College students aren’t just throwing Frisbees on the quad, anymore.

They’re jet-setting off to Peru and earning academic credit for it.

The total number of college students studying abroad has more than doubled since the start of the millennium. U.S. News & World Report found approximately 150,000 studying abroad in the 1998-9 academic year. According to the most recent report from Open Doors, a comprehensive resource on international students and studying abroad, more than 340,000 students earned credit while abroad in 2017-8.

More tellingly, Inside Higher Ed reports that those 340,000 students represent 10.9 percent of all undergraduates and 16 percent of those enrolled in baccalaureate programs. That’s also a 2.7 percent increase from the year before.

The increase is noticeable locally as well.

“We see more students interested and trying to go abroad,” Cameron Dunlap, Education Abroad Specialist for University of Idaho said in a Coeur Voice interview last week.

So why the increase?

Dunlap suggested improved technology and “more pressure for cultural awareness” may be factors.

Technology has made travel easier. Flights are booked in minutes on cell phones. Accommodation and course information are accessible to everyone, not just travel agents.

Dunlap said tools such as WhatsApp, a phone app that allows free messaging, phone and video calls, diminish the distance.

“It’s easier to stay in contact with folks back home,” and, he added, “It’s only gotten safer to go abroad.”

With increasing globalization, cultural literacy can also be of help in business and, perhaps, job-seeking.

Forbes has cited “cultural intelligence” or “knowledge of other cultures and languages” as important job skills at least twice in the last four months. The Department of State also supports study abroad and offers state-sponsored opportunities for students in order to develop future leaders, according to the Department’s website.

Dunlap estimated UI students are sent to more than 70 countries on 200-plus programs, studying in countries such as China, Tunisia, and the Czech Republic. These vary from professor-led travels to those arranged by outside providers and range in size from a spring break trip to a semester-length or even year-long program.

Schools like University of Idaho have personnel dedicated to guiding students hoping to travel abroad. Dunlap said in addition to providing general information sessions, Education Abroad staff act as advisors, helping students pick programs that will align with their interests as well as their career aspirations.

Some students are required to study abroad to satisfy the requirements for their degree, at UI and elsewhere. International studies and foreign language majors are especially likely to be encouraged or required to go overseas.

Students from all majors study abroad regardless of requirements, Dunlap said, although it can be harder to encourage STEM students, whose courses of study can be more regimented.

“But it’s not impossible,” he said.

“Here we’re dealing with a lot of students from more rural parts of Idaho. Maybe they’ve never been out of Idaho or the States,” said Dunlap. “It can be hard convincing them to go to Spain.”

His office also works to encourage minority and underrepresented students, “giving them an opportunity they wouldn’t think they qualify for,” he said.

In addition to exploring new countries and cultures, students may gain career-building experiences.

Premed or medicine science students may be sent to countries such as Costa Rica where they can work with local hospitals, assisting with procedures they may otherwise need more qualifications to perform in the U.S.

Dunlap himself beneftted from studying abroad in Uganda, where he had the opportunity to work with NGOs (nongovernmental organizations), adding more than cultural literacy to his resume.

Sometimes, study abroad opportunities function as in-depth studies.

At North Idaho College, two English professors created a way to help students travel overseas while appreciating the culture and history of a new place, using literature as a jumping-off point.

It was after students looked in envy at pictures from her travels in Europe that North Idaho College Professor and Assistant Chair of the English Department Molly Michaud knew she needed to provide an opportunity.

Michaud said her students protested the notion that they could travel to the same places, saying they would have no idea where to start.

She and Associate Professor of English Aaron Cloyd decided to combine their mutual appreciation for mysteries with fulfilling a need.

Cloyd and Michaud now teach an annual course on Irish (or in former years, British) mystery literature in which students are responsible for researching different aspects of Irish culture – in preparation to visit many of the sites they read about at the end of the term.

While learning about different periods of Irish history through novels and short stories, they also learn to travel. Before setting foot in Ireland or the U.K., students identify places to eat and sleep, research sights of interest, and even prepare a tour they will personally conduct for the group once in-country.

“If they get us lost, they get us lost,” said Michaud, adding that this also helps students grow and become more flexible.

Students of the Irish Murder Mysteries class also participate in team-building and reflect on how to take care of themselves while travelling to multiple locations over two weeks, in constant company with each other.

Michaud sees the benefits of adding travel to students’ education.

“Travelling after studying the cultural aspects and the historical aspects of this country is unbelievable. To give them access to the places we’ve read – it’s visceral,” she said. “I can’t tell you how much confidence they build.”

Like Michaud, Dunlap considers studying abroad beneficial, and sees increasing numbers of students participating, and appreciating other cultures - a good thing.

“[Studying abroad] is one of the best things students can do in college,” said Dunlap. “It helps you understand the world is a bigger place and put your own culture and biases into perspective.”

For community members interested in expanding their own horizons, Michaud and Dunlap reserve spaces for non-students, although they must be able to walk several miles a day.

For more information contact them at mamichaud@nic.edu or aaron.cloyd@nic.edu.