What are the primary causes of health and safety problems that students might face overseas?
Many of the health and safety problems students find abroad are similar to those they find on U.S. college and university campuses. Anecdotal evidence strongly suggests individual student behavior (sometimes misbehavior) is the cause of most illnesses, injuries and fatalities. When students do not prepare themselves properly, ignore the advice and counsel of campus and overseas personnel, or act naively or as if they are invulnerable, they can get into a lot of trouble. This is especially true when they travel excessively on their own or engage in dangerous social behavior, such as binge drinking or hanging out in unsavory local nightspots. Your daughter or son is considerably less likely to be the victim of a natural catastrophe, social violence, disease, or program negligence than of being victimized by her or his own poor judgment exercised in unfamiliar surroundings. However, there are health and safety problems that are not the direct responsibility of students themselves, but whi
