General letter to parents, guardians, and friends of participants

Dear Parent/Guardian/Friend of a Study Abroad Participant,

By this time, most of our students have arrived at their study abroad location or are about to do so. We understand how nerve-racking it can be to send a child off to college, let alone halfway around the world. Nonetheless, we in International Academic Programs feel that overseas study will add an important dimension to their education, offering a broader perspective on their studies and on themselves as they encounter new opportunities and experience life in another country. Reports from universities around the country demonstrate that there is a continuing growth in the number of students interested in and actually studying abroad.

Given the inevitable confusion of arriving in a new country (plus the need to catch up on sleep after the long flight from the U.S.), contacting those back home sometimes takes a back seat to the pleasure and challenges of the new environment. One the other hand, some of you may have already received a phone call, a fax or an e-mail message. Based on our experience, hints of homesickness are common during the first few weeks that students are abroad and are not a cause for alarm. All students, regardless of maturity, disposition, previous experience abroad, or knowledge of the country in which they will be living, experience some degree of culture shock. Culture shock can be characterized by periods of elation, frustration, adjustment, and even depression. The worst homesickness often occurs a few months after students leave home, frequently arriving just in time for the holidays. It is common for students to call or write home during moments of low morale, but not when they are busy and things are going well. Consequently, families often picture a more negative situation than actually exists.

One way to get a more complete picture and help reduce feelings of homesickness is to write to your student regularly, and encourage him or her to do the same. While e-mail is increasingly the mode of communication, cards, newspaper clippings, pictures or a letter in your handwriting can be very welcome. In addition to your own letters to your overseas scholar, you may want to encourage other family members to write. A letter that a student can read and reread in quiet, private moments is always appreciated. There is a close correlation between morale overseas and mail from home. Strange as it might seem, our students can be almost as concerned about you as you can be concerned about them! If they do not hear from you, they may be concerned that something is wrong.

If you and your student have access to e-mail you may choose to rely on this mode of communication. Please understand that access to e-mail overseas is not always as readily available as it is in the U.S., even in parts of Europe where you would expect access to be comparable. Daily e-mail contact is not always desirable. Students need to separate themselves a bit from their home support networks as they build a local one, especially if they want to immerse themselves in the local culture.

In this era of modern communication, phone and fax are effective tools to get in touch with your overseas scholar in a hurry. If you plan to use the phone to communicate, you may want to call your long distance company. Many offer special services that allow you to identify one country as a frequently called one, and for a small monthly fee, you can cut the cost of your calls considerably. Some families have reported that calling cards purchased at discount stores are cost effective.

If you want to visit your student abroad (and we hope some of you do), please try to arrange your visit to coincide with vacation times or after the program has ended. Then your student will not have to make the choice between academic work and having fun showing you how competent he or she has become in a new environment. Many families find reading about the study abroad location to be both interesting and a good way to feel more in touch with the experience of their student.

Although it may seem like a long way off, you may want to start thinking about your student’s return to the U. S. after the program ends. Students often go through a phase of “reverse” or “re-entry” culture shock when they come back home, which is sometimes more challenging than what they went through overseas. They expect to go through adjustments in foreign countries, but do not always realize that life has continued on without them at home and there may be changes for which they are not prepared. One way to alleviate the difficulty of re-entry shock is to keep your student aware of what is going on at home through consistent communication. Students often go through periods of mild depression once they return home because of feelings that no one is interested in what they experienced in their time abroad. Faced with questions such as “How was your time in xxxx?” a student often can only answer “Great!” before conversation moves on to another subject. Encourage friends and family members to ask more specific questions like “What were the best things about living abroad? The most difficult? What places did you visit? Are people’s daily lives the same as in the U. S.? What was a typical day for you?” Have a gathering where your student can show off food, customs and photos from his or her travels. Not only will such questions and activities remind students they had a worthwhile experience and help them to readjust, it will help others in your community learn more about the world around us.

World events have heightened concern regarding safety both here in the U.S. and abroad. The safety of our students is and always has been a primary concern as we develop and maintain programs abroad. We regularly assess conditions at program sites through all available channels, including the U.S. State Department, faculty with expertise in the areas, on-site institutional contacts, communications with students, staff on-site, and other U.S. universities with programs in the same regions. We cover the topic of safety in orientations and send students updated information as appropriate while they are overseas. For some time, we have had an emergency contact system in place so that students can get in touch with someone from our office any time, night or day, seven days a week, 52 weeks of the year. This system is a safety net that backs up local support networks we have established at program sites.

This will be an exciting time for your student, and our office will do all it can to make it successful. Our main office number is (608) 265-6329 and e-mail is abroad@bascom.wisc.edu. If an emergency comes up during non-business hours, you can reach a member of the IAP staff at (608) 516-9440, a cell phone that is carried by a staff member during closed hours.

Sincerely yours,

Robert B. Howell
Director, International Academic Programs

** We often receive calls from parents regarding payments. If you have questions specifically about program payments, you can write to us at payments@bascom.wisc.edu or call the accounting staff at (608) 262-6785.

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