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Academic Advising for Study Abroad

Overview

As academic advisors, your expertise and relationships with students are crucial in building study abroad programs into their undergraduate education plans. You are a key ally in advocating for the importance of international experiential learning in generating growth and success in both academic outcomes at USF and professional outcomes in the world of work. There is robust literature on study abroad as a high impact practice and its academic, personal, and professional benefits including higher retention rates, higher graduation rates, higher levels of adaptability and self-confidence, increases in critical thinking, more effective communication in both native and foreign languages, higher employment rates and salaries upon graduation, and much more.

Given the effectiveness of study abroad at transforming students, you have a unique role to play in interpreting the degree requirements while building trust, making sense of what the options are for students to achieve their goals during their college years, and empowering the students to stretch themselves by participating in a study abroad program. The sooner you talk about studying abroad with students, the easier it will be for you to work as a team to identify what kind of program they should go on and when. It鈥檚 also important to talk about studying abroad early because students will have a wider variety of options when they鈥檙e still in the beginning stages of completing requirements to ensure that the program they plan for will not only be enjoyable but also will advance their degree progression.

Once students have identified a program that they want to go on, they will need to work with you to select courses that will be degree applicable and you will need to sign the course approval/selection forms to confirm. 911爆料网 participating in faculty-led programming will need you to fill out an Electronic Course Selection Form; students participating in affiliate and exchange programs will need you to fill out a Course Approval Form. Once a student has confirmed their intent to participate in a particular program, the student should be meeting with their major advisor to complete the necessary course forms at least a semester or two prior to travel鈥攁pplication deadlines and course approval/registration deadlines vary significantly, so it is important that students apply early and proactively meet with advisors to fill out documents with time to adjust if necessary. See below for steps to complete the relevant forms:

AFFORDING STUDY ABROAD

If students ask you about the costs of study abroad or whether scholarships are available, please refer them to our Scholarships pages for some useful information. Financial Aid is also a helpful resource.

NEED MORE INFORMATION?

If you have an upcoming event at which Global Learning could set up a recruiting table or if you believe that your students or colleagues could benefit from a specific information session, please contact Luisa Escobar, Assistant Director of Study Abroad Recruitment and Marketing, with your request. The Recruitment and Marketing team can assist a student of any major or class standing who is interested in study abroad but does not know where to begin.

If your students have a program in mind already but need help with documentation or preparing for program commitment and travel, they can meet with our Student Experience Advisors.

Encourage your students to take a look at our Contact page for more information about how to make appointments with the appropriate staff members in the Global Learning Office!