by Stephanie Webster, ’00

How do you think that study abroad contributes to a liberal arts education?

“It is the fundamental presupposition of all science (the teaching of which is the primary purpose of a liberal arts education) that everything varies under varying conditions. To make accommodation for these variations, attention must be given to peoples, economic, social, political, and other kinds of arrangements in other societies. Study abroad is the best way to do this.”

“Among other things, a liberal arts education aims to promote communication, as well as global and multicultural awareness. Study abroad programs provide the best way to comprehend the nature of peoples and the many different arrangements of other societies by affording us the opportunity to participate in a dialogue with them.”

You grew up in Nigeria, then studied in the UK and US.

“I arrived in the United Kingdom expecting everything to be different and better than it was in my home country. [Because] Nigeria had only recently achieved its independence from Britain, it came as no surprise to me that it lagged behind Britain in many areas of socioeconomic performance. In school I studied the same subjects as I had studied in Nigeria and the teachers were just as good as they had been in Nigeria. What surprised me was that, with slight variations, [my British classmates and I] all had rather similar aspirations and concerns. Growing up in Nigeria, I had been led to believe that all things and people British were somehow different and superior. Similarly, I had been led to believe (primarily through reports and images in the media) that the United States would not be a particularly ‘healthy’ place for an African.

“After ten years in the United Kingdom and nineteen years in the United States, I have been disabused of many of these false impressions. I continue to feel the most comfortable and secure when I am in my country. However, because of my experiences in other countries, I am able to take a critical, yet healthy, look at my country. I believe that I have a better understanding of myself and my country as a result of having studied abroad.”

Would you suggest study abroad to a student at Millsaps?

“Yes. The examination of social, economic, and political arrangements of a foreign country can only be properly undertaken by visiting that country. Meeting peoples and visiting places in other societies in a reasoned and thoughtful fashion will help the student develop a healthy understanding and respect for other peoples and cultures.

“Such visits encourage the student to be more conscious of how his/her global neighbors understand– and perhaps even misunderstand – themselves. It will certainly disabuse the American student of the notion that one's own civilization, one's own way of doing things, is the only one worthy of attention and preservation. If a student is lucky, by the time he/she completes the study abroad program the people in the host country are not so foreign anymore.

“The only thing you have to fear is enlightenment. In the end, what you will discover (as I did), is that you will be a better American and global citizen because you will be well informed of the global dimension of many of the problems that you once saw as purely domestic.”

PREVIOUS PAGE  | PAGE 1 | NEXT ARTICLE

Millsaps Magazine  |  Millsaps | Last Edited April 14, 2000