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classes and the second half was an internship. Iworked in a clinic that did mother and child

health, and worked with field workers thatwould go out into the communities and do HIVeducation, meet with women's groups." 

At UW-Madison, about 16 percent of undergraduates opt to study abroad at some

time during their university career. In 2004-05,1,611 students participated in study abroadprograms, either run by UW-Madison orsponsored by other institutions. The application

deadline for many summer programs abroadwas Friday. 

"I really think at this point with the global

economy, students really need globalcompetence in order to compete when theyleave the university," said Robert Howell,

director of UW-Madison's InternationalAcademic Programs and a German professor. 

"It's not just vacations that they're going on. It'san integral part of their education. It provides

them with something they can put on theirresume that really is a saleable skill. Thisability to move in other cultures, it's an

important thing. 

"I think maybe there's also a growingrealization that we're not alone, that it doesn't

cut it to be narrowly focused on the UnitedStates." 

Students abroad doubled 

The number of American students studyingabroad has more than doubled in the lastdecade, according to Open Doors 2006, the

recently released annual report on internationaleducation published by the Institute of International Education with funding from the

U.S. State Department's Bureau of Educationaland Cultural Affairs. 

In 2004-05, the year surveyed, there were205,983 students participating in study abroadopportunities. That's a 144 percent increasefrom 1994-95, when 84,403 students studiedabroad. 

While 45 percent of all U.S. students studying

abroad still head to traditional destinations inWestern Europe -- the United Kingdom, Italy,Spain and France top the list -- interest in otherdestinations is both growing and gaining

momentum. 

China is now the eighth leading studydestination overall, with 6,389 Americanstudents nationwide studying there in 2004-05,an increase of 35 percent over the previousyear. Other non-traditional destinations also

reported big jumps: Students in Argentina andIndia both were up 53 percent; Brazil increased28 percent; and Chile was up 12 percent. 

Mirroring those national trends, Howell also

sees a shift in where UW-Madison studentswant to invest their time.

"When I went to college in the 1970s, youcould go to England, France, Germany, Italy,

that's it, take it or leave it," Howell said. "Now,there's an amazing number of options. You see

tremendous student interest in Africa, Asia,South America. They're all growing areas. Withall the buzz about the booming Chineseeconomy, China is very hot at this time." 

Last year, UW-Madison sent 90 students to

study in China. The year before, it was 60. 

Europe continues to be the most populardestination for UW-Madison students (59

percent in 2004-05, with Spain, Italy and theUnited Kingdom heading the list), but LatinAmerica, Asia and Africa together now accountfor about 28 percent, a significant change from

past years. 

Shrinking globe 

What's driving this change? It's partly arecognition of the shrinking globe and the riseof multinational interests, partly a reflection of 

expanded offerings. 

"The diversity of offerings (at UW-Madison)develops interests in our student population that

are probably a little bit off the beaten path,"Howell said. 

UW-Madison's department of Africanlanguages & literature, for instance, one of thevery few such departments in the country,offers language instruction in Arabic, Hausa,

Swahili and Yoruba. Access to these lesscommonly taught languages often thentranslates into interest in international programsin Egypt, Morocco, Cameroon, Kenya or SouthAfrica. 

The increasing prevalence of Spanish

instruction in American schools, in turn, plays arole in the growing number of students headingto Latin American countries. 

Emily Spangenberg, 22, a UW-Madison seniorfrom Williams Bay, bucked tradition -- and tosome extent, her family -- when she decided to

spend last spring semester in Buenos Aires,Argentina. 

"I got a lot of Why don't you just go to Spain?Why do you have to go down there?'" said

Spangenberg, a journalism/politicalscience/Spanish major. "My mom wasconvinced that I was going to be kidnapped,

that all this horrible stuff was going to happen.Every time I talked to her on the phone, she

was making sure that I wasn't going places bymyself. Still, they were very supportive of whatI wanted to do." 

Many students also recognize the potentialmarket value of their studies abroad.

Companies with multinational interests aremore norm these days than exception, andgraduates who can point to hands-onexperience with multicultural interests can have

an edge. 

With that in mind, Sarah Jackson, 21, a UW-

Madison senior from the Twin Cities, hopes to

parlay the year she spent in Tokyo last year infuture job opportunities. 

"Four years at a university is nothing compar

to actually going there for a year aconversing with people in everyday settings.really makes you fluent in a language," saJackson, who wants to work in Japan. "It's a b

help on resumes." 

Studying in Japan offered her more than jufluency in Japanese, however. 

"There's an expanded world view... . In mprogram, there were two other Madisstudents there but also 120 internation

students from all over the world. So I hafriends from Germany, France, Australia, tNetherlands, Singapore." 

Broadens life experience 

With growing recognition of the potent

personal and professional advantages stuabroad can provide, the makeup of studenparticipating in such opportunities is shifting, well. In the past, students that went abro

were predominantly language students. 

"That's definitely changing," Howell said. you look now, you'll see that language majoare still a significant bunch of the people goin

but you're also increasingly seeing physicscience, agriculture, engineering and otherepresented." 

The dividends, in the end, are much more th

 just a new stamp on a passport. 

"When I started college, I had no desire to

abroad. The idea really just freaked me ouSpangenberg said. "I was initially very scarof it, afraid of leaving friends behind, afraid having this interruption in my college career. 

"But after going abroad, you learn what y

can live without, that you can be more sesufficient, that there is a bigger world out theIt's really hard to describe. There's this feelinwell, I survived this time in this foreign plathat I didn't know much about before goi

there, and I was able to live there and havenormal routine. You really feel you can through almost anything after that." 

UW System ranked in study abroad  

UW-Madison ranked No. 11 in the Open Doo

2006 report among all American doctoral aresearch institutions for total number of stuabroad students. 

Among institutions offering master's degrethree University of Wisconsin Systecampuses cracked the top 20: Eau Clai

Stevens Point and La Crosse, at Nos. 14, 16 a17, respectively. 

For more information on study abroadopportunities in the UW System, visitwww.uwsa.edu/acss/abroad/.For UW-Madison, visit

www.international.wisc.edu/studyAbroad/.