#StudyAbroadBecause
Last week I was reading my Twitter feed when I came across a couple travel bloggers I follow using the hashtag #WHtravelbloggers. Drawn to the tweets, I immediately switched over to read all the responses to the hashtag to realize that 100+ travel bloggers had been invited to the White House for a Summit on Study Abroad and Global Citizenship. The next day I watched the entire 4 hour summit that had aired on livestream (unfortunately, the full video link seems to have been replaced by this 45 minute one). Headed up by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs one of the exciting announcements was that the State Department will be opening a new U.S. Office of Study Abroad, which has developed into the hashtag #StudyAbroadBecause.
You can read more about the U.S. Study Abroad initiative on Mashable and Upworthy, and from the travel blogger perspective here. I may not have been at the event, but I decided to use this White House announcement as the perfect excuse to publish my first article on Medium: My Best Piece of Advice: Study Abroad.
My Best Piece of Advice: Study Abroad
The @StateDept and @WhiteHouse encourage all Americans to #StudyAbroad & explore their world. http://t.co/BLYQIfCaTE #WHTravelBloggers
— Evan Ryan (@ECA_AS) December 9, 2014
“Our new #StudyAbroad office will manage some of our premier exchange programs & advocate the benefits of study abroad.” #WHTravelBloggers
— Evan Ryan (@ECA_AS) December 9, 2014
Sending American students abroad is a strategic imperative for the US, especially a diverse representation of students. #WHTravelBloggers
— Evan Ryan (@ECA_AS) December 9, 2014
Only 1.5% of ~20 million American students enrolled in US #HigherEd studied abroad in 2012/13. We must and can do better. #WHTravelBloggers
— Evan Ryan (@ECA_AS) December 9, 2014
Contact sheet above was created in 2009 while I studied abroad in Paris. Learn more about it here.
Lynn
December 15, 2014 at 3:27 pm //
Anne, just a quick note that the first sentence in your Medium article says 2011 but I think you meant to say 2001. Great article! — Lynn
Anne
December 15, 2014 at 11:52 pm //
Hi Lynn, Thanks for pointing this out! It’s been updated. And in exciting news was shared by Evan Ryan, the Assistant Secretary of State for the U.S. Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs! https://twitter.com/ECA_AS/status/544625508924030976