Uma Mathema is a large woman, stern-faced enough to intimidate University sophomore Lauren Sheridan the first time the two met in person. Lost in a small Nepalese airport in mid-December, Sheridan frantically searched for a person holding a cardboard sign with her name on it. In those moments of anxiety and chaos, Sheridan questioned why she had even decided to go to Nepal in the first place.
After a hairy car ride through narrow dirt roads and later accumulating 16 hours of much-needed rest, Sheridan woke to reassurance in the eight pairs of eager eyes surrounding her bedside.
Sheridan had always been fascinated by Asian culture, and she knew Asia would be a good fit for a study abroad experience. Yet, with only a 2.5 GPA, she worried her grades would be insufficient to be accepted to a study abroad program through the University.
Sheridan decided to take matters into her own hands. She found a program called Volunteering Solutions that was unaffiliated with the University. With the support of her family and a generous contribution from her grandparents, Sheridan found herself flying west to Bafal, Nepal, for winter break.
Within days of her arrival in Nepal, Sheridan quickly learned experience abroad can have no connection with GPA.
Trading in a snowy, American-style Christmas to be in the presence of eight orphaned Nepalese children, Sheridan was overwhelmed by how the essence of family and human interaction meant more to the children than the amount of treasures in their toy chests.
In three weeks, Sheridan took a week-long intensive language course in Nepali; taught English at a local school; helped out around the orphanage and even earned the nickname “Didi,” meaning big sister, from the orphaned children.
After three weeks, stern-faced Mathema, the foundation of the orphanage, turned into a hearty, old woman who invested all her love, money and time into the children of her orphanage.
Sheridan unexpectedly befriended a woman named Navida. Navida, 27, shared with Sheridan her agonizing fight to retrieve her daughter from her estranged husband. Navida and her daughter now live under Mathema’s care and shelter. And in three weeks, Sheridan and Navida’s friendship manifested into a lifelong bond.
Sheridan and Navida continue to write letters to one another in hopes of one day crossing paths again.
“It is interesting that going halfway across the world, and despite language barriers, you can still connect with people,” Sheridan said.
Despite the transformation Sheridan experienced, she believes three weeks was still not enough.
While a select few academic departments require students to spend at least a term in a foreign country, many require intensive, rigorous, sequenced classes students must take on campus or through off-campus University programs. Some students have to ditch their expectations of studying abroad if they want to keep sight on graduating in four years.
Yet some students take the risk, finding loopholes or programs catering to their precise academic needs. And many choose to use their summers, winters or spring breaks as a means to indulge in a foreign experience.
But Sheridan found she was unqualified for many programs through the University because of her grades.
Grades should not be the determining factor in whether a student is eligible to study abroad.
Cutting students off who do not meet a GPA requirement not only hurts the students but the diversity of a program’s potential applicants. Qualified should mean you’ve taken the proper courses and have some background knowledge in a specific area. An “A” in Western Art may never prepare a student for the cultural immersion he or she would face in a foreign country.
Certainly, a program cannot justify a student’s ability to adapt to a foreign situation based on the academic number that trails their last name.
If that would’ve been the case for Sheridan, she may never have met Mathema, Navida and the children of the orphanage. Sheridan may have been denied the life-changing experience.
With a journal saved and a wealth of memories stored in her mind, Sheridan looks to future study abroad internship programs such as IE3 that do not judge an applicant as prominently on merit. Despite the usually smaller cost and hands-on programs, internships generally do not offer an abundance of academic credits. Students’ experiences abroad can yet again be defined by a University’s academic agenda.
I hope all University students take the opportunity of studying abroad with passion and vigor. Whether the trip is for three weeks or an entire year, there are plenty of people such as Uma Mathema, Navida and the children of the orphanage out there looking for hard-working, open-minded students to be immersed in their world.
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