Home : Volume 33 : Spring 2007 :
GIFT REPORT 2006: Enabling engineers to study abroad

Fernando and Carla Alvarado (Large image)

When College of Engineering When College of Engineering graduates enter the workforce, they will be a part of a unique marketplace that extends far beyond U.S. borders. Most likely, they will have colleagues, clients, collaborators or suppliers in cities around the world. “They need cross-cultural communication skills,” says Marianne Bird Bear, director of International Engineering Studies and Programs in the College of Engineering. “Whether they work their entire lives in the United States, or whether they work overseas, they need to be able to work effectively with people whose native language might not be English, or whose cultural background might be different from their own.”

Annually, more than 75 College of Engineering students work with Bird Bear to arrange study-abroad trips—culturally enriching experiences that enable them to live and learn in places like Santiago, Chile; Budapest, Hungary; Copenhagen, Denmark; Sendai, Japan; or Brisbane, Australia, among many others. “Students who study abroad come home with a global perspective and an understanding of people and systems that simply can’t be taught in a classroom,” she says. “It has a lifelong impact.”

Fernando and Carla Alvarado agree. “I think that in many cases, a lack of opportunity to have such experiences makes the U.S. a little insular,” says Fernando, a professor emeritus of electrical and computer engineering who was born in Lima, Peru. “I would like to think that perhaps by encouraging people to go outside their comfort zones and see the big world out there, they will become better citizens, better engineers, and better graduates when they return—better people in general.”

The Alvarados recently endowed a study-abroad scholarship fund that will enable even more engineering students to broaden their world view via an international experience. “There are a lot of costs on the front end—airline tickets, visas, passports—things that students often don’t have the money to take care of,” says Bird Bear. “This gift will really fill a gap between students who don’t have financial need and those who just couldn’t do it without that assistance.”

A research scientist emerita in the college Center for Quality and Productivity Improvement who earned her PhD in industrial engineering in 2003, Carla says that “up-front” student support plays a key role in making the entire study-abroad trip possible. “They can get student loans to pay for tuition, but to actually have the money to buy that plane ticket, to have some startup cash in your pocket, to maybe do a little side travel, maybe a few extra meals—that’s something else,” she says.

The Alvarados have placed few restrictions on how recipients use their $1,000 scholarship. Rather, says Fernando, he and Carla hope simply that their gift will contribute overall to a more enriching time abroad. “If it turns out the best thing is to give them some spending money so they can go to restaurants with new friends, to make the experience better, then so be it,” he says.

Civil and environmental engineering student Paul Pebler (who will attend Hong Kong University in fall 2007), mechanical engineering student Rachael VanDenMeerendonk (who will study at Universidad Politécnica de Valencia in Spain for the academic year), and mechanical engineering student Chris Meyers (who will spend the academic year at the University of Sheffield, United Kingdom) are the first scholarship recipients. Each student plans to use the award to travel. VanDenMeerendonk and Meyer both hope to travel in Spain and around Europe. “I will most likely use the Alvarado scholarship award money to travel through Europe as much as I can—simply expanding my knowledge of the world,” says Meyer. “It only makes sense to see as much of the world while I still can.”

Likewise, Pebler will travel throughout Hong Kong and to surrounding countries. “My family had a foreign exchange student from Japan when I was in high school and I have always wanted to go and visit her home country,” he says. “Now I just might be able to do it.”

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Date last modified: 05-Jun-2007
Date created: 05-Jun-2007

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