By Andy Bartlett
Bemidji State University is steadily fulfilling its vision of expanded partnerships with international institutions of higher education and increasing opportunities both for its students to study internationally and for BSU to host international students.
Today, dozens of Bemidji State students and faculty are taking advantage of opportunities to travel all across the globe. Students from the Bemidji School of Nursing completed a service-learning trip to Belize during spring break in March. Students and faculty are increasingly taking advantage of dozens of opportunities to study and work in China. And BSU’s oldest and perhaps best-known international study program, EuroSpring, continues to provide life-changing experiences for students who participate.
BSU students who have taken advantage of the university’s many opportunities for international study have done so for a variety of reasons. Some want to potentially set themselves apart when pursuing future careers, and others embrace the personal transformation that often comes from time spent abroad.
Teaching overseas
Andrew Street, a junior from Bemidji majoring in accounting and business administration, is heading to China this summer as part of an exchange program that hires BSU students to teach English. He now hopes to parlay a life-long interest in Asian culture into exciting new professional opportunities.
“I want an international background so I can be more versatile,” he said. “This is something I have always wanted to do, and I want to be able to be more worldly with my future career.”
Street, who will be making his first trip outside North America in May when he departs for Weifang, China, will spend three months working as a teacher for Vancouver-based CIBT Education Group. BSU and CIBT are close partners on a variety of initiatives in China, which in addition to this teaching program include faculty and student exchange programs.
“I have never traveled like this, and BSU is giving me the opportunity to go and do it,” he said. “It will be a really good experience, and I know I’ll be taken care of while I’m there.”
Street will be teaching English to students of all ages, between second grade and high school. Based on conversations with CIBT, he thinks he may have an opportunity to teach college-age students as well.
Weeks before his departure, he was busy planning for a future that could include teaching in Japan next summer.
“I’m already thinking about next time,” Street said. “I’m trying to figure out where my life will lead, and I’m hoping that after this experience I will have some of my questions answered.”
EuroSpring in Oxford
Lisa Kittelson, a junior majoring in marketing communications with a minor in business administration, knew immediately after arriving on campus that she wanted to take advantage of EuroSpring.
It is BSU’s oldest and best-known international study opportunity. Students pay regular tuition and fees, earning six credits during a five-week stay at the University of Oxford in England. EuroSpring groups tour such historical sites as Stonehenge, Bath and Stratford-upon-Avon, and after the five-week session concludes, students often tour Europe on their own.
Kittleson said she first learned of EuroSpring on a BSU campus tour.
“I had always wanted to go to England, and what attracted me to EuroSpring was the opportunity to travel and try something new on a shorter timeframe,” she said. “I wasn’t ready to try something that would have me away for a whole semester or an entire year.”
A third-generation BSU student from Young America whose grandparents, father and an uncle are all alumni, Kittleson participated in EuroSpring in 2014. She says the experience changed her and made her approach her education at BSU with a new mindset.
“I feel more empowered,” she said. “In my everyday schooling, I can relate what I’m learning back to something I learned in Europe. My way of thinking has changed because of my experience — and I think that’s just priceless. It doesn’t always happen for students to have opportunities like that.”
She wants other BSU students to be aware of the myriad travel opportunities the university has available and to realize the programs are accessible to students with a variety of interests. Those programs, she says, will deliver an experience that can’t be valued in dollars and cents.
“I hear students say, ‘I wish I could do that.’ Well, you can,” Kittleson said. “An experience like this doesn’t have a price tag.“
NorthStar Visiting Scholars
In addition to its increasing the ways its own students and faculty can study and work abroad, Bemidji State also is emphasizing opportunities for international students and faculty to study and work in Bemidji.
This semester, more than 80 international students representing nearly two-dozen countries are studying at BSU, and the university is hosting scholars in its new NorthStar Visiting Scholar Academy. In addition, a new English Language Center teaches valuable language proficiency skills to students seeking admission to BSU.
Seven scholars from China have visited BSU this year through the NorthStar Academy. While on campus, these scholars have attended seminars, workshops and classes focused on cross-cultural and academic exchange.
The academy also helps them better understand the U.S. education system, American culture and other aspects of life in this country. The scholars can take selected BSU classes of their choice on a non-credit basis.
In the English Language Center, BSU has worked with four international students this past year — two from China and one each from Nepal and Thailand — who needed to develop their language skills. The center provides intensive training to students who do not speak English as their first language. Opened last fall in Bridgeman Hall, the center operates as a branch of Winona State University’s English Language Center.