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College
puts unique spin on venerable program
By Donald N. S. Unger
 Maurice Géracht, the Stephen J. Prior Professor
of Humanities at Holy Cross, has been involved in study abroad
programs at the College for almost 40 years; he began his
association in 1968, two years after becoming a member of
the English department faculty in 1966.
“It was my first college committee assignment,” he
says. Since 1989, he has served as director of the program.
During the first half of his tenure, the study abroad options
available to Holy Cross students were fairly representative
of those found at most American colleges or universities:
Holy Cross contracted with other organizations or institutions
to run the programs; fundamentally American in nature, they
often isolated students with their compatriots, rather than
meaningfully integrating them into host institutions; and
the programs lasted for one semester rather than for a full
year.
This approach changed in the latter half of the 1980s—due,
in significant part, to the initiative of Senior Vice President
Frank Vellaccio, who had become dean of the College in 1986
and academic vice president the following year.
The changes initiated almost 20 years ago fundamentally
altered the character of the study abroad programs at Holy
Cross.
“And, in many ways,” Géracht says of
today’s offerings, “the Holy Cross study abroad
program runs counter to prevailing currents. Many
of its features are unique.”
The program is built around the importance of immersion
in a variety of ways:
First and foremost, almost all of the current programs
are full year.
“There’s really an exponential difference between
a semester and a year,” argues study abroad assistant
director Brittain Smith. “The extra time that you spend—not
just in the linguistic environment but also in the cultural
environment—provides a categorically more enriching
experience; there’s just no substitute for that extra
time.”
Géracht concurs.
“In other programs,” he says, “students
arrive in October, and they know they’re coming home
in December. There are certain cultural things that they
simply don’t have to face. But if you have a long haul,
then you have to come to terms, you have to confront certain
things—confront ‘the other’ in a way that
you don’t in the short term. And confront the fact
that you also are ‘the other’ in a way
that you don’t have to confront in the short term.”
The current programs, which Holy Cross directly controls,
also integrate students much more fully into host institutions.
“Students take regular courses in the institutions
to which they are attached,” Géracht explains. “There
is a difference between being enrolled in one of the Oxford
Colleges and being a full member there, versus having an
American program ‘at Oxford ,’ simply located
in the place.”
With this higher degree of integration comes a higher degree
of support, he stresses—“both language and cultural
support. For every course students take—in France ,
Italy , Spain , Mexico , wherever—they have available
to them a private tutor, from the beginning, so they don’t
fall through the cracks.”
The accessibility of study abroad programs has also been
increased via changes in the financial aid policy. Currently,
approximately 60 percent of students receive some form of
financial aid from the College. In the past, that money could
only be applied to study on campus; now, the money “travels,” allowing
students to pursue a junior year abroad on a need-blind basis.
Program secretary Sandy Shook estimates that, over the past
five years, between 20 and 22 percent of Holy Cross third-year
students have participated in the program.
Finally, a key part of the program is the Independent Study
Project (ISP), required of all participating students.
One of the key purposes of the ISPs, according to Géracht,
is to “prevent our students from being ‘accidental
tourists’—they give them a better sense of themselves
as products of their own culture, an appreciation of the
values and wonder of the cultures of others. They earn the
comfort of being in a culture not their own.”
Caroline Howe, associate professor of sociology, who helped
set up the study abroad program in Puebla, Mexico, concurs—noting
that the ISP for the Puebla program also requires a social
service project of the students, in part because this is
a standard component of college education for most Mexican
students:
“One of the most important things for North Americans
to learn when they go to a Latin American country to ‘help’ the
people there is that they end up receiving more than they
give. They learn more from the people and receive more in
terms of human ‘gifts’ than they can imagine
being able to give,” Howe says. “They learn that
poor and marginalized people are very intelligent, resourceful
and have some important values we could all learn from,” she
continues. “One hope [for the program] is that this
can help break down elitist attitudes North Americans often
have towards Latin Americans.”
The benefits of cultural immersion, both during their time
abroad and after their return—to campus—and to
life beyond Holy Cross—are certainly clear to the students
who participate in the program.
Leah Grogan ’05, for example, spent the 2003-04 academic
year at the University of Melbourne in Australia .
“It was most gratifying” Grogan says, “to
learn about something in the classroom, then actually go
out and see and experience it for myself.
“Coming back to campus, not only do I have a plethora
of stories to entertain, but I have a new understanding of
the world,” she explains. “Whereas before my
world was concentrated within the United States , now I have
a new outward look beyond the scope of my immediate surroundings.
The experience made me more aware of global affairs, more
independent, and more mature.”
The issues of independence and maturity were threaded through
the comments of both the study abroad program staff and participating
students.
“At the time of my departure I had never been away
from home for more than two weeks without a visit—and
I couldn’t even go to the grocery store without dragging
someone with me,” says Lindsey Veautour ’05,
who spent her year at Oxford University . “The idea
that I knew almost no one overseas and would have to find
people to travel with during the breaks was petrifying. Establishing
friendships and being brave enough to travel to 11 different
countries instead of just returning home for all the breaks
in between semesters was a huge accomplishment—and
one that will stay with me forever.”
Study abroad assistant director Karen Sweetland‑Dion
recalls a recent interaction with a student who spent last
year in one of the study abroad programs in Spain and subsequently
applied for “Teach For America.”: “She
said to me, ‘I’ve been through so much during
my study abroad experience. I spent a whole year in a country
that speaks a different language. It wasn’t always
easy, but in facing the challenges I accomplished so much.
I feel like, since I’ve done this, I can do anything.’”
The student, Kathryn Cronin ’05, has since been accepted
by “Teach for America .”
“The effects on our students are long term,” Sweetland-Dion
continues, “Students’ lifetime decisions are
altered tremendously by their experiences abroad. Many contemplate
career options they might not have considered before going
abroad. Many choose to live, study or do research abroad—not
necessarily in the same country—later on in life. Many
of our study abroad students go on to receive prestigious
fellowships to conduct research abroad.”
While Géracht and the study abroad program staff
evince broad satisfaction with and pride in what the program
is doing for students, they still see work to be done in
communicating to Holy Cross faculty exactly what the program
does and how it can be useful both to them and to their students.
“There is a misperception on the part of a lot of
faculty members about what study abroad is,” Smith
says. “Either they are not familiar enough with our
programs or they are familiar with programs at other institutions
[which function differently]—so study abroad is conceived
of often as a kind of ‘travel abroad program.’ There’s
a real apprehension on the part of some of the faculty that
the course of study that students are going to be getting
in these programs isn’t rigorous enough and doesn’t
match Holy Cross standards.”
“Part of our obligation is to communicate more effectively
to the faculty the immense resources that we have to offer
them,” Smith continues. “We need to show what
these institutions can do for their students in terms of
curriculum.”
To that end, the study abroad office is in the process
of putting together a comprehensive course guide—that
faculty members will be able to consult—listing potential
courses across the full range of institutions with which
Holy Cross has affiliate programs.
“You could look up what English courses were offered
in Dijon or what physics courses were offered at St. Edmund,
Oxford ,” Smith explains.
Sweetland‑Dion sees some students already taking
the initiative to use courses available via study abroad
to complement and expand their academic pursuits at Holy
Cross.
“Students who probably have taken the greatest advantage
of this opportunity are those who develop their own interdisciplinary
majors,” Sweetland‑Dion says. “For example,
we’ve had students go to Melbourne—to study architecture—since
the University of Melbourne has an entire department dedicated
to the study of ‘Architecture Building and Planning,’ it
offers a wide array of excellent courses in the field. We
want students to see their host institutions as places not
only to continue their studies but also to expand upon them.”
“I conceive our study abroad programs to be extensions
of our curricular resources,” Géracht concludes. “Even
as we have excellent programs, there are departments which
tend to see study abroad as wonderful experientially—but
for which students are often obliged to set aside and postpone
fulfilling requirements for their major, or otherwise get
around our curriculum. Rather, since our partners abroad
are now important international institutions, their offerings
present the College and departments opportunities to individualize
and extend our curriculum.”
Donald N.S. Unger is a New York City-born
writer of fiction and nonfiction and a political commentator
for NPR affiliate radio WFCR. He lives in Worcester .
More on study abroad is this issue
More on study abroad is this issue
No Accidental Tourism in Study Abroad >
Sisters Abroad >
Edmond Yip '05: from
the Northeastern U.S. to Northeastern China >
Study Abroad: The Facts >
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