Bethel Uni­ver­sity Pro­vides Stu­dents with Study Abroad Op­tions

MISHAWAKA--Bethel Uni­ver­sity pro­vides stu­dents with op­por­tu­ni­ties to study abroad which en­rich their lives by pro­vid­ing them with tools to achieve in what­ever they want to do in life.  

Tyler Grant is the of­fi­cial Di­rec­tor of Global En­gage­ment and Ca­reer Ser­vices, who con­nects with stu­dents to fig­ure out what they will be in­ter­ested in He has con­ver­sa­tions dis­cussing what they re­ally want out of life and to what they are try­ing to move to­ward.  

Most stu­dents think study abroad is con­sid­ered an en­tire se­mes­ter over­seas, but Bethel Uni­ver­sity pro­vides a wider range of study­ing abroad, in­clud­ing task force, sum­mer travel, May term, and, of course, se­mes­ter abroad. There are op­tions that can suit the need for a wide range of ma­jors and can even suit a stu­den­t’s bud­get and sched­ule. With op­tions like go­ing to Nashville, Ten­nessee, and work­ing with ex­pe­ri­enced cred­ited pro­duc­ers and un­lim­ited stu­dio time to ex­pe­ri­enc­ing Ox­ford Uni­ver­sity in Eng­land are just two of many pos­si­bil­i­ties.  

Tyler Grant en­cour­ages stu­dents to come into the Global En­gage­ment of­fice with ideas and to be ready to think strate­gi­cally. Af­ter talk­ing about things such as dead­lines, bud­get, sched­ule, and even where the stu­dent feels God is call­ing them to go and do, con­nec­tions can be made through those that work in the of­fice, and even through those that don’t, such as pro­fes­sors.  

A worry that comes to mind is usu­ally the cost of study abroad trips. Grant en­cour­ages stu­dents to think about how much they cur­rently work, or even how much they could work at a job. Un­for­tu­nately, it is dif­fi­cult to find schol­ar­ships that will help fund these ex­pe­ri­ences. “The num­ber of stu­dents that could work and don’t is sur­pris­ing,” said Grant. Few stu­dents ask what per­cent­age they could pay for them­selves or how much they could earn them­selves. From Grant’s ex­pe­ri­ence and ob­ser­va­tions, stu­dents see this as daunt­ing, but don’t re­al­ize how easy it is to of­fer their skills, such as babysit­ting, yard work, pho­tog­ra­phy, etc., and how much peo­ple are will­ing to pay for the ser­vices. Other op­tions for fund­ing can be things such as ask­ing for do­na­tions. 

Some trips com­ing from the Global En­gage­ment of­fice this year are one to Guatemala, a trip to South Africa lead by Dr. Theo Williams and mis­sion­ary Court­ney Richards, sum­mer trip to Greece and Turkey, and even op­por­tu­ni­ties in In­dia and Thai­land that are all com­ing up this school year.  

For more in­for­ma­tion, email Tyler Grant at  tyler.grant@bethelu­ni­ver­sity.edu.