If we like the short-term study tour as a promising business model, mustn't we bite the pedagogical bullet?  Lenz and Wister ask the right question: “Can students on short-term education abroad be led to have transforming intercultural experiences?” Recent research indicates that the answer sometimes may be “no.” 

“Students who take short-term travel tours often score lower on internationalization indices than students who study abroad. That's reflected by comments like, ‘Mexico’s a dirty place. I couldn’t wait to get out of there.’" stated Gil Latz, vice provost for international affairs at Portland State University at a recent NAFSA event. "The problem seems to be a lack of opportunity for reflection,” Latz explains.

Jim Castagnera

Anecdotal evidence concurs.  While discussing my own recent London experience with two Rider study-tour veterans, we soon had one another in stitches.

Dr. Barry Seldes, professor of political science, recalled leading a group down the winding back streets of Florence to point out important historical features, when he overheard a scantily dressed female student comment to her friend, “Why can’t we walk on the sunny streets?”

International program director Linda Materna recalled a student who “screamed when she saw the antennae on the snails in her paella.” But, she hastily added, “There are also students who come home and write to me, ‘Dr. Materna, you changed my life.’”  That is why Materna says she still leads such tours year after year. Barry Seldes agrees. Both of them assign 'reflection papers' and other student work to help insure that the vacuum detected by Gil Latz is filled.

No silver bullet
The benefits of short-term faculty-led student tours are apparent and hard to debunk.  At Portland State, where the average student is 27 years old, Gil Latz admits that the short-term experience is the only realistic option for most of his non-traditional scholars.  For Rider University, short-term trips enable students to taste global fare at affordable prices and 'whistle-wetters' to encourage more ambitious experiences for those who discover an appetite. 

Jim Castagnera has an article on this subject in the July issue of The Greentree Gazette magazine.