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College Students Hitting the Road: Exchange Program Dispatches Scholars to Other Universities Across the Country

Posted on: Tuesday, 17 January 2006, 09:00 CST

By Carol Biliczky, The Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio

Jan. 17--Holly Brzeczek wanted to add a little spice to her life. That turned out to include living in a freshman dorm.

It's been a jolt for the 49-year-old woman, who owns a home and has adult children and a grandchild.

But it was part of the package that came with attending Western Carolina University via the National Student Exchange Program at Kent State.

The program offers students at participating state-supported universities the chance to spend up to a year at another school, with credits transferring back to the home school.

Kent State is one of three Ohio universities and 180 in North America that are exchanging 4,000 students this year.

Currently, Cleveland State and Bowling Green are hosting nine students and Kent State has none; 22 Ohio students -- four from Kent, 10 from Bowling Green and eight from Cleveland State -- are at other campuses.

NSE Vice President Wendel Wickland said the program complements the more expensive and well-known foreign study.

"It's a very safe and inexpensive way for students to do what they probably would have liked all along," said Wickland, who coordinates the NSE program at Buffalo State College in New York.

Often, students sign on for personal growth, he said.

Brzeczek, who is studying education at KSU's Ashtabula campus, had another reason: to be closer to her two children and her grandchild. Western Carolina State is in Cullowhee, about five hours from her family's home in Raleigh.

To Brzeczek's delight, the college turned out to be near the Great Smoky and Blue Ridge mountains and a Cherokee reservation, and in south-central Appalachia. She found herself volunteering at the Mountain Heritage Days, one of the top 20 crafts events nationwide. She's relishing learning about a culture so foreign to metropolitan Northeast Ohio.

"If anyone wants to learn about a different culture, it's a perfect place to be," said the Kingsville resident.

Some host campuses offer courses that students can't get at home, said Pamela Jones, coordinator of the Kent program.

"One year, we had a student attend the University of Northern Arizona," Jones said. "It had a program in which students lived in the Grand Canyon. The student was thinking of majoring in geology and she wanted to see if it was right for her."

But students don't get a break in tuition, at least if Kent State is their home school.

KSU participants pay the standard Kent tuition of about $3,800 a semester, no matter where they go. If in-state tuition at the host school is more than that, the Kent student gets a deal.

KSU students pay the in-state fee for residence halls at their host school; most financial aid and scholarships transfer.

Students' overall bills can spike dramatically if they choose a distant college -- and many do. More than half of participants go at least 2,000 miles away, often to the South and West. Right now, one in eight is at the University of Hawaii campuses at Hilo and Manoa. UH is the most popular college in the program.

State-supported colleges in Canada and U.S. protectorates can be part of the program, so students also can attend the Inter-American University of Puerto Rico at San Germaine and the Universite de Sherbrooke in Quebec.

Still, the NSE doesn't have the allure of traditional foreign study programs.

While more than 80,000 students have taken part in the NSE since its start in 1967, almost 200,000 American students study abroad each year, according to the Institute for International Education in New York City.

"I wish more kids were interested, but this is a commuter campus," said Elaine Vincent, coordinator of the NSE program at Cleveland State. "People go to commuter campuses for a reason."

As for Brzeczek, she found the program to be one of the most exciting experiences of her life. The only downside was living in a freshman dorm.

"Boy, was I in shock," she said. "The walls were cinder block and I had a lot of sleepless nights."

This semester she may get an apartment, she said with a laugh.

Carol Biliczky can be reached at 330-996-3729 or cbiliczky@thebeaconjournal.com

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio

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Source: Akron Beacon Journal (Akron, Ohio)

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