Experience the culture of foreign countries with Santa Rosa Junior College’s Study Abroad program, in which students can travel all over the world.
In Summer 2016, the program is sending students to Costa Rica. The trip starts June 27 and ends July 28.
Students will earn credit in Spanish and community relations classes, getting real world experience in both.
“The focus in AJ 25 [community relations] is on developing relationships – understanding people, breaking down barriers [and] learning to communicate with persons from different races and cultures,” said trip advisor Joanie Dybach.
SRJC student Edgar Garcia visited Paris, France for three months last fall. He met new people, tasted French cuisine and saw the beauty in the culture. “They take so much pride in it,” Garcia said. “The stereotype we hear about the French is not true. They accept anyone new coming in.”
For many students, stereotypes were broken. Seeing a new country firsthand and meeting people broadens the mind and helps dispell stereotypes.
“I had heard that the people of Rome weren’t very gracious to tourists, but I experienced the opposite,” said SRJC student Bailey Farren. “Many of my favorite experiences took place when I was trying to communicate what I needed in the pathetic amount of Italian that I understood. I would just laugh and apologize, and usually they would laugh with me.”
While studying abroad, some students stayed with host families. Lanea Florence stayed with a French woman who spoke no English. Florence described her hostess as a bright red-haired eccentric woman with big round glasses. The language barrier between them proved to be a struggle.
“She was super picky about how we did everything and would get mad at us all the time because we didn’t do something right, but we didn’t ever understand what she was saying,” Florence said.
Despite the foreign pedantry, Florence enjoyed the company of her hostess. “She wasn’t mean; she was actually quite nice.”
The room Florence stayed in was an interesting experience. It was a converted living room that held two beds and a closet on one end. The other end held a large dining room table covered in ancient magazines. There were also a few bookshelves full of huge books, seven half-working lamps, three couches with stuffed animals, a glass chess board and a giant taxidermied tortoise.
Florence had an array of roommates from around Europe. She met students from Italy, Germany and England. A large part of traveling is meeting new people. “I was able to create bonds with them and amazing memories,” Garcia said.
By the end of the trip, each student took away something unique from his or her experience. For Florence, it was the passion of the French. “They are lovers of all things,” she said. “They believe life is to be lived and enjoyed to the fullest.”
Also in the summer of 2016, English instructor Melissa Kort will be hosting a trip to Oxford and London, which will fulfill several English course credits.
In spring of 2016, SRJC is partnering with the Northern California Study Abroad Consortium and other community colleges to study abroad in Florence, Italy. Behavioral sciences instructor Sandra Hollimon will host information sessions and join the trip.
