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arriving in the United States, she became the first Cambodian-American woman to earn a doctorate from a U.S. university-a Ph.D. in Political Science from UC Berkeley.
In addition to her wide-ranging research and writing, which increasingly focuses on transnationalism and diaspora, Professor Um is actively involved in issues of social and educational equity for linguistically and culturally under-represented students and their families. With her background, deep personal knowledge of IAS and the Berkeley campus (while a Berkeley student she lived at International House), and passionate commitment to educational equity and international dialogue, she brings a unique perspective and energy to the Education Abroad Program. IAS Publications Director Nathan MacBrien spoke with Professor Um about the importance and challenges of nurturing Study Abroad in the current social, political, and economic climate.
What misconceptions do you think people might have about Study Abroad today?
Historically, Study Abroad has perhaps been seen as an opportunity for the privileged, for those who can afford the time and the resources to acquire an added experience. But more and more we need to understand that study abroad is important for the intellectual development of anyone seeking higher education. When you look at the demographic, political, and cultural change under way in America and across the world, and the increasing interdependence among countries, I think you realize that it's imperative for Berkeley students to be immersed in this process of change as it occurs. And part of that immersion really has to be getting exposed to the world outside of American academic institutions. Berkeley is a premier educational institution, and we should be equipping students with the linguistic and intercultural competence necessary to be global citizens and leaders. For these reasons I personally feel that we can't think of study abroad as an added luxury, something affordable only to some. It should be an integral component of any undergraduate education.
We're always told that globalization makes international communication and travel so much easier. But if it's a fact of life for many students that they can't even afford books for the semester, these opportunities can seem remote indeed. What is Berkeley doing to address this problem of access, and what are some of the challenges for increasing access?
Student financial aid can be used for the Education Abroad Program, and our staff can provide students with the necessary information. The challenge, I think, is that even if a student qualifies for aid, it's often not enough given the shrinking packages that students now receive. How do we ensure equitable access to this opportunity, which is such an important intellectual project for all undergraduates? In the last few years we were very fortunate to have scholarship support from the Freeman Foundation. But the struggle to acquire more scholarships and to build up a scholarship program has always been an important project for us and will continue to be so in the years to come.
We also want to help students who might want to enroll in high quality study abroad programs that are not part of the University of California's EAP [Education Abroad Program]. For example, let's say a student wants to do an internship combined with a language program in Laos. There may be a great program out there that offers these opportunities but is not part of EAP. It can be very difficult for students to get the fellowships or scholarships they need to participate in those programs and, moreover, to have that experience count toward their matriculation.
A larger, and more difficult, issue is the opportunity cost that we don't necessarily think about when we think about creating opportunities for students. Many of the students I work with come from economically vulnerable families and have to work during the summer (as well as during the school year) to supplement their financial aid and to help the family. A traditional, year-long study abroad program is virtually impossible for many of these students. Even if we could pay for everything, these students would still face the opportunity cost of not being able to work. Transfer students face similar constraints, although for different reasons. So there is a conundrum. We realize that longer-term participation is much more meaningful, but there are economic and other pragmatic constraints. In that sense I'm very happy that there are now shorter, one-semester or summer programs, but we need more of them within EAP so students can avail themselves of financial aid support, and so it is easy for them to apply the credits to their majors or minors.
You seem to be suggesting that greater flexibility is needed, both in the length of time, but also, I'd imagine, in the locations and kinds of programs offered.
Right. More students are now interested in going to nontraditional destinations and engaging learning in creative ways that go beyond the classroom. They might be interested in going to Africa. Maybe it's a location within Africa that isn't commonly accessed. They might be interested in doing more than just taking language and culture classes. They may want to do an internship, or work with a local NGO. This is great and should be encouraged. So we constantly need to innovate, and we need to respond to the changing intellectual needs of our students as well as demographic changes in the student population. We now have a very sizable heritage population from Southeast Asia, for instance. And many of these students are moved by a set of imperatives to go overseas that are different from what you might imagine of students 30 or 40 years ago.
It seems that many IAS majors are interested not only in studying abroad, but in understanding what I would call praxis, the place where theory and action meet. Are there opportunities for students to put education and internship-like work together?
I would like to see more. For example, I'm trying to start a program in Southeast Asia that is a two-part series. Students take an undergraduate seminar at Berkeley on contemporary Southeast Asia, then develop a research idea, and then go to Southeast Asia for six or eight weeks. There they will have an opportunity to interface with NGOs, government officials, and local students and scholars to flesh out this research idea. When they come back, they are better positioned to think about graduate work and/or a capstone project for their major.
You are a popular teacher and advise many undergraduate students and student groups. When you think about the ways that students are thinking about the world now, what things worry you? What things hearten you?
What worries me is a sense of parochialism. For example, in the U.S., Asian and Pacific Islander Americans, as well as Latinos, are among the fastest-growing communities. These communities include a significant foreign-born population. There's tremendous wealth there-cultural, linguistic, and in terms of know-how-that we certainly could capitalize on to build a stronger nation. But I don't think we're very good at mining it. Some of my students come from recent immigrant families, and in the process of acquiring English they lose their vernacular language. And then when they get to Berkeley and decide they want to do research in their home communities, they are in a problematic position. They don't know the language anymore, and we have to pump all these resources into helping them re-learn it so they can do the kind of work they want to do. That is paradoxical and frustrating, and fundamentally wrong in my opinion. Language is consciousness, and if you don't speak another language there is limited access to another culture. And then how can you function effectively outside of your comfort zone?
The optimistic side of this, of course, is that I have been very fortunate to have students who have a tremendous desire to grow intellectually, to think critically, to make a difference. And they are interested in more than just classroom learning. There is often a real desire to maintain and enhance (and sometimes to develop in the first place) connections with their communities of origin. And their notion of community is automatically transnational. It cuts across multiple sites, multiple communities, and multiple time frames as well. And it's especially heartening to see that even though some of these students have had very, very traumatic historical experiences, there is still a desire to help, to volunteer, to make things better, not just for their immediate ethnic communities, but more globally. I don't see the cynicism that one would expect, and that in itself is very encouraging. So much of what I'm interested in doing is to create opportunities for students to make these connections in a way that is both personally empowering and intellectually meaningful.
When a student comes back from a study abroad experience, is she or he in a position to make different kinds of choices? Is one perhaps more willing to take certain risks, having had the experience of being up close with what previously might have been far away?
Absolutely. Language ability is the obvious advantage. It opens so many other doors. There is also a certain confidence that comes from having lived and studied abroad, along with other skills that are much more easily developed abroad than on this campus, skills that are enriching both intellectually and more personally. For example, I have students who are interested in working in public health, social welfare, law, and medicine in particular communities where language might be a barrier to access. But what skills do you need-including language, but not just language-to work effectively with that constituency? If you are a doctor and want to work with the Southeast Asian population in Oakland, wouldn't you be better at your job if you had some firsthand connection with the histories and cultures of that population? It actually turns out that international education helps students gain the skills that make them much more effective at what they might choose to do here at home.
Ultimately, though, the most important benefits are intangible. I come from a culture and tradition in which education is not just about academic knowledge; education is ultimately about building wisdom. In this sense there is no effective substitute for immersing yourself in a way of living and thinking that is different from what you are comfortable and familiar with. In this sense study abroad is a way of providing students with real education, not just with schooling.
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