Standing on the Hungerford Bridge with the River Thames rushing under her feet, graduate student Angela Manginelli took one last look at the city she'd come to love.
Her city.
"London feels like home to me," she said. "While I was standing there, I had a moment. I told myself this wasn't good-bye. I'm going to go back."
Studying abroad opens students' eyes like Manginelli's to different cultures through both study and travel, Center for International Programs Director Jim Coffin said.
For the last five years, the Chronicle of Higher Education has ranked Ball State's study abroad program seventh in the nation. The journal compared the study abroad programs of state supported universities that offer doctoral programs, Coffin said.
The center sends about 500 students abroad and across the United States to study each year, he said. The Australia Centre and the London Centre are the most popular programs, Coffin said.
"They're the two programs that are filling faster every year," he said. "We're getting a lot of students coming in by word of mouth."
Coffin said the programs are popular because students have Londoners or Australians as neighbors for about three months.
For nearly 25 years, the center has sent about 40 students each semester to the London Centre, he said.
The Australia Centre began in fall 2002 with 32 students, the maximum number because of housing limitations, he said.
GOOD DAY MATE
Tired of her everyday routine, sophomore Ashley Chupp decided to trade in her cell phone and car for poisonous snakes and beaches in Australia.
"We were outside all the time," she said. "One time we had a Brown snake slither in front of us. It was scary, but that's just normal life for the people there."
Students can take rainforest ecology, marine biology and wildlife biology. Instead of studying in a classroom setting, students study in the rainforest, on the ocean or in the forest, Coffin said.
Students study and live in Lennox Head, New South Wales on Australia's east coast.
"We lived 30 seconds from the beach," Ralf Semler, junior, said, "but we didn't just lie around on the beach all day."
Students have classes Monday through Thursday but are able to travel on weekends, fall director Rebecca Pierce said.
Students must take an Australian life and culture course, Coffin said. The course, taught by Australian faculty, focuses on the differences between Australian and American cultures.
The Australia Centre requires students to volunteer four to six hours per week in a community service project, Coffin said.
"Volunteering helps students reciprocate the hospitality of the Aussie community," he said.
TEA TIME
During her first trip with the London Centre, Manginelli found her favorite London locations after her Monday and Tuesday classes at the City of Westminster College.
"For me," Manginelli said, "the highlight was just walking around London. There's a great relationship between the old and new that we don't have here."
Manginelli said she fell in love with London's lively atmosphere from the theater scene to the architecture.
"I'm a big city girl," she said. "The Brits sleep, but when they're awake they're really awake."
Wednesdays are for daytrips like Stonehenge, Oxford or Shakespeare's birthplace.
On weekends, students may travel independently, Coffin said.
The cultural package includes the daytrips and ten in-London events like plays, concerts and city walks.
Students are required to take a British life and culture class. The class, taught by British professors, focuses on the cultural differences between the United States and the United Kingdom, he said.
Special classes are taught by the program's semester director. Last semester, Mark Popovich, journalism professor, taught journalism classes.
"I can't explain the mental attitude changes that happen to people," he said. "I think students come into a better understanding of America's place in the world. The value is seeing how the rest of the world lives."
Some students return home with an appreciation for the American dream, but others long for the Hungerford Bridge.
Next fall, Manginelli will return to the London Centre as a graduate assistant.
However, this time she's not coming back.
"I plan on moving there in January 2005," she said. "To have the opportunity to keep going back with Ball State has been amazing."
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