A group of Chinese teenage girls humbled senior Michael Dietz during his year abroad last year. While at a restaurant, one girl asked another, “Do you think this boy is cute?” The other girl looked at him, and responded, “Not cute.” Although his ego was a little bruised, it was a turning point in his experience because he actually understood the girls’ conversation.
Dietz, who left DU for China last fall and stayed a year, shared this story and others with approximately 220 returning study abroad students at a dinner celebrating their homecoming Jan. 18.
The dinner, according to Study Abroad Director Carol Fairweather, was “a celebration of the fact that [students] went out of their comfort zones to study abroad.” Last fall, 441 DU students went abroad, 398 of them on the Cherrington Program. Among these students, 270 students went to Europe, 64 to Australia, 30 to New Zealand and 7 to Africa The students took advantage of the university’s blossoming study abroad program.
According to Provost Greg Kvistad, the program is ahead of schedule in budgeting and will be investing more in 2007 to make sure the progress continues.
Kvistad, who spoke at the dinner, recognized faculty members that make study abroad possible and congratulated students who made the decision to go abroad. He said that staying in the U.S. is a much safer choice, but going abroad is more rewarding.
“This experience has changed you. I’m not going to ask you if it did, I know it did. It changes the way you view the world, the U.S. and the way you view yourself,” Kvistad said.
He also introduced former chancellor Dan Ritchie as Cherrington’s greatest champion. Ritchie told students, “I couldn’t find anyone at my table who wished they hadn’t done it [gone abroad].” Ritchie then asked the room if anyone regretted it. No one raised their hand.
“I’m a big fan of what you’ve done, how you got here and why.” Ritchie was involved in international programs and education at Harvard University, where he received his bachelor’s degree and an MBA.
While there, he encouraged students from Germany to study at Harvard, and was invited to study in Germany in return.
Ritchie recalled that Harvard administrators discouraged him, saying that Harvard was the best place to study and questioned why he would want to leave. Ritchie said he wished he had studied abroad, but said his experiences visiting abroad have been incomparable. That experience led him to develop what he said was one of the most solid and ambitious study abroad programs in the country.
Ved Nanda, the vice provost for internationalization, said DU developed the study abroad program because of Ritchie’s commitment. “It was a gleam in Dan’s eyes,” Nanda said.
“In every society, we admire people who have a vision, and people who make that vision into a reality. This is the man who had a vision and made it happen.”
Nanda said that someone recently asked if he prayed. “I said, ‘I pray for only one thing: for Dan to have a long life.'”
Fairweather highlighted the overall success of DU’s program. “All the pieces have come together and it’s working.” She said that students who study abroad acquire a great deal of skills, more than any that show on a transcript. She encouraged students to use these skills at home and reach out to international students at DU.
“What we want you to do is not think of this as the end. It’s the beginning.”
