The Overseas Nextdoor by Andrew

The Overseas Nextdoor by Andrew - March 2016 Scholarship Essay

Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Rio de Janeiro, Oslo. All these names elicit a response of mystery and intrigue. Some college students have a burning desire to visit these places, where others' interest in international travel is only passive. Others simply wish to obtain their degree, get a job, marry, have kids, and never leave the relative safety of their native country. But which camp is right? Is overseas education really all that it's made out to be by the Study Abroad program at your university, or is it a waste of the student's money? But what if one mustn't have to spend thousand of dollars to get a taste of another world?

The merits of studying at a foreign institution are obvious: linguistic immersion, cultural diversity, and of course the food. But what is it that makes another country so enchanting? Is it the unfamiliar geography? What about the exotic flora and fauna? No. It is the people. The people are what makes any land different from another. But every major institution of higher learning has international students all over its campus. One needs not go to a different continent to meet these people. There are multi-cultural clubs of all sorts to join, where one can fraternize with all diverse manner of humans. One week the teacher is the Brazilians practicing capoeira, and the next it's the Indians drinking chai and chatting.

Therefore, even though studying abroad is an excellent way to get a comprehensive understanding of a particular culture, it is only one culture. But one should not be required to study abroad, since the great number of people already willing and able to do so creates multi-cultural hotspots where various global traditions can meet and commune. To each his own, and nobody should be required to study in a particular foreign country while at college, but instead, should be encouraged more to mingle with the people in their own backyard from whom they can learn much.