35 tudy abroad programs can expose students to worldly culture through global experiences. These exposures also offer professional growth that can increase students’ marketability, leading to better jobs and higher success rates. Oklahoma State University Global Studies program leaders Dr. Randy Kluver, associate provost and dean, and Dr. Jeffrey Simpson, assistant dean and director of global partnerships, explain the unique qualities that study abroad programs enhance among students. We sat down with Kluver and Simpson to discuss the possibilities job candidates with study-abroad backgrounds can tap into by explaining their experiences with business professionals. Dean Kluver detailed how business owners seek out and immediately hire people with international experience, saying it boils down to specific pre-existing characteristics strengthened by these experiences. Applicants with these backgrounds are risk-takers, adaptable, flexible, and willing to step out of their comfort zone, and these are qualities employers need in today’s workplace. While this anecdote helps explain the value of international experiences, it also begs the question of whether or not those who apply to these programs are predisposed to the qualities seen among the involved students. Dean Kluver and Dr. Simpson discuss this topic in our interview below. What skills can students learn or strengthen through global studies courses to help prepare them for the future? Kluver: Studying abroad can help students learn skills for intercultural communication. They realize that the way they’ve always done things may be less effective in new cultural contexts. However, experiences abroad are more apt to refine skills and pre-existing qualities than they introduce new ones. If you have no intercultural sensitivity, going overseas won’t necessarily give you that, but it will hone it and improve it. Studying abroad and having international experience is valuable in various skill sets. In broadening your mind, you can generate new perspectives and see things from around the corner, from a different angle. Dr. Simpson has effectively built writing assignments into those programs so that students can surface their feelings or learn about what they’re learning while immersed in these experiences overseas. Simpson: One of the things I notice most is the confidence that students gain, which they may have had up at that point. This confidence stems from their ability to navigate unfamiliar situations. One of the other experiences students often have is to think about their own culture in a way they’ve never thought about before. More often than not, students come back and express a newfound appreciation for aspects of their life here, whether accessibility for wheelchairs or inclusion within the community as a person of color due to this refined viewpoint of their home culture. That often leads to students exploring and opening their minds to opportunities. Many students come from backgrounds where their environment informs them about careers and opportunities. So when they go abroad, they realize there are opportunities out there that they didn’t even know existed. Students gain self-reflection skills and self-awareness and start thinking differently about who they are in the bigger scheme of things. As a result, when events happen in the world, they can better analyze and discern the information they are receiving. Do you have any tips for students to develop their professional networks while in school or on study abroad programs? Kluver: Before these experiences, only a few students had a real personal connection to a professor, but after these experiences, these students had a good friend. Those relationships will help them when it comes time for a reference. S
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