abroad: the field study seminars, internships, community projects, and homestays.
Former Strasbourg Center director and SU professor of Geography John Western believes the study abroad experience not only fosters the necessary confidence and commitment that creates future scholars, but it also gives them an expanded world view they carry with them. About geography and French major Kathleen Gill, one of the 12 University Scholars selected this year, Western says: "Katie perfected her French in Strasbourg during the fall semester, and stayed on in spring to enroll in geography courses at Strasbourg’s Louis Pasteur University. Not only her language, but her personal and professional confidence developed exponentially."
Gill, who will give the undergraduate address at Commencement in May, is philosophical about her achievements: "Understanding that we are never done discovering the world and that we are never done learning makes the scholar who they are and who they will become… I discovered the French-Alsatian world, but coming back to the Syracuse I rediscovered America, Syracuse, my major and myself. I know that I will never be done discovering, be it at home or abroad."
In fact, Gill had to choose between home and abroad. While she was accepted into a new MA program in geography in Lyons, France at L’Ecole Normale Superieure Lettres et Sciences Humaines, she has decided to accept an alternative offer from the CUNY Graduate Center to enroll in a 5-year, completely funded, Ph.D program in geography, beginning fall 2008.