“What can I do to help my child study in the program?" "What actions must the students themselves take?”

There is a great deal of support that you can provide for the student in your life as they move through the process of selecting, applying for and preparing for their study abroad experience. In particular, your emotional and moral support are critical as your daughter, son or guardian negotiates the process. However, there are also a number of steps that you cannot take on behalf of your student, since they themselves are the legal persons making the application to study on the program. Here is a summary of roles that you can and cannot fulfill:

Positive Roles for Parents/Guardians Supporting Students Applying to Study Abroad:

• General Moral Support.  The decision whether or not to study abroad is a major, life-altering decision and may—next to choosing in which university to study—be one of the most significant decisions that your student has had to make in the course of their life. It is quite helpful to the student if her/his parents or guardians can provide overall moral and emotional support as she or he navigates the challenging process of making a decision about whether and when to go abroad.

• Selection Advice.  Some parents or guardians may also be able to provide some advice to their child about where to study or intern abroad. Particularly those parents/guardians who are well traveled can offer their own observations about several different countries or regions. You also can serve as a sounding board for your student, helping remind her/him of the advantages and disadvantages of various sites. In particular, the student may have learned a great deal about the sites from an information session held on campus, from an advising meeting in the Office of International Programs, from online materials, or from other sources. In addition, they may also have spoken with an academic adviser about how particular programs might benefit their academic progress. Helping reiterate these points of information and to think about them comparatively is one way that a parent’s or guardian’s experience and wisdom can be quite useful for the student.

• Financial Support. Of course, overseas study programs can sometimes cost more than on-campus study and residence, and parents or guardians who are able to provide financial support of any kind or amount are able to alleviate one of the major sources of stress and difficulty for students who want to expand their education with an overseas study or internship experience. Remember, the overseas study or internship is an investment in the future of your student, who will reap many professional and personal benefits that will last a lifetime. Seldom does anyone return and say that the experience was not worth the funds invested, and alumni several years after their experiences will often say quite the opposite!

• Travel Preparations. Once your student has been admitted to the overseas study or internship program, you may be in a strong position to help them prepare for the journey. You can assist them as they apply for and obtain their passport (which they can and should certainly do before even applying for the program), and you can also help them make travel arrangements through a student-centered agency (like STA Travel), another travel agency, or using your own frequent flier miles. In addition, students will need to obtain student visas or residence permits for some countries, and you may be able to help with this occasionally confusing paperwork. In some cases, your assistance may be required to document that your student will have access to enough funds to survive while in the country.

• Keep the Home Fires Burning. While your student is overseas, you can also provide support from stateside by staying in email contact or other communication with them, being there to provide support if they face unanticipated difficulties, and maybe even wiring over or depositing into their account some extra cash at some point during their overseas adventure.

• Re-entry Support. You may be surprised to learn that re-entry to the United States is, for many students, the most difficult part of the experience. Please see the next section for more discussion of this phenomenon.

What You Cannot Do for Your Student:

• Completing Documents. You are not able to complete or sign any documents on behalf of your student, including the program application, pre-departure paperwork, participation agreements, medical forms, and other required paperwork. Your student is the legal person who will be participating in the program and, thus, is also the legal person who must complete and sign these documents. It is very important that students participating in any programs read all documents and handouts thoroughly and ask an OIP or other relevant staff person about any questions that they have.

• Attending Orientations. Although some of our orientations have sessions specifically designed for parents, as a rule, orientations include interactive workshops that are designed for the students themselves. Many sessions address the personal preparations needed for the experience of crossing cultures—information that will usually not be very useful for you. If you would like to attend an orientation for which no parents' events are scheduled, please seek permission from the staff member holding the orientation first, to make sure that the session is suitable and that there is space for you. In some cases, you may find that your questions can be better addressed through a telephone call or email interaction than through orientation sessions. In addition, you may find answers to many of your questions in the Overseas Study Handbook.

• Handling Registration and Other Business Matters. Sometimes well-meaning parents try to handle certain “business” matters of the overseas study experience (such as matters related to course registration, on-site housing, etc.). However, your student is a legal adult whose right to privacy in these matters is protected by federal law and university rules. Furthermore, we strongly prefer to work with the student directly, in accordance with the spirit of privacy law, because the student is the one who will actually be participating in the program, and we need to know that they are taking responsibility for the experience and are fully aware of all the administrative and other details. We are not inclined to admit students who cannot accept responsibility for making their own arrangements since they are unlikely to be able to handle similar situations overseas—when you will certainly not be there to handle their affairs for them! Therefore, we ask that you resist the urge to “micromanage” your student’s overseas experience, and that you encourage them to take responsibility themselves for the “business” side of the experience, though you can and should still provide the various kinds of support suggested above.