For Sarah O’Rourke, a global and international studies student (BGInS) at Carleton University, going on an exchange to South Africa taught her lessons normally uncommon in a classroom. When the house she was staying in was robbed, she was left alone in an unfamiliar country with no money or access to the internet, and $3,000 worth of lost property.
“It’s an experience I believe all travellers have at some point: when they finally do that one big trip when all their social security nets are ripped out from under them and they have to fully rely on themselves for survival. It was a true test to my ability to problem solve,” said O’Rourke.
Safety
O’Rourke is currently on a six-month exchange offered through the International Student Services Office (ISSO) at Carleton. She is studying in Durban, South Africa, and attending the University of KwaZulu-Natal. This kind of experience is common amongst students O’Rourke knows, she said.
“In the four months I’ve lived here, the commune I live in has been broken into twice. You can go about normal life but you just need to keep your head on straight and be observant,” she said. “Almost all the international students here that I know have had one thing stolen from them—whether it be a phone, shoes, a wallet—we’ve all been robbed.”
The government of Canada maintains and updates a database of every country based on how safe it is for travellers. It takes into account incidents involving travellers as well as the political climate, and gives people advice on which countries are safe to travel to.
Travellers to South Africa, to the United Kingdom and Mexico, were recommended to show a high degree of caution. Travellers were encouraged to avoid all travel to countries like Syria and Yemen.
O’Rourke said she was aware of the challenges she might face and prepared herself for them.
“South Africa is not a safe country. Everyone here will warn you that theft happens daily,” she said. “Do not get me wrong though. . . You can go about a normal life, but you just need to keep your head on straight and be observant.”
Cost
Samantha Davin, a fifth-year Carleton psychology student, said the biggest issue with travelling is money. She claims that if someone is tight on money, they should opt to travel with their family, unless they save up by working throughout the school year.
If students opt for the latter, Davin suggests that they create a travel jar to put money into every week. For students who are big on saving money, Davin recommends searching for hostels in the area they are planning to visit.
“I myself travelled around Scandinavia, staying in hostels, and became friends with three girls in my hostel in Copenhagen. Hostels are cheap, and are geared towards young people.”
O’Rourke said that exchanges are difficult to manage, especially when it comes to the cost of tutition, and room and board for a trip that could last several months.
For her exchange, she got a study permit from the South African embassy, and took out a student line of credit from her bank.
“It is very expensive to give up six months of income and just blow through a loan. I can’t work while in South Africa, because I only got a student permit. But I can afford to travel though while I’m here because I worked reguarly part-time in Canada,” O’Rourke said.
One of the upsides to travelling to South Africa was that it was more cost-effective for O’Rourke.
“I made South Africa my first, since the Canadian dollar goes farther here. The Rand currently converts ten to one, so one Canadian dollar is 10 Rand.”
Voluntourism
At Carleton, there are several clubs and organizations that provide opportunities for travel and cultural experiences. One of these is the Humanitarian Organization of Latin American Students (HOLAS), an organization which fundraises for humanitarian projects and shares Latin culture through events and campus activities, such as the annual charity gala Locura Latina and its language-learning program Sharing Spanish.
Robillard, who was recently elected president of the club, has worked on her language skills and cultural understanding throughout her time as a member. This year, she said she is looking to apply these skills she has learned on a humanitarian trip to a Latin American country.
“Helping people in need is primary to me. I have been fortunate enough to be born in favourable circumstances where I have had everything I ever needed. However, not everyone has this luxury,” Robillard said. “Our executive team has organized events to provide funding to development projects, but this year I wish to actively be there to affect change.”
Another option offered at Carleton is the Alternative Spring Break (ASB). The program is overseen by Niamh O’Shea, student development and dommunity outreach coordinator, from the Student Experience Office (SEO).
ASB is an annual program, which has groups of students travelling to participate in a service project aimed at addressing that community’s needs. This past February, over reading week, students learned about having access to education while supporting the construction of a sports court at a school in Guatemala.
Accorsing to O’Shea. the six ASB experiences offered this past year ranged in cost from $2,100 to $2,450. The SEO runs fundraisers for particpants and works with the academic faculties and the Carleton University Student’s Association (CUSA) to help lower costs with funding support.
According to O’Shea, over the past few years there’s been an increased interest in the Carleton community for the program’s trips. Volunteer trips, sometime referred to as voluntourism have become a booming industry but according to articles published by Scientific American and the New York Times, tourists who participate in volunteer service are often not trained properly, and take jobs from local people.
To combat this, ASB has placed a large emphasis on service-learning as part of the program, which encourages students to reflect on their experience, said O’Shea. The SEO works with students throughout the year to ensure they are prepared for the trip, and are properly equipped to be effective in their service placement.
“The SEO does a lot of work to research our partners, so students can feel confident that they are working with organizations that have been vetted for their approach to sustainable and community-driven development, commitment to social change, and emphasis on safe travel,” O’Shea said.
Learning Opportunities
Despite the challenges that O’Rourke has faced, she still said that taking part in an exchange is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for students. She said it has helped her grow as a person, become more independent, and meet new people from different backgrounds.
“Going to an institute that is primarily a different culture from your own, in this case is Zulu and Indian-South African, makes you see things differently,” said O’Rourke.
Experiencing other cultures through travel and cultural immersion understanding of them, according to an article in The Guardian. This, according to The Guardian, can help combat stereotypes, which can spread dangerously through social media amidst the rise of fake news.
The experiential and learning opportunities travel offers can open up more employment opportunities. The Association of Graduate Recruiters conducted a study which found thatcompanies cannot find enough applicants with the needed skills to operate in an international marketplace.
Students who travel to other countries to pursue education or work opportunities often have their creativity enhanced by experiencing other cultures, according to a 2010 study in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, which compared groups of students who had travelled versus those who had not. There has been research done which says travelling abroad increases creativity.
Along with that increased creativity, travel can have positive mental health benefits, according to an NBC News article. It reduces risks of heart conditions in both men and women, and can
decrease stress and lower the likeliness someone will develop depression.
These are skills such as the ability of speaking second language or cultural awareness, which are best learned when immersi
ng yourself in another culture, according to The Guardian article. This kind of experience O’Rourke has found benefitted her learning.
“In the past four months alone, I have grown so much as a person from all the new opportunities I’ve had here to test my independence and meet new people from different cultural backgrounds. It’s definitely not a walk in the park though,” O’Rourke said.
Davin said that travelling with friends is good because you end up being more spontaneous and having different experiences as opposed to travelling with family, but she found the independence of travelling solo something she was able to manage.
“You don’t have other people to rely on if you need help, but you’re also able to do what you want. Travelling by yourself forces you to make new friends,” she said.
Despite these challenges, Davin said she had the support of family in case any problems arose.
“I’d only travelled with my family before I travelled solo, so I was used to doing stuff with my parents and going to them if I had a problem or needed money or something,” she said.
Despite the cost and being robbed, O’Rourke would still recommend going on an exchange.
“You just have to trust your gut sometimes and develop problem-solving skills because you can be mugged anywhere,” she said. “It was a learning opportunity for me and showed me as well that I am more resilient than I may have first thought as I was able to problem solve and do all the necessary things to get me back on track.”
