Sitting on the stairs of the UC, remembering her time traveling around Europe while studying at Parsons Paris in the fall of 2017, 21-year-old fashion design senior Nicole Wieneke could not contain her smile.
“Career-wise it was helpful because I was in the most important fashion capital, but my favorite part was being able to travel easier, cheaper, and efficiently around Europe,” she said.
Wieneke chose Parsons Paris because she felt like she needed a change of setting. However, educationally, it wasn’t as fulfilling as the New York City campus.
“It set me back a bit because for New York it is a lot more rigorous and conceptual, focusing on yourself. In Paris, it is more about how you sell yourself to the industry, which doesn’t allow you to be as creative as you should be,” Wieneke said.
This did not stop her from growing and learning abroad. “I thoroughly enjoyed how studying in another place means immersing yourself into a culture,” Wieneke said. Traveling “allows you to put yourself out there and find yourself in ways you didn’t know you could.”
The New School offers multiple study abroad programs and allows for students to participate through affiliated and non-affiliated programs. The university advertises all of these programs to prospective students sometimes during campus tours. However, information about the details about going abroad can be hard to find once students arrive on campus.
A section of the New School website provides an overview about how study abroad functions, but does not provide other information, such as requirements needed to go abroad. It is not one-stop shop for all the information you’ll need to make your decisions. It requires additional digging. In some cases, the website shows multiple exchange opportunities that are not available when students go to the application website GoAbroad, such as Sub-Saharan Africa.
Students can learn about their peers’ experiences studying abroad through Global Peer Ambassadors. Global Peer Ambassadors is a program where past study abroad students serve as a connection with future study abroad students to answer specific questions about the places they are interested in.
Laura Walton, 20, a BA/BFA junior studying fashion design at Parsons and global studies at Lang, went to Havana, Cuba the summer of 2017. She says being a part of the Global Peer Ambassadors is a large commitment but a great resource for students who are interested in studying abroad. Currently, there are six students working as ambassadors, including Walton. She went to Havana through the Studley Graduate Program in Milano’s International Field Program.
“I was the first and only undergrad in that program. There were some issues I had to deal with on my own, considering everyone was over 25, but at least it gave me an idea of the workload for graduate school,” Walton said.
Walton had the opportunity to be in Cuba for three months. Walton found most of her support from her professors in the Global Studies department, rather than study abroad offices at The New School.
“The New School overall didn’t really help, but I try not to be too hard on the Lang Study Abroad office because at this point it is mostly student-run,” she said. Since the Lang Study Abroad office is currently undergoing staff transitions, the majority of the people working there are students.
To be able to attend the program, Walton applied to the Gilman Scholarship` and received a Global Studies grant for the additional fares, which she said was very important, especially as a student of color on campus.
“Exchange programs that are run by the school itself are important,” Walton said, “Mostly because a lot of POC students rely on their New School financial aid to be a part of opportunities like studying abroad.”
Studying abroad through an exchange program from The New School allows your financial aid to roll over. With a non-affiliated program, some of it may not follow.
In addition to exchange programs and faculty-led programs, there are other ways to go abroad. When Lang psychology senior Natalie del Rosario, 22, decided she wanted to study abroad in her second semester of her junior year, she did not rely only on the university.
“My interest of studying abroad began through a friend here at the university but she told me ‘If you want to do it, you have to do it by yourself. The New School is not going to help,’” del Rosario said.
With the third-party study abroad program Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE), del Rosario had the opportunity to study law in Spain, which is not offered through The New School. Overall, she loved the experience and is grateful for the way the studies in Madrid complement her studies at The New School.
As the primary student assistant to the dean at the Lang study abroad office, Maddie Sinnock, 22, BA/BFA student of fine arts at Parsons and religious studies at Lang, spends most of her time providing information to Lang students who might want to go abroad. She recognizes some restrictions in the system but also encourages initiatives that allow students to share their experiences abroad.
“A lot of our limitations in the office is that we can’t do everything we want, which is why we have the Lang Global Ambassadors, so they can help guide students that are interested in studying abroad,” Sinnock said.
The office is currently in the process of training of new temporary Director of Lang Study Abroad Rebecca Reilly. Reilly is serving while Amal Hegeb is on leave, according to an email sent out by Lang Dean Stephanie Browner on Sept. 12.
Sjournee Cornelius-Quaidoo, BA/BFA junior studying arts and context at Lang and integrated design at Parsons, is one of the Lang Global Ambassadors. She attended the James Baldwin Summer Program in Paris this past summer. This faculty-led program, ran by chair of First Year Writing Program professor Scott Korb, studies James Baldwin’s works, focusing on critical reading and creative writing.
The one thing Cornelius-Quaidoo advises students is to keep in mind the conversion of US dollars to euros, because there was no preparation beforehand around expenses and personal safety.
Depending on the location, there are required preparation courses for the students to be a part of before leaving, but that is not true for all programs. The Study Abroad website notes is that “all New School students who study abroad are enrolled in a program called ‘On Call’” which is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for assistance with emergency situations.
For Cornelius-Quaidoo, this experience overall was a positive one and she would like to go abroad again.
“If I could study abroad once a year, I would. You just learn so much about culture and academics,” Cornelius-Quaidoo said. “You won’t know how valuable it is until you do it”