The college could be hosting its own study abroad program as early as the summer of 2017, said Moorpark College President Luis Sanchez.
Santa Barbara City College and Glendale Community College are two of the California Community Colleges that offer study abroad programs. However, there has been a desire to offer one here and Sanchez has put together an informal committee in order to pursue that goal.
“The most profound educational activity that a student can take up is to study abroad for a semester,” Sanchez said. “It changes your life. It changes your perspective. Until you’ve had the chance to experience another country it’s hard to have an objective view about your own.”
One of the main hurdles in creating an attractive study abroad program is cost, said Sanchez. These programs can cost students upwards of $3,500 per semester and administration is exploring ways to offset costs to students.
“We’re seeing if there’s not a way to connect study abroad with a service learning project,” Sanchez said. “So let’s say I’m a student and we develop a study abroad program in Spain. And while I’m in Spain I’m not simply a student and a visitor, but I’m also helping build a school or something along those lines that’s helpful to the community.”
A program with that kind of design could receive supplemental income from charitable groups to cover some of the expenses so students don’t have to, said Sanchez.
It is unclear exactly when the new program will be available to students, but Sanchez thinks it will likely be as early as the summer session of 2017.
Studying abroad seems to be something of interest to current students.
“I’d definitely want to take part if they offered study abroad here at Moorpark,” said Tyler Nichols, a 20-year-old engineering major.
International students currently on the campus look forward to seeing an abroad program and encourage students to participate.
“Bringing an abroad program to Moorpark College increase the cultural diversity on campus and open the eyes of local students to people from different cultures, educational and social backgrounds, and give an opportunity to their curiosity about what’s across the borders of the U.S., to get answers,” said Rifaat Kouaider, 21-year-old.
For any student interested in participating in a study abroad program at one of the other community colleges, information is available at the Career Transfer Canter. This summer Santa Barbara City College will be offering programs in Costa Rica, Cuba, France, Spain and Portugal.
