Next month, a dozen students from our region will embark on a journey likely to change their lives. They have been named Global Travel Scholars by Pittsburgh's
World Affairs Council, and will travel overseas in conjunction with the
Experiment in International Living. They will live for about four weeks in a host country, discovering new cultures and friends.
"They have the experience between junior and senior years, so they can
come back and can share it with their classmates," says Julie Maloney,
special projects director at the WAC. "We obviously want to have, and
do have, an impact on the individual students. But we are also looking
for the bigger impact they can have on their fellow classmates, and
their community."
"We send students some
years from schools that don't have these kind of opportunities,"
Maloney says. "A student from Westinghouse was sent to France, and it
totally changed her life. When she came back and told classmates about
what she was able to do… what an impact it had on the student body as a
whole. They could see that maybe there were opportunities available to
them beyond what they see every day."
In addition to these 12 students, 41 Pittsburgh-area students have spent time abroad since the program launched in 2004. Many had never traveled by plane or even left the region before their trip.
Students are nominated by teachers and must submit several essays. There are also personal interviews to help determine which students are best prepared: "It takes a certain student and a certain maturity," she says, "to make sure they can do this without their family. ... They're part of a group of ten students, and with a group leader, so they're never alone," but there is still some culture shock.
A former participant, Allyce Pinchback, is now working at the WAC and credits the program for giving her a global perspective. "It really opened my eyes to international affairs," she says.
At one point during her trip in 2004, Pinchback sat in a Mr. Donut shop in Japan, watching people "hustling and bustling to the next place they have to go… dealing with work, family things." She realized the trip was teaching her that even if another country has starkly different food or customs, "humans are all pretty much the same. ... You can definitely relate."
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Writer: Melissa Rayworth
Source: Julie Maloney, WAC
Image, of last year's Global Travel Scholar Kelsey Cloonan during her trip to Turkey, courtesy of WAC