by Gustavo Castillo, May 11, 2021
After a long delay for Cal Poly Pomona students to pursue education internationally, spring 2022 flights are now available for booking as the increased COVID-19 vaccination effort has created a beacon of hope for students seeking to travel and study abroad.
Last March, CPP’s study abroad travel plans came to an abrupt stop due to the pandemic. However, the Office of Study Abroad staff are currently providing online Study Abroad 101 classes for those interested in traveling spring 2022.
“Although some countries in Europe are three months behind in regard to vaccination efforts, we are hopeful that things will progress in the near future so we can travel,” Exchange Coordinator Kraig Walkup said.
Due to this reason, 50% of countries that students were previously allowed to travel to are unavailable; however, as information regarding safety is updated, so will the travel list.
Students hoping to book flights must first register and attend a brief Studying Abroad 101 Virtual session.
Nicolas Marin, a second-year hospitality management student who participated in a recent session, hopes to attend the Cesar Ritz Colleges Switzerland to study hospitality management.
“I’m interested in traveling abroad because it’s valuable for my major especially to be adaptable to any environment and be culturally aware.”
In the study abroad office’s brief presentation, students are informed on how traveling will enhance their academic learning, advance their career and how personal growth is inevitable when diving into new cultures.
Each student is put in contact with a study abroad advisor who can help connect students to both a financial aid advisor as well as an academic advisor to plan travel expenses and find transferrable units.
According to Walkup, study abroad is most popular with third-year students, who make up about 49% of participants as opposed to first-year and graduating students who only make up 2% each. Non-graduating seniors (37%) and second-year students (10%) round out the rest.
Grace Avina, a third-year philosophy major, was one of the students impacted while planning on traveling to Japan in 2020.
“All my plans got cancelled; I was trying to experience as much as I could before graduating spring 2021 but now, I might be down for this following spring,” Avina said.
If students plan to study abroad, applications are due Sept. 15.
Student may visit the study abroad website and visit Study Abroad: Getting Started, where Study Abroad Scholarships are also available.
Feature image courtesy of Yousef Alfuhigi.