Bash offers a chance to readjust

About 1,200 Pitt students studied abroad last year, and for the first time ever, Pitt’s… About 1,200 Pitt students studied abroad last year, and for the first time ever, Pitt’s study abroad program held a Welcome Back Bash for its alumni.

“They go to exciting places like Africa, and there’s all of these entertaining things to do,” program coordinator Cary Miller said, “and then they come back and it’s like, ‘OK, I’m here in Pittsburgh.'”

Miller, who studied abroad herself, recalled that there were no programs to help students like her get reacquainted with Pitt.

“I said to myself, ‘There’s nothing to help you come back,'” she said. “A lot of people experience difficulty re-entering the culture.”

The study abroad program’s strategy “to combat culture re-entry shock,” as Miller put it, was to show students that there are plenty of events right here at Pitt to satisfy their cultural curiosities.

The event featured an appearance by the African Drumming Ensemble, one of the many multicultural clubs at Pitt. In addition, there were informational packets about the Peace Corps.

“We want to promote careers abroad,” Miller said.

“Welcome Back” packets were also distributed to those in attendance. The packets featured a country-by-country guide to their respective multicultural clubs at Pitt that students could join to reminisce about their newfound homes away from home.

The list of clubs featured everything from Steel City Bhangra to the Quechua club.

“There are plenty of cultural opportunities right here in Pittsburgh,” Miller said.

“Students can reacquaint themselves together,” assistant director of study abroad Carol Larson said. “Their friends back at Pitt get bored of hearing about everything they did abroad.”

As many of the students in this program discovered, there definitely are some differences in culture.

“I got an insider’s view of Cairo,” junior Meaghan Shield, who stayed with an Egyptian family during her Semester at Sea stint, said. “Most people get whistled and hissed at when they’re in Cairo, but we didn’t, because we were with Egyptians.”

This exchanging of stories was one of the main reasons study abroad created the Welcome Back Bash.

“Students can network with other kids who were abroad,” Miller said.

The different study abroad programs range from as short as two weeks to as long as a full year out of the country.

“It was actually cheaper for me to study abroad in the Netherlands than it would have been for me to attend Pitt with out of state tuition,” senior Robert Duval said.

Miller organized the event as part of her internship with study abroad. “Hopefully, next semester’s interns pick it up.”