If I have learned one thing in my years on this earth, it is that the places I have traveled have positively shaped me into the person I am today.
Travel means many different things to individuals. Travel could mean a trip down the road to visit friends, a weekend at a festival or a month overseas.
But regardless of your definition, the more I talk to people who have traveled and the more I travel myself, I am led to the conclusion that traveling teaches you something.
It teaches you something more valuable and rare than what we can learn in classrooms.
Now, couldn’t we all agree that an employer would want to hire the wisest and most mature graduate?
And as students, shouldn’t we want to have that maturity and experience at our disposal?
I know you are thinking about the many opportunities students have while attending a university to travel and even study abroad. But there is just one thing: It seems that few students are able to experience the study abroad program.
While it’s normal for students to not meet the GPA requirements, there are students who meet all academic requirements but don’t have the necessary funds.
Why don’t you just take out a loan? That would be an appropriate question. But with many students already under the thumb of impending debt, they feel as though travel and study abroad is a luxury out of their hands and out of their financial range.
So how can we fix this problem?
I know this question might seem outrageous, but I will ask it anyway.
Shouldn’t at least one semester of study abroad be incorporated into tuition for anyone attending the university?
I think it could be and should be. Now, you could only take the trip if you meet the requirements and desire to go.
If you decide not to go overseas while in school, you could be reimbursed for the hike in tuition that would no doubt be in place.
Federal money given to the university should be rationed out to fund this, while eliminating less important costs.
If the price of studying abroad dropped even just a few thousand dollars, I am sure more students would be able to study abroad and, in doing so, would be exposed to new cultures and ideas.
This would make our student body more well-rounded and would create mature adults with an education worth the money spent as an investment in the first place.
In a world becoming increasingly global, there are many benefits that international travel and cooperation among the youth could do for not only students’ lives, but also for the future generations they will impact.
