Tough transitions

Only half a year earlier, Rachel Schuster '08 never could have imagined herself standing atop the rocky terrain of Mount Masada at sunrise, listening to the live music of Beri Saharof. That all changed one night while she was studying abroad in Israel.Today, a smile creeps slowly over Schuster's face as she imagines herself standing atop the desert mountain, surrounded by early orange sunlight and barren cliffs, gazing breathlessly at the Dead Sea below.

"It was just amazing to be in the desert and hear the music and slowly see the sunrise as the concert was ending," she remembers.

"You're totally exhausted, but it's beautiful." She says this about the concert but might as well have been talking about her entire experience in Israel.

Schuster had hoped that, once back at Brandeis, she could demonstrate the same kind of independence and spontaneity that she enjoyed overseas.

"What I kept telling myself while [in Israel] is, 'I'm going to bring more of that mentality back here.' But you really can't," she says.

When talking about the transition from Tel Aviv to Waltham, Schuster's tone turns to disenchantment and matter-of-factness.

"Coming back to Brandeis is like a reality," she says.

Twice as many college students study abroad as they did eight years ago, according to a New York Times article published last Sunday.

For many Brandeis students, coming home from studying abroad means another difficult transition. Students find that their own values, perspectives and even personalities have changed so much over the course of six months-or even a year-spent in a foreign country.

Adi Shmuel '08 says she grew over a semester in Israel from a somewhat rigid student to a more relaxed and open-minded individual.

Shmuel didn't even realize how much she had changed until she started spending time with her friends at home again.

"I wanted to do a road trip, but my friends didn't want to. In Israel if I had wanted to do a road trip they would've said, 'Okay, when are we leaving?'" she says, speaking of the relaxed atmosphere that has rubbed off on her from her time away.

Shmuel even cites a specific word in Hebrew that embodies the specific aspects of the Israeli culture she sought to emulate: "Lizrom," she says, emphasizing with her hands. "It means to flow."

Many Brandeis students report finding it difficult to implement the relaxed mentality they adopted while studying or volunteering abroad once back at home.

While volunteering in a small village in Thailand this summer, Jenna Brofsky '10 remembers being struck by "the laid-back attitude of the people there," especially in contrast to American society.

Even young children living in Nong Saeng Noi, the Thai village in which she volunteered, demonstrated this relaxed, open disposition. One of Brofsky's projects over summer was teaching English at a local elementary school.

Brofksy recalls one day accidentally ripping one of the students' notebooks. "Any American kid would have freaked out or cried," she says. Laughing as she remembers this simple moment of joy, Brofksy recalls, "He just looked at me and said, 'Mai pben rai,'" a Thai phrase that translates to "no worries."

When she arrived back in the United States, Brofsky noticed immediately the difference between the Thai and American cultures. "I was thrown back into a very hectic and fast-paced culture," she says.

Perhaps the most significant issue of re-entry was not the transition back to a consumerist society, but the transition back into Brandeis academics. Students report that college-level academics in other countries are much less structured than the North American academic system, and the return to such an organized environment was somewhat startling.

For Mindy Lipson '08, who spent a semester in Denmark, the hardest part of returning home was getting back to work.

"Coming back was hard; you really have to try and focus," she says. "I came back and realized I had to plan for internships and make sure I had all my classes in."

Schuster says that in Israel most classes have just one exam at the end of the semester. There aren't regular papers and assignments, as there are in North American universities.

She was accustomed to outdoor activities and the exploration of the Israeli landscape whenever she had the chance. Back at Brandeis, she realized, "I'm a serious student. I'm not going to go hiking on the weekends."

Many students felt that sitting in classrooms, listening to lectures and performing daily assignments was less exciting than the internships and field work they had done abroad.

"Getting back to Brandeis was the big shock. Sitting in classes doesn't compare to living through everyday life," says Matthew Rogers '08, who spent last semester studying in Ecuador.

"I had access to people we read books about here," Rogers says. For example, Rogers recalls that in Ecuador, he was able to discuss his study with Fernando Cordero, a deputy in the Ecuadorian congress and the former mayor of Cuenca, the small city in which he lived. However, "in a huge country like the United States you can't call up a congressman and expect to get an interview with him."

The return to Brandeis academics was not entirely negative, however. Especially for those students majoring in International Global Studies, studying abroad grants them a "more global perspective," Amy Fischer '09, who studied last semester in Chile, says.

Students learned to integrate points of view from countries other than the United States into their understanding of international issues. Living face to face with many issues that they have studied at Brandeis gave them greater insight into these subjects.

Shulie Eisen, an IGS major, says before she went abroad, it was hard to conceptualize international issues in real terms.

"Now, when I talk about poverty and people living in poverty, I think about my friend Tony who has to work four jobs to support his family," Eisen says. "It puts a more human face to it."

Professors are prepared to help facilitate students' transition back into Brandeis academics. Last semester faculty members attended a workshop called "The Academic Side of Reentry," which address ways of engaging the experiences of students who have studied abroad, according to Assistant Director of Study Abroad Eowyn Greeno.

When Ethics Center fellows return from their summer internships abroad, they are required to enroll in an internship and analysis class taught by Prof. Dan Terris, director of the International Center for Ethics, Justice, and Public Life. Ethics fellows in the class submit one paper per week exploring their memories of volunteering and critique each other's writing.

"My thought process has been very challenged," says Margot Moinester '08, who interned last summer in Rwanda. Moinester has written papers on memorials she visited in Rwanda, as well as religion in Rwandan society.

Students work all semester toward a final publication describing their experiences abroad, according to Moinester.

"The goal," she says, "is to contextualize our experiences within a greater intellectual framework."

Having traveled across the globe in search of another culture with new values, traditions and history, students realize once home that it is perhaps their own identity into which they have gained greatest insight.

Says Schuster, "You understand who you are more when you see people different from you. It reaffirmed who I was.