York University’s summertime, faculty-led study abroad opportunities continue to be popular post-pandemic, and it’s not only 20-somethings who are taking advantage of the chance to broaden their cultural horizons. Mature students, too, are registering for courses that take them across the globe.
York International, the University’s hub for both international students and international education programs, supports Faculties and academic units in offering study abroad opportunities led by York U course directors, and mature students are eager to participate.
Human geography PhD student F. Evnur Taran, for example, studied in Mexico City last month. Meanwhile, undergraduate student Paula Kaston is off to York U’s Las Nubes EcoCampus in Costa Rica and Richard Smith has headed to China. None of them had studied abroad previously, but their life experiences made them confident that they would succeed in an unfamiliar environment.
“I’m excited,” says Taran. Called Free Trade, Unfree Labour and Environmental Justice in Continental North America, it looks at the current North American free trade agreement. Students in this intensive course, led by Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change (EUC) Professor Anna Zalik, spend a week studying with peers at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City and reconvened the following week at York U.
“It’s an opportunity to be in a university in another country and see what their system is like,” says Taran.
Taran loves both travelling and learning. Once her children were grown, she earned a second bachelor’s degree at Glendon College. Next came a master’s degree in international development studies, which led her to apply for the PhD program in human geography.
“I’m living my second youth,” she says. “I love to study and to be active, and I’ll continue as long as life permits me.”
Kaston, who is retired, is finishing her bachelor’s degree in environmental sustainability. She decided that a course at York U’s EcoCampus would be a wonderful end to her undergraduate studies.
Years earlier, career opportunities lured Kaston away from her university studies, so she is fulfilling her long-term goal now by earning a degree. In fact, she has enjoyed the experience so much that she is continuing on to a master’s program in environmental science this fall.
“Environmental sustainability has been a passion of mine for a long time,” she says, “and when I found the York program, I decided to go full on.”
Kaston registered for a course called Conservation and Development for Social-Environmental Sustainability and Wellbeing, led by EUC professor and Las Nubes director Felipe Montoya. The course explores the ways Costa Rica is succeeding with sustainable development.
“I want to see what these initiatives that we read about really look like on the ground,” Kaston says.
Smith, who retired from York U last year as director of institutional planning, began taking language courses prior to retirement. This summer, he embarked on an intensive course in Mandarin – Intermediate Chinese Language and Culture in China: Shanghai as an International and Chinese Centre – taught by Assistant Professor Gang Pan in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies. It brought him to China at the end of May.
“I’m fascinated by how people in other countries do the same things in different and often surprising ways,” he says.
To help support his trip, Smith received a $2,000 award from the Government of Canada’s Outbound Student Mobility Pilot Program Global Skills Opportunity (GSO). The funding is meant to offset the cost of travel while increasing the participation of under-represented groups in international learning opportunities.
Smith and 10 of his classmates studied at Fudan University in Shanghai for a month, lived in the residences there and ate in the dining hall. Their course was intensive, with five hours of language classes daily, but the month-long session ended with a five-day trip to the cities of Suzhou, Hangzhou and Nanjing, as well as the Shaolin monastery (the birthplace of Buddhism) and the countryside of Zhejiang Province to experience first-hand the culture, history and landscapes – and put their language skills to the ultimate test.
“I’ve been dropped into cities with a different language before,” Smith says, “but here, it may be hard to find English speakers, so I’ll pretty much have to rely on my Chinese.”
Ashley Laracy, associate director of global learning for York International, urges students of all ages to follow in the footsteps of these mature students.
“Faculty-led study abroad programs create a supportive space for students to travel abroad with a group of their known peers,” she says. “We’re excited to see the diversity of our student population reflected in our global learning programs. Our Global Engagement Strategy outlines York’s commitment to building and facilitating opportunities that are inclusive and accessible to our students. Global learning is lifelong learning.”
This summer, York University has more than 300 students abroad as part of faculty-led programs. With the help of the GSO funding, the University has been able to increase its participation levels in summer study abroad initiatives, with more than 220 participating students receiving financial support towards their global learning.
For more information about York University faculty-led abroad opportunities, contact yuabroad@yorku.ca.
Originally published in YFile.