Mary Cappabianca did not buy a single schoolbook when studying at the Universidad de Santiago de Chile during spring 2010. Instead of rushing to the bookstore the minute she received a syllabus, she headed to the academic department’s copy center and picked up Xeroxes of all the readings she needed. For 20 cents each, they were a bargain and, most of the time, photocopied illegally, she said.

Buying books — a habit each student faces at the start of a new semester — is just one of the differences between classes abroad and classes at Syracuse University. In addition to adjusting to life inside the classroom, students studying abroad need to adjust to their new home for the semester.

Carrie Abbott, associate director of SU Abroad, likened the experience of transitioning between classes at SU and classes abroad to that of an average student’s freshman year.

‘When you first arrive on campus, you have these anxieties of ‘I need to find my way around,’ ‘I need to meet new people’ and ‘I need to get adjusted to where I’m living and my new environment,” she said.

But she noted the process of adjusting to class life abroad happens relatively fast.

‘You’d be surprised how quickly you can transcend those issues and get to know your environment,’ Abbott said.

All of that adjustment contributes to the way a student grows, she said, and that is the reason many students go abroad.

Cappabianca, a senior public relations and international relations major, spent two semesters abroad. During her sophomore year, she went to Madrid. During her junior year, she traveled through the much smaller Santiago, Chile, program.

SU Abroad centers sometimes send SU professors abroad to teach on location for a semester, but more often the school contracts local professors to teach students, Abbott said. While Cappabianca was in Chile, she took a class on dictatorship and human rights violations in Chile at the Santiago SU Abroad center. It was taught by a Chilean professor who was once a political prisoner, so she and her 15 classmates were able to connect with the material more, she said.

‘I liked the opportunity to take classes that you can’t take here in the United States,’ she said. ‘When you’re in that environment and you’re immersed in it, you can learn in so many more ways.’

Adam Britten, a senior marketing management major, spent fall 2010 living in London and studying at the SU Abroad center, taking classes with British professors hired by the university. He was surprised by the professors and said some of them were not as personable as he expected them to be.

Abbott noted students might be surprised to find the differences in classroom behavior, depending on their study location. At the Beijing and Hong Kong centers, Abbott said the classroom environment is more formal — students don’t dress as casually and would never bring beverages with them into a classroom.

In addition, Cappabianca said grades were written on the blackboard in Santiago, and professors put no effort into hiding scores on tests and quizzes as they were passed back to students — average activities in SU classrooms.

‘I think that at first it can be challenging for students, but you adjust,’ Abbott said. ‘Just as you adjust from going to a high school classroom to a college classroom, you can adjust from being in a classroom here in the States to being in a classroom overseas.’

At some SU centers, SU students study at the local university. Though Britten’s classes in London were filled with his peers from SU, Cappabianca’s studies in Chile were with Chilean students. Instead of heading back to their residence halls after the lectures, the Chilean students would go back home to their parents or their apartments in the city. In addition, there is no main campus at the Universidad de Santiago de Chile. Instead, there are many smaller campuses around the city, she said. Chilean students would travel all over Santiago to take different types of classes — much farther than the 10-minute walk to traverse SU’s campus.

There is no stopping by the dining hall in Chile, either, because they don’t exist. Cappabianca likened the food services to that of a high school cafeteria that would become busy by lunchtime. After her classes, she often met up with some of the 18 other students from Syracuse who studied in Santiago at a restaurant or bar before heading back to her host family.

Despite the differences, Cappabianca was happily surprised with her academic experiences. She said she had not initially expected a strong connection with her professors.

‘My professors cared about students and were funny, they knew people’s names,’ she said. ‘It was not a distant lecture style — there was no cold guy, monotone in the front of the room.’

Nonetheless, for those who struggle with the adjustment, Abbott said the issues usually dissipate quickly — just like they do when students are starting out at SU.

‘It’s very common,’ she said. ‘You know, 90 percent of the time, the student moves through (the differences) the way they did in their first week on campus.’

knmciner@syr.edu

Published on January 31, 2011 at 12:00 pm