Personal-Professional Advancement

<< Faculty-led 360: Guide to Successful Study Abroad (back to Excerpt 1)

Faculty-led 360: Guide to Successful Study Abroad by Melanie McCallon and Bill Holmes has been released. Enjoy another excerpt below.

1.2 Personal and Professional Advancement

As educators, we have found that each time we lead students abroad, we discover something new. Leading students abroad is  a phenomenal way to invest in ourselves as professionals and as cultured human beings. We have the opportunity to see our field from a new perspective and examine the way our students view the field as well. This spills over into how we teach at home.

The process of self-discovery is not only for students, it is for us, too. Leading students abroad allows us to learn things we did not know before and provides us with an opportunity for personal and professional development. It’s not only about the students removing their blinders, but a time for us to see as well. When we travel alone, we have only the benefit of our own eyes, experience, and interpretation. However, when we travel in a group, we have the benefit of each participant’s experience and interpretation combined with our own. This dynamic interaction can fuel extraordinary learning, growth, and development.

Knowledge acquired by successfully managing students outside   a traditional classroom, or effectively managing a crisis abroad, can enhance your self-confidence, professional worth, and job marketability. If and when the time is ever right for you to move to a new institution, you will have a step above the rest. Think about it: when you lead a group abroad you become interpreter, facilitator, cheerleader, route finder, food gatherer, disciplinarian, troubleshooter, and problem solver. Leading a study abroad program is the ultimate challenge in multi-tasking. You gain not only cultural knowledge but the keen ability to juggle the many, simultaneous demands of guiding students through their international education pursuits.

Professional advancement opportunities may also be enhanced by leading programs abroad. The movement across higher education to internationalize curricula is inescapable. Integrating your study abroad program into the curriculum, and enabling students to earn valuable credit toward their degree,  will only strengthen your future academic opportunities. If you would like to break into the administrative and leadership side of higher education, managing a study abroad experience is a fitting path. There are few academic fields left untouched by international study. Having created and led a program abroad will help you advance and perhaps ensure your place at a larger table of discussion.

While some may plan to be lifers at one institution, it is also likely that many will seek advancement opportunities elsewhere. If you are in a field or on a campus where student participation in study abroad is low or not a priority, don’t allow this to stop you. If you cannot find enough interested students at home, you can work cooperatively with faculty from other institutions to recruit, or you can market your program nationally. No matter the field and no matter the institution, international activity speaks for you on a resume and in an interview. Working cooperatively with another institution or two or three may speak even louder. If you are looking for a tenured position, you will surely find that international activity helps.

It’s never too late to go abroad. As a matter of fact, many faculty choose to teach abroad because they did not study abroad as a student. Others teach abroad because they lived abroad as a child or come from other nations and cultures. The reasons are many and varied, but the benefits are undeniable no matter who you are or what kind of academic background or preparation you have in international travel and teaching.

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