OneWorld.net (U.S.)

WASHINGTON, Jan 19 (OneWorld.net) - The U.S. Congress has the opportunity to help send 1 million U.S. students abroad over the next decade, helping create future leaders who better understand the interconnectedness of global economic, cultural, and environmental systems, says the director of a U.S. study abroad group.

• U.S. students with the School for Field Studies program in Costa Rica, where they tour large and small-scale farms to learn about agricultural land use and resources. © School for Field Studies"What nations don’t know can hurt them....whether the issue involves diplomacy, foreign affairs, national security, or commerce and finance -- what nations do not know exacts a heavy toll. The stakes involved in study abroad are that simple, that straightforward, and that important," said [pdf] the Commission on the Abraham Lincoln Study Abroad Fellowship Program, which recommended a target of 1 million students studying abroad annually by the 2016-2017 school year. That's about half the number of students who receive a degree each year from accredited U.S. colleges and universities. Formed in 2005, the Commission outlined the current position of study abroad, noted the challenges ahead, and made detailed recommendations for a national undergraduate study abroad fellowship program to dramatically increase and diversify study abroad participation in the United States, explains the Association of International Educators.

• In late 2005, the U.S. Senate declared 2006 the "Year of Study Abroad," saying: "Educating students internationally is an important way to share the values of the United States, to create goodwill for the United States around the world, to work toward a peaceful global society, and to increase international trade." The resolution set the stage for further action on the national level to expand study abroad opportunities.

• The Paul Simon Study Abroad Foundation Act was based on the recommendations of the Lincoln Commission. The bill, which would establish study abroad as the norm -- not the exception -- for U.S. undergraduate students, was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in 2007, but never voted on by the Senate, according to govtrack.us. It will have to be reintroduced in both houses of Congress during the 2009-2010 session if it is to become law.

On the Path to Global Literacy

From: School for Field Studies

By Bonnie R. Clendenning

This month, the Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad Foundation Act of 2007 (H.R. 1469, S.991) will be on the agenda of the U.S. Senate. If approved, the program would provide an annual government investment of $80 million to send a diverse student body of one million U.S. college undergraduates to all corners of the globe by the next decade.

The Simon Act couldn't be up for consideration at a better time. Outgoing Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was quoted last November as saying, "Educational institutions have always played a key role in opening minds and creating a global awareness, and have traditionally been among the State Department's strongest partners in shaping the citizen diplomat." The nomination of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton as her successor marks the end of an era when American foreign policy was driven by the exercise of military power and cultural hegemony, and signals a more inclusive model of leadership, one aiming to empower both the diplomatic corps of government and our civil society. Congress thus has a unique bipartisan opportunity to harness the power of our educational institutions to transform our country into one at once more globally literate and culturally competent.

Future leaders must thoroughly understand the interconnectedness of our global systems of trade, governance, production, economy and consumption, as well as belief systems, with social and environmental concerns. As we have learned from noted American naturalist John Muir, "When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world."

One could argue further that passage of this legislation could ultimately improve U.S. foreign relations -- and national economic security -- by helping repair the damages caused by a woefully insular American society. Consider that almost 80 percent of news content reported by the mainstream media is domestically oriented and 80 percent of U.S. citizens do not own a passport.  Greater access to the world for students from all walks of life will combat this isolation and help foster a responsible corps of these "citizen diplomats."

We cannot claim that, by itself, increasing study abroad opportunities is a silver-bullet solution to U.S. concerns about events now playing across the world's stage. But we can and must do more to counter the persistent stereotype of Americans abroad that we are ignorant of other cultures and ethnocentric in our views. Increased global literacy will encourage respect and understanding among participant visitors and host-country nationals alike.

International education and exchange, flourishing through passage of the Simon Act, will enable students from all walks of life to examine complex issues from new perspectives and to learn effective communication skills. In the words of the late Senator J. William Fulbright, architect of the largest and perhaps most well-known program of this kind, "Educational exchange can turn nations into people, contributing as no other form of education can to the humanizing of international relations."

Bonnie R. Clendenning is president of The School for Field Studies in Salem, MA

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