Aug. 3, 2021

This paid piece is sponsored by Augustana University.

Augustana University has a long and rich history of study abroad. Before COVID-19 impacted the globe, 53 percent of AU’s 2019 graduates studied away — nearly five times the national average. And, as the world reopens, Augustana is positioning itself to come out stronger, with even more opportunities for students to study away. If all goes as planned in academic year 2021-22, Augustana will have up to 16 courses taught by around 30 faculty members with more than 225 students participating across the globe. 

“It’s a part of our core identity in a lot of ways,” said Ben Iverson, Augustana’s director of international programs and enrollment. “Certainly, we promote it (study away) with prospective students, but it starts with the faculty every year, who lead courses on practically every continent. Of course, they come back and talk about it, and the students who went with them talk about it. So it’s just part of the dialogue here.”

The numbers are impressive but aren’t stopping the International Programs Office, or IPO, from dreaming even bigger. As part of the long-term vision in Augustana’s strategic plan, Viking Bold: The Journey to 2030, the university will offer its own semesterlong study abroad program in Central America with a physical campus in Costa Rica, set to open by the spring of 2023.

“It’s a new challenge and a lot of work, but it’s something we’ve been dreaming about for a long time,” Iverson said. “I think everybody in the IPO is just really excited to see this come together and see the first group of students go. But if I’m dreaming really big, if the model is successful, if I look towards 2030 and beyond, I hope that it’s the kind of thing we might do again in two or three other locations. Wouldn’t it be great if we had a location on every continent?”

But Iverson jokes that they’ve got to make this one work first. The 2004 Augustana alumnus, who studied and lived in countries such as Spain, Norway and Nicaragua, said Costa Rica was “the natural, obvious choice on so many levels,” and “there wasn’t a whole lot of debate about other locations.”

He said starting a campus in Costa Rica would capitalize on existing interest as one of Augustana’s top semester-length study abroad destinations. The country is safe, close, allows for virtual learning and, most of all, is affordable. Cost is by far the No. 1 reason students choose not to study away. In terms of tuition and fees, as well as room and board, the IPO envisions that the costs for students will look the same as costs on campus at AU. The only added expenses will be plane tickets and the “extras” in which students choose to participate.

“I think our students recognize that they need to expose themselves to the way the rest of the world really is,” Iverson said. “It’s a really important experience for their future career trajectory. Employers and graduate schools want all of the skills that people develop when they study abroad: independence, confidence, the ability to travel, approaching problems from different perspectives, to work with people who don’t look like you, the ability to speak a foreign language even just a little bit. I mean, what employer or graduate program wouldn’t want those things?”

Augustana is in the process of selecting a physical location for classes and housing, staff, transportation and dealing with all the other logistics that come with laying down roots in another country. But the university has had partners with strong connections to AU and operations in Costa Rica, such as Intertec and Sanford World Clinic, to lean on for advice. 

“It’s all those kinds of details that we’re sorting out now,” Iverson said. “The things that we know how to do really well are designing the academic content and supporting activities. Our faculty are great at taking existing courses and envisioning all of the completely different experiential learning opportunities afforded by the Costa Rican setting.” 

Transformative experiences lead to transformative gift

To help support the initiative, Augustana secured a leadership gift from alumni Micah Aberson, class of 2004, and Jaclyn (Sutton) Aberson, class of 2005, who are passionate about funding experiential learning opportunities like the ones that would take place in Costa Rica.

“We both have a deep passion for Augustana, so it starts there. And, within that deep passion for Augustana, we also have been blessed through our collective career opportunities to be in a position where we can do something and give something back. So I think we both felt called to do something,” said Micah Aberson, executive vice president for Sanford Health, who oversees large parts of the organization.

“It was really by happenstance, but I do think that sometimes there’s divinity and coincidence. And I think they’ve just sort of started to scratch the surface on what the potential could look like as you take the programs and the offerings of Augustana, the relationships that Sanford has been able to establish and see how that sort of stew all comes together. And I think that there’s great potential to do some pretty remarkable things in that country, both by way of education and training Augustana students but also engaging the people of Costa Rica with an educational opportunity that’s different and apart from what they otherwise perhaps have access to.”

Growing up in Sioux Falls, Micah Aberson said his family vacationed, but they never travelled internationally. While attending Augustana, he realized that in order for him to develop spiritually and emotionally as a person, he needed to “view the world through a different lens” and “wanted to get off the beaten path a little bit.” Augustana’s director of international programs at the time, Donn Grinager, convinced him to go to South Africa.

“There were other students who were traveling to Western Europe, which I knew I was going to have an opportunity to see through music. So I wanted to do something different and go on an adventure,” Micah Aberson said. “I would say that those six months that I spent internationally and in South Africa were the most transformational period of time in my life.”

Jaclyn Aberson, who practiced law at Hagen, Wilka & Archer LLP and now stays at home to provide a home base for their children, said giving back in “some small way” like this fills her heart. While at Augustana, she also had transformative experiences while studying away during January Interim (J-Term) and spring break service trips to places such as New York and the Pine Ridge Reservation; however, she missed an international experience in Hong Kong because of a Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, outbreak at the time. 

“I think Augie really helped me develop a curiosity about the world and then an understanding that my world is not the world, and I have a responsibility to learn more about the world,” Jaclyn Aberson said.

Micah Aberson said that contributes to their passion around international studies “and allowing other students the opportunity to do that.”

More opportunities to experience ‘Tico Time’

Augustana students like senior Elizabeth Lee are the reason why the Abersons give. The Minnesota native is double majoring in Spanish and modern foreign languages and minoring in English as a second language, or ESL. Lee is applying to graduate school for linguistics and ESL. Hoping to one day teach English abroad, she came to Augustana with the expectation of studying abroad because of its reputation of providing students with those opportunities.

“I think it’s so incredibly important for every single person to study away,” Lee said. “Your world gets so much bigger. You learn so much about yourself and also about what else is out there in the world — that there’s so much more than just where you came from and what you know.”

After having gone to India for a J-Term monthlong trip, she realized she wanted even more out of her next experience.

“You spend almost the entire time in the honeymoon phase, and you don’t really ever click in and wrestle with the differences,” Lee said “After going to India, I decided being a tourist isn’t for me. I would much prefer to live in a place and be able to interact with the people there.”

And that’s exactly what she did in Costa Rica in the fall of 2019 on a semester-length program through International Studies Abroad. While there, Lee zip lined and hiked volcanoes but also worked with girls who had been taken out of sex trafficking, experienced a home stay with her Mama Tica and Papa Tico, as well as life with a Brazilian roommate. She attended church and classes — one of which was one-on-one with a Spanish speaking professor.

“One of the things I think that holds students back (from studying away) is being afraid of their friend group shifting or losing what they had,” Lee said. “But there are so many opportunities to meet people that you wouldn’t even think of, and by going away, you’re going to come back a better person for whomever is there to greet you.”

Lee’s biggest takeaway from her experience in Costa Rica was learning how to live in the moment, otherwise known as “Tico Time,” a phrase used to describe Costa Ricans’ nonchalant attitude toward time and their relaxed attitude in general — something even more students at Augustana will have the opportunity to experience soon.

For information about Augustana’s International Programs Office, visit augie.edu/admission/international-programs-office.