A Well-Rounded Experience: Connecting the Home Campus to the Study Abroad Experience and The Study Abroad Experience to the Home Campus

Many small liberal arts colleges across the United States partner with third-party providers or foreign institutions to provide their students with an opportunity to study abroad. Denison University, a small liberal arts school in Ohio, traditionally sends 50% of its student body to study abroad before they graduate. Since students have the option to spend a semester or two participating in study abroad, it is important for the students to be well prepared, for the experience to be integrated into their overall Denison education and for the students to transition back to campus successfully. To determine how students were preparing for study abroad and transitioning back onto their home campus, literature was reviewed and then interviews were conducted with 30 study abroad returnee students at Denison University as well three faculty and staff. The research demonstrated a need to design a program that connects the study abroad experience to the home campus mission, and revealed suggestions for what components should be included in the program as well as recommendations for the overall design of the program. The paper does not provide a complete and ready-to-use program design, but instead the paper demonstrates—through research—the need for a predeparture and reentry program and provides a basic example of what a program would look like that could be further developed and built upon. Using experiential learning theory as a guiding principle, the program aims to enable students to deepen their learning before, during, and after study abroad with a focus on identity awareness and global citizenship. The program’s goal is to help connect students’ study abroad experiences to the Denison mission, to the Denison academics, and to the potential careers of the students