When Men Study Abroad
In May, I took 21 students from the University of North Carolina to Galway, Ireland for a three-week study abroad program in creative nonfiction. Students challenged themselves by climbing Dimond Hill, eating blood sausage, and adapting to an unfamiliar culture where the police do not carry firearms. I’ve taught this course three times, and each class has been transformed by the experience, excited to keep traveling, while also understanding the world with a greater sophistication. This most recent class was no exception. What was also no exception was that only two of the 21 students self-identified as male.
The low enrollment of men in study abroad is well documented. The reasons, however, are a bit vague and it goes beyond that women outnumber men at U.S. colleges. As Jeffrey Selingo wrote in The Atlantic, some argue that men are less likely to see the benefit of travel or fear leaving behind their friends. All of that may be true. Others tie it to the ongoing conversation about the crisis of masculinity. I really don’t know.
Killary Sheep Farm overlooking Killary Fjord, Connemara, Ireland. 2023.
What seems obvious to me though is that men miss a lot when they don’t study abroad. It’s not just economic buzzwords about a “global perspective” that are often meaningless. What I’m concerned with is the more intangible aspects of what travel grants you, namely a sense of adventure.
It’s not a word we use much anymore. Partly it’s tied up in colonial perspectives or older forms of Hemingway-esque masculinity. The Army sells itself on adventure. Universities push job placement rates. But it’s a word we can frame as putting an individual in a place where they are uncomfortable, confused, often scared, but also open to the possibilities of wonder that only come through challenging yourself to explore the unknown.
Wonder won’t happen while playing video games. Wonder won’t happen at an internship. And it can’t be found crashing at a parent’s house. Wonder happens when you’re holding a sheep and looking out at a fjord that stretches for miles. It can’t be quantified, sure, but that’s the point. Study abroad is one of the few times most can realistically spend a significant chunk of their life out of the country.
This is personal for me. Not only was I transformed by my study abroad experience (Paris is awesome when you’re 19), but I have taught three study abroad courses with a total 61 students, six of whom self-identified as men. I’ve seen those men transform, like I did. They’ve come back to America with not only that “global perspective” we put on our brochures, but also a sense of how far they can push themselves into the unknown.