Following the Equator | EF's Educational Travel Blog

The joys of studying abroad

By Paul Mattesini | EF Tour Director

I have what is politely called a chequered educational background. Dropped out of school at 15, ended up at night school a few years later (after a lot of travelling), fell into university in London, became an EF Tour Director, then went back to university to do a Master's programme for my own entertainment. My graduate studies were in a class that contained 15 other students from 14 different countries. I was the only Brit; it was superb. The range of ideas that people brought added so much to the general approach to learning.

There is not much better for the college student than the chance to study abroad. We at EF, rightly, bang on about the educational benefits of as little as eight days outside your own country. Imagine doing that for anything from a few weeks to a few years. Not only that, you would be doing it pretty much on your own terms. It can even be cheaper than college at home; a year in the UK can cost approximately $10,000. However, cost shouldn’t be a factor; there are all sorts of grants and exchange programmes available.

I am such an advocate of studying abroad that I even have statistics.

• More than 250,000 U.S. students studied abroad in 2009.
• The UK (33,300 students), Australia (11,000 students) and Ireland (6,900) are in the top 10 study abroad destinations. Other countries in the top 10 are Italy, Spain, France, China, Mexico, Germany and Costa Rica.
• Around 36% of study abroad participants go abroad during their junior year.
• More women study abroad than men. About 65% of participants each year are female.
• About 40% of those studying abroad do so for a semester or a quarter. Only 4% of those studying abroad go for a whole academic year, down from 14% over ten years ago.
• The majority (56%) of study abroad participants choose to study abroad for eight weeks or less, either sometime during the academic year, a January intersession or in the summer. An EF language course is a great way to study abroad for a shorter period of time and practice your language skills while exploring a new country.
• Only 6.2% of students studying abroad are foreign language majors. A greater number of students have majors in social sciences, business fields, humanities, the arts and physical or life sciences.

The variety of courses is amazing. International Student is a great resource for finding different types of courses as well as a lot of information on funding and loans. The UK Council for International Student Affairs offers a whole range of info on how to get to the UK, where to go and rules on working. Both sites have lots of very useful links and forums.

 

Think about it, studying for the love of studying and doing it overseas. Go on, search for a course; see where your imagination takes you.

Photo: Royal Holloway college at the University of London, where I studied history.

San Francisco and Barcelona join together as sister cities

By Christina Harsanyi | EF Copywriter

This morning I came across an interesting article about the city of San Francisco’s decision to become the sister city to Barcelona, Spain. With the help of the non-profit organization, Sister Cities International, mayors from the two cities signed an agreement designed to provide opportunities for cultural exchange and community partnerships.

Created as a result of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s citizen diplomacy initiative of 1956, the sister cities program aims to promote cultural understanding, stimulate economic development and foster global cooperation, goals similar to those of EF Educational Tours (to break down barriers of language, culture and geography through educational travel opportunities for students).

What will San Francisco and Barcelona do as sister cities? Sister Cities offers a wide variety of conferences and initiatives, some of which are specifically geared toward students. The Sister Schools Program pairs students together to participate in letter/webcast exchanges, fundraising projects and leadership development activities. The organization also hosts a Youth Leadership Conference and encourages families to host international exchange students.

At present, more than 2,000 cities are partnered in 136 countries across the globe. Check out which cities, your community has partnered with.

Landon Donovan scores winning goal against Algeria

Baseball may be the all American sport, but millions of Americans cheered (and perhaps blew their vuvuzelas) Wednesday when the United States won its match against Algeria in the ninety-first minute of the game. Never before had the U.S. team won its third and final match, and it was the first time since the inaugural World Cup in 1930, that the American team had remained undefeated in the first round.

Certainly, after Wednesday’s advancing win, more Americans may join the ranks of the 3.5 billion soccer (or football, depending where you are from) fans around the world. Soccer is considered the most popular sport in the world, and the World Cup is an opportunity for 32 nations to come together for one month for the love of their sport. Perhaps, the popularity of the sport is due to the fact that it requires only an inexpensive ball so people from the poorest neighborhoods to the wealthiest cities can take part in the game. Perhaps it is the lack of complicated rules.

Whatever the case, soccer seems to transcend barriers of race, class or geography. Just ask EF Group Leader, Chad Brannon, whose students bonded with a group of Ticos when they visited a tiny town in Costa Rica. Or ask EF volunteers who traveled on a service tour to Guatemala about their favorite moments working at an orphanage, and many will mention the pickup games of soccer with the boys, played despite the fact that quite a few volunteers couldn’t speak Spanish. These are only a couple of many similar stories.

In a Washington Post article, Bill Clinton, who became a fan of soccer as an adult and witnessed Landon Donovan’s winning goal, said, “I think the big issue everywhere in the world today is there are some forces bringing us together and some forces tearing us apart. And you want the ones that are bringing us together to triumph over the ones that are tearing us apart.”

In Clinton’s opinion, soccer accomplishes that goal, bringing people with different values and ideals together in a safe and entertaining way.

Like soccer, traveling has the same effect. That’s why EF has signed on to be an official sponsor of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. With the United States now set to advance, more Americans will likely start following the World Cup, and possibly by 2014 more of us will consider soccer to be our favorite sport.

Photo Credits: AP Photo/Ross D. Frankli

What would the Earth’s population look like if there were only 100 people?

Would there be an equal number of men and women?
How many Americans would there be?
Where would most people live?
How many would be able to read?

The answers may surprise you.

How to write a winning Global Citizen essay

Do you know U.S. high school students who want to travel to China for free this summer with other outstanding global citizens from India?

Well, now they have more time to apply for EF's Global Citizen Scholarship and some valuable suggestions (below) from EF's Educational Programs Manager.

The deadline for essay submissions has been extended to March 15, so that more future global citizens can take advantage of this extraordinary international opportunity. Ten scholarship recipients from the United States (current high school juniors and sophomores) will be selected to travel on the 2010 Global Citizens Tour with 10 scholarship recipients from India on an expenses-paid tour to China.

Global Citizen Spotlight: Lucy Chen

“Almost a week later, and I’m still jet-lagged. I guess it's just my body telling me to never ever leave Europe mode. Not that I want to. I spent 10 days being my crazy self, boarding too many flights, exploring picturesque cities, eating too much chocolate, running on four hours of sleep each night, playing pretzel on top of the Swiss alps, visiting Willi-Graf-Gymnasium in Berlin, painting blocks to recreate the Berlin Wall for the 20th anniversary, being photographed and videotaped 24/7, eating doners (yum), being way too American and tourist-like, yodeling, lying down on the streets of Berlin spelling "Berlin," doing the same in Prague, making new friends, writing too many journal entries, laughing, crying, and doing so much more. Gosh, I miss it…so, so much. Life was so surreal those 10 days…”

I wrote that in my journal a few days after I came home (which then seemed like the most boring and trivial place on earth) from my EF Global Citizen Scholarship tour of Berlin, Munich, Prague, Lucerne, and Dachau. Even eight months later, typing on my friend Bridget’s Facebook wall, I found myself again reminiscing about some of the same exact moments. Yes, we’re still friends, and collectively, along with Aswar, Matt, Sajda, Sharvani, Lindsay, Dizz, Shawaunna, and Kylie, we probably still remember all our adventures in Europe like it was yesterday.

This past summer, I was honored to represent the youth of the United States on a scholarship tour of Berlin, Munich, Prague, Dachau, Lucerne, and Washington, D.C., as one of the 10 national winners of the EF Global Citizen Scholarship. Yes, as a Chinese-American, I grew up with Mandarin and the dialect of Shanghai being my first languages, and in high school, I was taking the most challenging classes, learning about the world, and studying French. At the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia, I also tackled international issues, serving on the Student Advisory Council and as Model Senate Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee and Model UN Chair, but this trip made everything real.

Global Citizen Spotlight: Lindsay Brown

Over the next few months, guest columnists will be posting on Following the Equator. Our first guest columnist is Lindsay Brown. Lindsay is a high school senior at Fair Haven Union High School. She is a student ambassador, Girl Scout and member of the student council. She also plays tennis and field hockey. Last summer, she traveled to Europe as an EF Global Citizen. Here, she recounts her experiences.

As I entered my freshman year of high school, I didn't have much travel experience. The farthest I had been was Pennsylvania, and considering that I am from Vermont, I had seen virtually nothing the world had to offer. Don't get me wrong, I didn't have any trouble with homesickness. I used to love going away to Girl Scout camp for weeks at a time. The main reason I hadn’t traveled was lack of opportunity.

But then, during my freshman year, an opportunity arose in my civics and geography class to travel to China for two weeks. Usually freshman weren’t given the chance to apply, but my teacher saw something in me that even I didn’t know was there. She saw my interest in learning about the different countries and cultures and she just knew that this trip was for me. So I began the application process and after an interview, I was chosen to represent my school on the GRASP (Greater Rutland Asian Studies Program) trip to China, sponsored by the Freeman Foundation.

The trip was amazing. The beauty that surrounded me every day was immaculate. The gardens and centuries old architecture were mind blowing. I had the time of my life experiencing this foreign culture. I also had the opportunity to stay with a host family, and their daughter came to stay with my family the next summer. Once I got back, I did several presentations to students and adults alike, telling them about my experiences. This is how my passion for travel began. But it wasn’t until this summer, when I got to travel to Europe with EF Educational Tours that I realized how deep my passion for travel really is.

Apply for EF's Global Citizen Scholarship by March 1

Are you prepared for the demands of the 21^st century?

Do you want to travel on a free educational tour to China with other students from across the globe?

EF’s Global Citizen Scholarship program unites students around the world by breaking down language, cultural and geographical barriers. Our scholarship recipients enjoy the opportunity of a lifetime: a free educational tour to China designed to develop cross-cultural communication and promote cultural exchange.

EF is giving away 10 scholarships to current sophomores and juniors. All you have to do is watch a video on our website and prepare an essay response to the following prompt:

“As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, cross-cultural skills, communication, innovation and critical thinking are becoming more important than ever before. How could spending 14,000 minutes of your life on a  tour to China equip you with these skills or others? By refining these skills, what future opportunities could become available to you?”

Enter by March 1, 2010.

For more information, visit 
eftours.com/GlobalCitizen or call 1.800.665.5364.

Happy New Year

The ancient Babylonians were the first to celebrate the new year about 4,000 years ago. Today, the date that the new year is celebrated, as well as the way people ring in the new year, varies from country to country.

• In Scotland, neighbors partake in “first footing.” After the clock strikes midnight, people visit the homes of their friends to wish them good luck for the upcoming year. It is considered especially lucky if the “first foot” into your house belongs to a tall, dark and handsome man.
• Spaniards eat 12 grapes at midnight to ensure they will have 12 happy months in the upcoming year.
• In the Netherlands, people make bonfires out of their Christmas trees to get rid of old spirits and welcome the new.
• New Years Day and the Greek Festival of St. Basil fall on the same day. It is tradition for Greek people to eat a St. Basil cake into which a silver or gold coin is baked. The person who finds the coin is said to have good luck for the new year.

Our 10 Best of 2009

Thank you to everyone for reading, sharing and supporting Following the Equator in 2009. We sure enjoyed posting great stories, facts, tips and profiles about educational travel and the group leaders who make it possible.

We're already planning some exciting new things for 2010. Most of all, though, we want to hear from you. What do you want to read and see on this blog—more interviews with teachers, more amazing travel photos, more fundraising and recruiting ideas, more tidbits about the things to see and do on tour? Let us know at equator@ef.com.

As we look ahead to an exciting year of travel in 2010, we thought we'd take a quick look back at a successful 2009 and our 10 favorite blog posts of the year. Feel free to post your own comments below.

10 things Americans should know about the world

We Americans come from a big, powerful and influential country, to say the least. As if being a big (No. 3 in population) and wealthy (No. 1 economy) weren't enough, we've also managed to have a disproportionately large world influence culturally. It’s like Goliath becoming the planet’s most popular TV-show host.

It's long been too easy for us Americans to be content to gaze a bit too admiringly at our own navels when it comes to our world view; this dulls our appreciation of how much of our everyday lives is provided to us by other countries that are often half a world away.

As part of the 2009 Geography Awareness Week Blog-a-thon, hosted by National Geographic's My Wonderful World Campaign, this blog post required us to boil down, to a list of just 10, the things that Americans should know about their world. It seems to us that the best use of these 10 is to help close the gaps we may have in fully appreciating our daily interdependence with the wider world.

Here we go:

The Wave Around the World

Have you ever done the wave inside the Colosseum? At the top of the Eiffel Tower? On the Great Wall? Or in a Costa Rican rainforest?

Now's your chance, because you can be a part of the largest human wave ever: The Wave Around the World.

The Wave Around the World is looking for travelers—students, teachers, adults, anyone—to videotape themselves and their friends doing the wave in destinations across the globe. It's a perfect group activity for students traveling on educational tours this summer.