From Study Abroad to Stardom

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” These were the words of Henry Miller (a revolutionary American writer and painter).

While study abroad may be a relatively young concept in US higher education, the pursuit of knowledge through travel is actually quite ancient. Many early societies believed that people in other places, might have something to teach them. Young leaders were sent out on “quests of discovery” to find and acquire the maturity, confidence, understanding, and skills needed for the survival of the tribe. In essence, travel was their path and hope to the future (A History of US Study Abroad: Beginnings to 1965 by William W. Hoffa).

Marco Polo was a trader, but he was also an explorer, a traveling scholar who brought back knowledge of tremendous interest and value to his European compatriots. His journeys came to symbolize humankind as immense, strange, and culturally diverse. His writings made it clear how important it was for kings and rulers and their heirs to experience realms beyond their own. In fact, Marco Polo inspired many purposeful explorations, including what led to Columbus’s discovery of North America.

We’ve come an unbelievably long way in the past 500 years, but as we can all see, there’s still a long way to go. If you are reading this blog, then you are inquisitive, and probably a rising star with the ability to bring as much change to this world as Marco Polo or Columbus once did. Therefore, I’d like to give you three dares in your rising stardom.

1. St. Augustine once said, “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” My first dare to you is to read more than a page. Study abroad to learn about other people, yourself, and to open future doors that you can’t begin to imagine.

2. G.K. Chesterton once said, “The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see.” My second dare to you is to STUDY abroad to see and learn so much more than you would as a tourist. Take seriously the word “STUDY” in Study Abroad (if you get my drift).

3. My last dare to you is to go off the beaten path and become a leader, knowing that leaders are made by their courage and their journeys. Ralph Waldo Emerson once said “Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail” It’s always the bohemians, the nonconformists, the individualists, the rebels that are remembered, not the status quo.

Submitted by Wendy Williamson, Director of Study Abroad, Eastern Illinois University