SU Abroad to host inaugural Study Abroad Day

SU Abroad to host inaugural Study Abroad Day March 08, 2007Daeya Malboeufdmking04@syr.edu

Nancy Farrell is busy. The SU Abroad recruiter is sitting on her office floor, surrounded by a lot of little balsa wood airplanes. Once assembled, they’ll fly in the Hildegarde and J. Myer Schine Student Center Atrium as part of SU Abroad’s Study Abroad Day, Wednesday, March 21.

Farrell and others have been working for weeks to make Study Abroad Day convenient and worthwhile for the entire campus. “We want to provide an easy one-stop study abroad ‘shop,'” says Farrell, who is a regular face at Schine tables and SU classrooms. Students, faculty and staff alike are encouraged to stop by to meet center directors and alumni, view student photography, and have their specific study abroad questions answered. Counselors will be on hand all day, and center directors are scheduled to give short presentations about specific programs.

“Study Abroad Day is a new effort to raise our visibility on campus,” says Amy Sloane-Garris, director of recruitment and marketing at SU Abroad. “We’re using it to build on some of our other successful campus initiatives like in-class visits and informational meetings, alumni forums, Parents Weekend and MayFest.”

SU Study Abroad Day is scheduled to coincide with the semi-annual visit of center directors, some traveling from as far away as Beijing. The day will begin with a breakfast panel and dialogue “Opportunities and Challenges in Study Abroad.” Visiting center directors will present and answer questions, and all SU faculty members are invited to attend. The event then officially opens to the entire campus at 10 a.m. with a kick-off ceremony featuring Vice Chancellor and Provost Eric Spina. Center directors will present every half-hour thereafter, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Afternoon presentations will include topics such as internships, World Partner programs and the new Muslim Cultures program, which will launch this fall at SU London. Alumni photographs will be on display throughout the day, and students are encouraged to register in a drawing to win a new iPod or one of two Carousel Mall gift certificates.

A schedule of the day’s events will be listed on posters in the Schine and Goldstein student centers, on ads in upcoming Daily Orange issues and on SU Abroad’s website at http://suabroad.syr.edu.

SU Abroad consistently ranks among the highest-quality international education programs in the country. More than 2,000 students from both SU and higher education institutions across the country study abroad with SU every year. SU Abroad programs foster scholarship in action through a combination of world travel, academic excellence, internships and community collaboration. The University currently operates six centers: Beijing, Florence, Hong Kong, London, Madrid and Strasbourg. New centers are under development in Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa. Through the World Partners program, SU students may also study in more than 20 additional countries, including Australia, Chile, Ecuador, India, Israel, Korea and Russia.

For more information on Study Abroad Day, contact Farrell at 443-9420.