Twelfth Global Studies Conference

Abstract

Whereas long-term study abroad programs are generally conceded to offer students genuine cultural learning, there is more of a debate involving short-term study tours. Much of the criticism is directed at companies that specialize in such trips, often ones where students move quickly from one destination to another, never getting an opportunity to see more than just the briefest of highlights, ones that tourists tend to focus upon and that do not give an accurate understanding of the peoples and cultures involved. On the other hand, such short-term study tours do expose students to the larger world. The question remains: how effective are such trips when it comes to student transformation? This paper will explore these questions as applied to a specific study tour, a course concept employed in the Honors Program at La Sierra University. During the spring of their sophomore year, students for ten weeks immerse themselves in the history, politics, art, music, religion, and ecology of a particular region (currently Malaysia & Singapore). After they complete this course, they enroll in a three-week study tour to that area, visiting many of the places they have learned about. Assessment of this trip (surveys given out at two years to graduating seniors and five years to alumni) indicate that this model allows students, many of them the first in their family to attend college, to experience legitimate transformation, suggesting that if designed carefully there may be quite a bit of value in a short-term study tour.