The New School’s Provost Office announcement in November that they were going to continue suspending university sponsored travel left many students who were interested in studying abroad with questions. New School Free Press reporter Sabrina Picou, spoke to Andrew Amadei, Assistant Director, of the Global Engagement and International Programs to clarify what this announcement means exactly for students with hopes and plans to study abroad in spring 2021, as well as what alternative options are available to students.
The announcement stated that, “Considering the current evolving situation with COVID-19 around the world, The New School will continue its suspension of international business-related travel through the end of the academic year,” as well as, “University-sponsored and/or organized international travel by groups for academic study or projects, research, conferences, or events through the end of the academic year.” The following interview has been edited for clarity.
Sabrina Picou: Can you clarify what the university announcement last week to suspend all business-related, university sponsored, and organized international travel through the end of the academic year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, means for study abroad students for the spring 2021 semester?
Andrew Amadei: Study abroad, the actual traditional sense of study abroad, has not been suspended by the university. We are still permitting New School students to go study abroad in the spring 2021 semester, through our university affiliated and institutional partner program providers. We did have some students this fall semester that have done some of those programs as well, and as long as they’re still being offered by those partner providers [they] are still an option for the students who have applied to pursue them.
SP: What other resources or alternatives do study abroad students have to use to supplement their education?
AA: It’s really difficult to say that there’s kind of one alternative that all students should explore. I would still encourage students to think about not just study abroad, in the sense of traveling to go study somewhere, but what are your larger international education objectives? If you have something that you’re trying to do, even if it is travel related, please continue to reach out to the Study Abroad Office, and our advisors, because we want to hear about your challenges of what you’re aspiring to do. There could be an available program that maybe it just hasn’t been mentioned yet, that can still help facilitate travel.
Outside of traveling for study abroad, I would always encourage all students to take advantage of the international aspects of the university for their own global education needs. The New School has lots of research centers and labs on campus that have international networks. Through study abroad we sometimes work with some of these different individual departments and offices to help leverage some of their resources for students. A lot of them have gone to virtual programming, some of our study abroad program partners around the world have started switching to virtual programs as well, that could be feasible alternatives for students to still get some of those learning objectives that they seek, but maybe just for right now that travel component might not be the most feasible method.
SP: Some students at Parsons Paris say they are still awaiting to find out if the program will allow them to study abroad there in the spring 2021 semester, is there an update on this?
AA: There definitely is an option to go study abroad at Parsons Paris in the spring, that is definitely happening. What exactly that will look like, meaning will part of the semester be online, or will the students be able to arrive in person on the first day of classes in January, I can’t specifically answer that, because I don’t have final details of that yet. That’s kind of up to the New School at large to still make a decision on. What’s happening on the ground in Paris, in terms of how they’re assessing and making their decisions is similar to how they’re responding in the United States. The French government has its own guidelines and safety restrictions, and the Paris campus is going to take every action to keep all students safe, but also to follow the necessary guidelines and structures that are set forth by the French government. We’re still working on making sure that we can meet all of those requirements to keep students safe.
SP: For some juniors and seniors this academic year might have been the last time frame they had to pursue a study abroad program. What do you suggest those students do to support their educational goals this academic year?
AA: One thing that I have felt really bad about when it comes to COVID is that it’s basically disrupted this integrated opportunity to do a semester [abroad] in your degree. With students who are getting close to graduation, and this spring might be their second semester of their junior year, or maybe they’re in their first semester of their senior year now, and they’ve just missed it over this academic year. If I’m speaking to those students, I would encourage them to still think about what exactly are your goals? Because study abroad doesn’t have to be only specifically, a part of your study, while you’re pursuing your degree at The New School. Within the Study Abroad Office we will help advise students on pursuing opportunities post-graduation. The most common one is through an international education grant or fellowship award.
The study abroad office on campus is the managing department of the Fulbright program on campus. So for students who may want to seek to study, do research, or teach abroad through Fulbright, we can help with that. Students who may be thinking about graduate degrees abroad, looking at what are potential schools that might have some type of academic alignment or some type of connection to what they’re studying now and what they’re aiming to do, please reach out to us in our office because we may have just the resources available to help students explore those opportunities. Students should really think about what’s going to come next in their global careers, international professions. The Career Services Office has a number of resources with a particular platform called Hire New, that I regularly encourage students who returned from study abroad, if you want to think about your career market and maybe going back to that country to work, consider some of these resources at The New School like Hire New, that will have country profiles and different resources for applying to jobs there as well.
So even though the travel opportunity, for a semester to study abroad, maybe that was missed this fall or this academic year, that doesn’t mean that the global journey is over.
It’s still gonna continue, and the Study Abroad Office and The New School, we want to help students to pursue those endeavors even as alumni. As an alumnus, feel free to continue to reach out and we’ll see how we can help or what we can do.
SP: Were students reimbursed if their study abroad program was canceled this academic year?AA: The New School doesn’t charge students any application fees for study abroad. So, there aren’t fees that we would directly reimburse for a student. If a student was applying to a study abroad program, let’s say for this fall, and then the program provider itself canceled the program, that provider would have its own refund schedule or reimbursement policies. For the most part, if the program was canceled prior to the program start date, just about all students should have seen any and all fees returned and reimbursed to them.