Too often in these collegiate years we are found grumbling and cursing under our breath about the city we (at least temporarily) call home. It seems as if the sights, sounds and experiences often grow old as fast as we do.
Some students manage to make their way through at least four years in one locale, beating the odds and surviving the same scenes day-in and day-out. There are, however, an increasingly larger number of individuals who are discovering an alternative to the monotony.
They are those who study abroad.
Case and point: Ball State's Australia Center program. The program, which allows BSU students to spend approximately three months down under, is one of many study abroad programs that the university offers to its students. It has been filled to capacity for many semesters now, with students now camping out on the eve of registration just to nab their spot on the journey.
Those participants have varying reasons to go. Some are hoping for a new experience, others for new friends, while some students just plain want to get away. They all share one thing in common, though: the desire to travel to new land while being ever-so young.
And they are not alone.
Study abroad programs on the whole have seen a surge in popularity in recent years. In the academic year 2002-2003 alone, there was an 8.5 percent increase in U.S. students receiving credit for study abroad programs, according to "Open Doors 2004," a report released by the Institute of International Education.
The reports adds that "since 1991/92, the number of students studying abroad for credit has more than doubled from 71,154 to 174,629." That's an increase of 145 percent.
If there was ever a time for students to travel - it is now.
These opportunities tend to pop up fewer times as life progresses, so why not utilize the resources while we have them at our fingertips? Such an experience, in its academic and personally fulfilling glory, is praised time and time again by students who have made the trip before. This, not to mention the added benefit of combining funds for traveling and learning at the same time.
But in regards to the Australia Center specifically, it has hit success as the second most popular study abroad destination.
Success, after only two years since its creation.
Surely, Ball State, as with many other universities, has found a winner.
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