A Challenge—and a New Purpose

For many students, studying abroad is a story of firsts—first in the family, first passport, first visa, first flight. There are very few activities that impact all our senses like studying abroad does. The thrill of walking around a new city, tasting a new cuisine, hearing a different language, and smelling the fragrance of a different land all add up to an unforgettable experience. It is most certainly a dream come true for students. I was fortunate to realize my dream 36 years ago and embark on my journey from Bombay to New York.
Years later, as a professor of economics and the senior international officer at my institution, my interactions with students who study abroad are a happy reminder of why I love my job. Many of us tell prospective students that studying abroad is a life-changing experience. I hear this sentiment from every single student, whether they are an international student in the United States or an U.S. student who has returned from an experience abroad.
Creating Opportunities for All Students
In 2019, I accepted a position as the director of international programs in the chancellor’s office of the California State University (CSU) system. In my role, I oversee the study abroad program for the 23-university CSU system. I’m now able to play a small part in the lives of thousands of students—just like that former student who wrote to me last year.
I made this transition primarily because I was drawn to the CSU mission and the students the system serves. The CSU system is the largest public university system in the country, and most of its universities are classified as Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs). The students of the CSU system are a microcosm of the national student body; they are from diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, and many of them are first-generation college students and first-generation Americans. Most of the CSU system students are on financial aid, and more than 40 percent of our students are Pell grant recipients. These students consider a study abroad experience to be something that is simply out of their reach. Additionally, many of our students are commuters and stay with family. Often, they help supplement the family income, thus complicating the prospects of studying abroad. I consider this challenge as a new purpose in my career as an international educator.
[Students] share how studying abroad has boosted their confidence and self-esteem and prepared them to tackle bigger challenges in life. It is conversations like these that make the work that my team and I do even more meaningful.
Studying abroad is a high-impact practice, and thus it’s even more important to help our CSU system students get a global experience to enhance their career options. One of the common sentiments that I hear from many of the CSU system students returning from study abroad programs is that they never thought it was possible for them to study abroad. They share how studying abroad has boosted their confidence and self-esteem and prepared them to tackle bigger challenges in life. It is conversations like these that make the work that my team and I do even more meaningful.
In our programs, I have encountered students who were foster youth, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients, and housing and food insecure. My team and the campus study abroad staff do a remarkable job of finding resources to make it affordable for our students to study abroad. The data numbers speak for themselves when it comes to the success of study abroad at CSU International Programs. Open Doors show that, nationally, study abroad still has a diversity and access challenge. For 2021–22, 68.6 percent of all study abroad students were White, 11.9 were Hispanic, 8.6 percent were Asian, 5.3 percent were African American, and 5.3 percent identified as two or more races. Of the total students studying abroad from the CSU system, 37 percent are Hispanic, 12 percent are Asian, 4 percent are African American, and 13 percent identify as two or more races. I am proud of the fact that the CSU International Program data outperform the national numbers in most categories, demonstrating our its ability to send a diverse group of students abroad.
While these data are impressive, there is more work to be done. This motivates me to find better support, resources, and avenues for our CSU system students to study abroad. One such area is creating meaningful short-term programs to help those students who are unable to commit to a semester studying abroad. I believe that even a short trip can help spark a fire within a student to continue their global engagement in the future.
Lasting Impact
In 2023, I received a note from an international student who was in my class several before. He wrote to share that he had recently graduated with his doctorate and started work as a staff economist. He reminded me of the many conversations he had with me in which I advised him of his options and helped him through the graduate school application process, something that I was all too familiar with. He shared that those conversations were instrumental in setting him on his current path.
I believe the act of one student studying abroad uplifts a village and helps bring about a better understanding of our fellow humans and shapes our global perspective.
While I thought my conversations were just things that I like to do, our exchanges were—in his opinion—life changing. I consider it a privilege to work in this field, offering advice and assistance to students and setting them up for a life-changing experience. There are dozens and dozens of such stories of students whose international experience helped shape their vocation and life.
We often hear that it takes a village to raise a child. I believe the act of one student studying abroad uplifts a village and helps bring about a better understanding of our fellow humans and shapes our global perspective. It helps stem the tide of stereotyping other people, reducing the chances of racial, national, and political divisions.
I take this to heart each day at work as my team and I strive to help more students study abroad. •
Jaishankar Raman is the executive director for international affairs in the Office of the Chancellor for the California State University system.
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