Outside Your Comfort Zone: Fully Experiencing Study Abroad

By Talia Walters ‘20

I want to make it clear that the “standard” study abroad options aren’t bad. The key is that your comfort zone is something that only you are able to measure, and decisions based off of that are yours alone. I just don’t think the image of a great, vast world filled with billions of people who aren’t the cookie-cutter USC student is well-presented to students traveling abroad. USC’s programs are created to file large numbers of students through a standardized and safe system of “experiencing” other cultures without any care of the overwhelming self-exploration that travel can provide. Entire parts of the world are ignored despite my own experience, and many other’s experiences, traveling there, being entirely safe, and realizing so much about myself and the world around me. Choosing a place outside your comfort zone to study abroad can open up a whole new world of discovery during your semester away, and I think that’s the point of even studying abroad in the first place. So go somewhere you never even dreamed of before, and learn something about yourself you never expected. In order to help with measuring your own “sliding scale” comfort zone, I’ve put together a list of unique and different study abroad programs that aren’t as advertised by USC. For a lot of people, the gate that keeps them from going somewhere out of their comfort zone is the language requirements. I think they make sense, and they’re there for a reason, but that doesn’t make them any less frustrating. First, if you have the time, I would recommend just taking the two semesters of any language that are usually required to go somewhere like Russia, Japan, or Morocco. Otherwise, if you don’t have time to study a new language, this list is English-language study abroad programs organized by the most “comfortable” to the least “comfortable.” 

Dornsife offers over 50 programs in over 28 different countries, and yet we can all only name the same few programs – USC London, Paris, and Madrid, etc. We get emails about study abroad programs in these same places with a few added, exotic places like Chile or China every so often. I think most students would be surprised by the large number of study abroad programs in places like Argentina, Tanzania, or South Korea.

This highlights not only a problem with USC’s push towards the same familiar and easy study abroad experiences but a larger, indoctrinating problem within students’ mentalities towards study abroad. With an ignorance to programs in more “unique” places, people aren’t able to fully maximize their semesters away, finding the same comfort in somewhere they know just as well as LA.

The most life-changing experience abroad is going to be the one that challenges you, and since USC isn’t willing to recognize that doesn’t mean the same thing for everyone, it’s up to us as students to figure it out for ourselves.

“Self-Discovery” Through Travel

I am a strong believer in the “Wanderlust Mentality” –- this push for exploration of a world greater than you can be psychologically explained as wanting to self-develop through experiencing the unknown, the unfamiliar, and the challenging. Some of the best self-actualization can happen face-to-face with someone the exact opposite of you; they almost hold a mirror up to you, becoming a sort of forced self-reflection through outside experience. Every single person you meet can help you change your perspective of yourself and the world around you, and the more different they are from you, the greater that perception shift will be.

Studying abroad is a great time to do this. As young 20-somethings, there’s still so much room to grow to learn about the world. Our minds are malleable, we’re supported by an entire academic institution, and funding is usually not entirely out of the question. Educational systems are great ways to interact with the foreign culture, and you’ll become fully immersed almost immediately, giving you the experience that you so deeply yearn.

But sometimes, Study Abroad programs miss the mark. Sometimes those experiences abroad feel stagnant and normal, leaving you coming back without any major moments of self-discovery. Why is that?

Not to jump ahead of myself, but I think the general answer is that comfort and “the unfamiliar” is different for everyone, but USC doesn’t necessarily present it as such. One of my best friends from Ohio grew up in and only ever knew a rural town where the closest Walmart was an hour away, so when she moved to a “big suburb like mine”, she had her own mini culture shock. On the other hand, I spent most of my young, life traveling the country and moving from city to city for my mother’s job, so leaving Ohio for Los Angeles almost felt like the most natural course of action.

This is rarely presented when talking about study abroad. The point is to leave your comfort zone, to push through your own boundaries and become an entirely new person through travel, which can only happen if you put yourself in a position and in a place, where you can do that.

USC: the Fearmonger

My most recent study abroad experience started with a general, large orientation for every program with each study abroad adviser in front of the room and a huge projector that had printed “SAFETY WHILE ABROAD” across the screen.

The red folder I was handed by my adviser was thicker than some of my textbooks for the semester and had a tiny sticker on top with my name and “USC PARIS – SPRING 2019”. Inside, I was given packets about the health risks of being in France (apparently Rabies is “rampant” in southern France?), a booklet that explained how depressed I was going to be thanks to culture shock and language fatigue, the ENTIRE state department description of France, and a quiz to make sure that I read the state department’s terrorism warning.

We spent the next two hours hearing about how Jimmy drank one too many alcohols one night and never came home or how Kelly wasn’t paying attention to her surroundings and everything she had was stolen. And if you make it out alive, you’d probably be sad because study abroad “is usually different than how most students imagine it to be”.

When I was asked at the end of the presentation if I had any questions, I kind of wanted to ask if it was too late to back out.

One brave soul, however, did raise her hand with a concerned smile on her face and asked, “Does anyone come back okay?” And USC’s advisers quickly nodded and waved her off, saying “Most students don’t have any problems. This is really just a precaution.”

Herein lies the problem.

Unsurprisingly, I’ve been in France for about 2 months, and I don’t have rabies. I haven’t experienced a terrorist attack, and I haven’t been robbed. I haven’t been groped or drugged. I’ve gone out with friends late at night, I’ve gotten drinks, I’ve been in the midst of the Gilets Jaunes protests, and I’m still absolutely fine. I’m not sad, the culture shock was never really a problem and yes, sometimes speaking French every day is difficult, but thankfully I’m travelling with 8 other Americans who speak English. Before everyone comes for me, I understand that this presentation might be helpful because “these are real risks” that some students “may not know about” before making the decision to go abroad.

However, there is a difference between informing and scaring.

The presentation wasn’t “if these things happen to you, take these steps to ameliorate the situation” ; instead, it was “these things ARE going to happen to you, so maybe it’s best if you never leave your house” which is a really disheartening thing to hear when you’re already nervous to experience a new culture. And obviously those risks exponentially increase if you’re drinking, alone, or queer, a woman, or a POC.

USC makes leaving the country sound scary, making it incredibly hard to seek out this “self-discovery” comfortably and with the support of your home institution. It’s unsurprising that you don’t get emails about the study abroad program in Africa and the Middle East at the same rate en masse as the emails you get about study abroad programs in Europe. Everywhere else seems like a death trap in comparison.

The Problem

Of course, the next question is “Is this really such a problem?”

The answer is a resounding yes.

USC already lives in this massive bubble – we pay over $70,000 a year to go to a school set in a city with one of the largest housing crises in the nation and people living under the poverty line, barely scraping by. We have gates and pretty brick buildings and 6 Starbucks within a 10-minute walking distance of campus.

At what point do we look around and have to reconcile that the real world isn’t USC and USC isn’t the real world?

My argument is that studying abroad is a great time to do this; by displacing yourself from the bubble and entering a world of immense cultural difference, you can have that self-reflection moment. However, if you exit the bubble of USC to enter just a slightly larger bubble in these programs that don’t challenge you, you’re never having that self-reflection moment.

It’s key to realize that the problem isn’t inherently in specific places that people choose to go but instead in the lack of new experiences. For every student, their comfort level is a sliding scale, and their chosen study abroad program should reflect that in order to have that “life-changing” experience; to USC, there’s a uniform comfort level for the student population. This turns into students who spent years in Paris in their youth choosing to study abroad in Paris; this doesn’t displace you from the USC bubble but instead keeps you comfortable (and stagnant) while abroad.

This defeats the ultimate purpose of studying abroad; this theme of self-discovery and self-reflection – self-actualization even – is only possible if you leave your bubble. USC producing just the same cookie-cutter safe experience by the hundreds in every graduating class shows that USC doesn’t realize the bubble that it’s in (or quite frankly, it doesn’t care), and it doesn’t help those students become better or more than what they were before they left.

Granted, this is almost entirely my opinion. I understand the question as to why I would have the right to talk about something like this in such detail, and why I’m taking such a moral high horse in the grand scheme of things when I’m in France myself.

My Study Abroad Experience

I’ve actually studied abroad twice. 

I spent my summer in Jerusalem at the Rothberg International School at Hebrew University. Those five weeks were the most incredible experience of my life. I was in classes with people from literally all over the world, and the thing we had in common was our love of language-learning, specifically of learning Arabic and boy did we learn Arabic.

I was in classes 5 days a week, and when we weren’t in class, we were travelling anywhere and everywhere. We’d spend nights in the Souq, drinking sangria that was better than I had in Barcelona, and we spent weekends in places like Tel Aviv or Nazareth.

I not only came back having learned more Arabic than I could’ve imagined in such a short time, but I had experiences that made me see things differently, and I had made friends around the world who changed with me in the same ways. I know it sounds so dumb and stereotypical, but I was a different person coming back from that program than I was going, and I’m so thankful for every single experience I got to have last summer.

And, I changed and learned more about myself in five weeks in Jerusalem than I have in over two months in Paris.

I promise I love Paris, I have always loved Paris, and I will always love Paris. This city is a third home to me; however, I just haven’t had as many experiences that make me stop and realize things about myself or my life or my world in the same way I did when I was in Jerusalem in the summer, and those experiences are the ones that create the self-actualization we’re chasing when we try to go abroad anyways.

And the key difference is that I’m a traveler at heart, I’ve been to Paris before, and after the culture shock of Jerusalem, Paris seems like nothing. After Jerusalem, Paris was my comfort zone. It can’t possibly produce the same self-actualizing experiences because this city is my third home, and I’m so comfortable here.

I can’t speak for someone who has never been to Paris before; this sort of city, culture, and language immersion can be out of someone’s comfort zone, and that makes Paris a great fit for their time abroad. But for me, it’s just not the same.

Suggestions

In order to help with measuring your own “sliding scale” comfort zone, I’ve put together a list of unique and different study abroad programs that aren’t as advertised by USC.

For a lot of people, the gate that keeps them from going somewhere out of their comfort zone is the language requirements. I think they make sense, and they’re there for a reason, but that doesn’t make them any less frustrating. First, if you have the time, I would recommend just taking the two semesters of any language that are usually required to go somewhere like Russia, Japan, or Morocco. Otherwise, if you don’t have time to study a new language, this list is English-language study abroad programs organized by the most “comfortable” to the least “comfortable”.

University of Otago (Dunedin, New Zealand) 

Eligibility is a USC cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher.

Jagiellonian University (Krakow, Poland) 

Eligibility is a USC cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher and must be taking at least one class for your Dornsife major or minor.

Chinese University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong) 

Eligibility is a USC cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher and must be a psychology or cognitive science major (Students who have started a minor in psychology, psychology & law, and consumer behavior will be considered on a space-available basis).

University of Cape Town (Cape Town, South Africa) 

Eligibility is a USC cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher and must have completed three semesters of university by the start of the program. A strong background coursework in Africa is suggested but not required.

Durban School of International Training (Durban, South Africa) 

Eligibility is a USC cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher and must have completed one year of university by the start of the program. Relevant coursework in a health-related discipline is required.

University of Botswana (Gaborone, Botswana)

Eligibility is a USC cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher and must have completed one year of university by the start of the program.

School for Field Studies (Nairobi, Kenya)

Eligibility is a USC cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher, must be 18, and must have completed one semester of college-level biology or ecology, with a lab, by the beginning of the program.

Conclusion

I want to make it clear that the “standard” study abroad options aren’t bad. The key is that your comfort zone is something that only you are able to measure, and decisions based off of that are yours alone.

I just don’t think the image of a great, vast world filled with billions of people who aren’t the cookie-cutter USC student is well-presented to students travelling abroad. USC’s programs are created to file large numbers of students through a standardized and safe system of “experiencing” other cultures without any care of the overwhelming self-exploration that travel can provide. Entire parts of the world are ignored despite my own experience, and many other’s experiences, travelling there, being entirely safe, and realizing so much about myself and the world around me.

Choosing a place outside your comfort zone to study abroad can open up a whole new world of discovery during your semester away, and I think that’s the point of even studying abroad in the first place. 

So go somewhere you never even dreamed of before, and learn something about yourself you never expected.

Want more from Trojans 360?

Visit Trojans 360 on Facebook & Twitter to stay up to date with more student content!

You can also Ask A Trojan an anonymous question, and we’ll try to answer it in a future post!

And don’t forget to follow us on Instagram!

Trojans 360 is USC’s official student-run blog. Content created by students, for students.