Why is study abroad important for multicultural students?
Studying abroad is one of the most rewarding learning opportunities students can experience while in college. Every year, more and more students are heading to foreign countries to study for credit. Yet the percentages of African American, Hispanic/ Latin@ American, Asian/ Pacific Islander American, and Native American students studying abroad are significantly lower than the percentages for these students in U.S. higher education enrollment. (Data Tables) The Commission on the Abraham Lincoln Study Abroad Fellowship Program with the vision to increase the number of students sent abroad to one million by 2016, firmly believes that the demographics of the U.S. undergraduate students abroad should be similar to those of the U.S. undergraduate student population. (Global Competence & National Needs: One Million Americans Studying Abroad (2005), p. 27.) A similar stance was taken by the NAFSA: Association of International Educators Strategic Task Force on Education Abroad: The United State
