Due to financial problems, the University announced last year that it would be placing its three-week undergraduate overseas seminars on hold for 2010 — a decision that has caused students to look to other sources and programs in order to travel abroad.
Former Bing Overseas Study Program (BOSP) director and history Prof. Norman Naimark said that after looking at different options carefully, the decision to cut the seminar program made the most sense.
“The basic problem was financial,” Naimark wrote in an e-mail to The Daily. “As part of BOSP’s need to cut costs, the suspension of the seminar program turned out to be the easiest and most viable way to meet budget.”
BOSP, which at its height supported 10 seminars with 150 students, has not helped students pursue their own trips abroad during this period.
“Generally, BOSP does not get involved in individual student opportunities, unless they are directly related to the students’ study at one of our centers,” Naimark said. “In those cases, we do support individual research, internships and other student activities.”
The cuts to this summer’s overseas seminars have forced students to search for other means to travel abroad. Student in Government (SIG) offers overseas fellowships for students during the summer, but whether the hold on the seminars will largely affect SIG remains unseen, according to SIG chair Valentin Bolotnyy ’11.
“I can say with confidence that the high demand we’ve seen specifically for our international fellowships is a very good indicator of the popularity of international experiences in general among Stanford students,” Bolotnyy said. “It’s hard to say whether or not SIG has been affected or will be affected by cuts to overseas seminars.”
“SIG fellowships and the overseas seminars are not exactly perfect substitutes because the students that apply to our fellowships look for a full summer work experience in public service rather than the shorter and more academic experience that the overseas seminars used to offer,” he added.
But even if students did look to SIG to support their trip abroad, Bolotnyy said that, due to financial constraints, SIG and other student groups would not be able to support them all.
“We would simply not have the resources to soak up the excess demand for international fellowship opportunities that the overseas seminar cuts have left in their wake, even if we wanted to,” he said.
The lack of overseas seminars this summer has compelled students to find new means to study abroad — and some have found that the new opportunities they’ve pursued fit their needs better than the short summer trip.
“While I would have immensely enjoyed attending an overseas seminar, I have decided to pursue a quarter-long program instead,” said Jessica Pih ’12. “I think that a quarter abroad is much more enriching than simply three weeks abroad for a seminar.”
But a short overseas trip can be just as gratifying as a more long-term study abroad program, and other Stanford offerings allow some students this experience.
“I would imagine those three weeks would resemble a glorified, educational vacation rather than a culturally edifying experience,” Pih said. “I had the opportunity to do so though Bill Durham’s Sophomore College class to the Galapagos, so I know that two-week seminars can truly make a difference in one’s intellectual development.”
“It is a great opportunity to meet people who have similar academic interests and to truly get to know a Stanford professor outside of the traditional classroom environment on campus,” she added.
Some students, like Annie Kramer ‘12, however, have not been as affected by the hold as others, opting to design their own study-abroad plans.
“Since I am not participating in any Bing programs, the hold will not directly affect me,” wrote Kramer, who is taking a leave of absence for 2010-11 to travel, in an e-mail to The Daily.
“I won’t be ‘studying’ abroad in the traditional sense,” she added. “Instead, I’m hoping to immerse myself in other environments by working and volunteering so that I can have some ‘real world’ interaction with local populations and other travelers.”
Yet while students are finding new ways to travel abroad, they still hope BOSP and Stanford will resume the seminars.
“Without the overseas seminars, the University misses an opportunity to educate its pupils beyond its walls and to bring them to the teacher that is the larger world,” said Kip Hustace ’11. “I trust that, when the time is right, the University will re-institute the overseas seminars.”