Grant will help more students study abroad in France next year

A grant received recently by NC State University will provide resources to help new freshmen and other undergraduate students – including those in the Poole College of Management – study in France during the 2015-16 academic year and beyond.

The grant, awarded under the auspices of the Transatlantic Friendship and Mobility Initiative, will provide support for North Carolina high school students to attend a new summer program offering intensive language courses in Raleigh. Participants will take a French class, earning college credit and becoming eligible for $1,500 scholarships if they attend NC State and go on a French study abroad program.

Funds from the grant also will support recruitment for Poole College’s dual-degree program with NEOMA Business School in Reims, France. This effort will focus on recruiting out-of-state students to come to NC State and participate in the French track of the dual degree program. Also included in the grant are funds to develop a new spring break program in Paris that, while open to all students, will target student athletes and students from under-represented populations who traditionally do not study abroad. This program, coordinated NC State’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences, is open to all students at NC State University. 

Robert Sandruck, director of international programs in the Poole College of Management and one of those working on the grant proposal, said, “These funds will enable Poole students and others at the university to study abroad in France. The opportunities we are putting together range from short term programs that will have an immediate impact to long term efforts to create a sustainable flow of Poole students studying abroad in France.”

NC State is one of four recipients of one-year $20,000 grants from the French Embassy, offered in collaboration with the Partnership for Innovation and Collaboration on Study Abroad, a grant competition organized in partnership with NAFSA: Association of International Educators and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU).

The Transatlantic Friendship and Mobility Initiative is a joint initiative between the United States and France designed to strengthen the historic ties between the two countries by doubling the number of students from France and the U.S. studying abroad in each respective country by 2025.

Achieving that goal requires helping high school students from under-resourced school districts see that study abroad in France is an option by providing opportunities to strengthening their French language skills and providing financial support.

"Studying abroad is vital to all students, but especially first generation college students and under-resourced students,” said Roshaunda Breeden, coordinator for diversity and student involvement at Poole College. “Past students from these populations who studied abroad discovered that stepping outside of their own cultures to live and study in a foreign country influenced their careers and educational choices, increased self-confidence, enhanced cultural tolerance and understanding, and facilitated lifelong friendships. The benefits were invaluable to all of them."

NC State's grant application, "French language – the key to opening many doors," focuses on engaging North Carolina high school students for future study in France and the creation of a semester-long program on cultural diversity in Paris targeting underrepresented students.

The French Embassy in the United States selected four U.S. institutions to each receive a $20,000 grant from the French government to support best practices for increasing study abroad to France. Also receiving the one-year grants were French outreach programs at the University of Arkansas, University of Minnesota and Georgetown University.

Proposals were required to advance an effective model to expand and diversify U.S. study abroad participation to France, both in terms of areas of study and background of students. They were also required to enact policy or programmatic changes on campus that leverage greater participation in study abroad above and beyond those students who receive financial assistance from the travel grant.

"Expanding study abroad opportunities for students, our future leaders and innovators, strengthens bi-national relations and better prepares young people for the 21st century global workforce," said NAFSA Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer Marlene M. Johnson. "The barriers for students to study abroad are well documented, and despite the small annual incremental increases of students studying abroad, matching grant programs such as these are critical to growing study abroad exponentially. These programs leverage grants so that universities and colleges can expand study abroad programs and make international study more broadly available."

This is NC State’s second U.S. State Department Initiative to increase the number of American students studying abroad this year. The first was a 100,000 Strong in the Americas grant in support of NC State students studying in Costa Rica. Additional funding support for studies in Costa Rica is available through the fall 2015 term.