MC Scots Abroad Return

MC Scots Return Information and Resources

We hope you have returned from an academic and culturally enriching experience that will be
transformative. People seldom prepare for the return experience because they expect it to be easy and are surprised when it is not. The reality is that returning home after a significant overseas experience can be stressful. We have compiled some resources to help you navigate this experience of returning home.

Returning Home

“I don’t want to go / be home!”
When traveling overseas, many students are so excited about their upcoming adventure that they forget what it will be like to come home. Adjusting to an unfamiliar country and culture is difficult yet many people do not realize that readjusting to a familiar country may be just as hard! Many returned Scots find that adapting to “home” can be much harder than adapting to another culture. Some of the things you might experience when you get home:

Excitement to see family and friends, familiar food and environment
A sense of no longer belonging to your home culture
The frustration of re-adapting to a different pace of life in your home country
The sense that friends, family, or colleagues are not interested in discussing your experience
Friends made abroad are sorely missed, as well as the culture and way of life in the host country.

Stages of Reverse Culture Shock

Disengagement/Departure: While you are still overseas, you begin to start thinking about moving back home and moving away from your experience and friends abroad.
Euphoria/The Honeymoon: You may be very excited to be back home and others may be equally delighted to have you back. You have the opportunity to do, eat, see, smell, and visit with all of those things that you have missed while you were away from home. After people express their pleasure at seeing you again, and listen politely to your stories for a few minutes, you may suddenly realize that they are not particularly interested in what happened to you and would much rather prefer to talk about their own affairs
Alienation: In this stage, you experience dampened euphoria with feelings of alienation, frustration, and anger. You may even feel like an outsider – a foreigner in your own country . Suddenly you feel irritated with others and impatient with you own inability to do things as well or as quickly as you hoped. Resentment, loneliness, disorientation, and even a sense of helplessness may pervade.
Gradual Readjustment: The fourth stage of reentry includes a gradual readjustment to life at home. It is important to remember that the shock of returning home will eventually dissipate.

Adapted from Study Abroad Re-Entry Handbook at the University of Buffalo, Vanderbilt University

Tips for Readjusting

Mentally prepare yourself for the adjustment process: Worrying helps, however obsessing does not, so be prepared – not paranoid!
Allow yourself time to relax and reflect on your experience when you get home
Understand that the familiar will seem different to you at home. You will have changed, home has changed, and you will be seeing familiar people, places, and behaviors from new perspectives.
There will be some “cultural catching up” to do. Some linguistic, social, political, economic, entertainment, and current event topics may be unfamiliar to you.
Reserve judgments. Just as you had to keep and open mind when first encountering the culture of a foreign country, try to resist the natural impulse to make snap decisions and judgments about people and behaviors once back home.
Respond thoughtfully and slowly to questions and comments about your experience in the USA. Quick answers and impulsive reactions often characterize returnees. Take some time to rehearse what you want to say and how you will respond to predictable questions and situations; prepare to greet those that are less predictable with a calm, thoughtful approach.
Cultural sensitivity: Showing an interest in what others have been doing while you have been away on your adventures overseas is a sure way to reestablish rapport.
Beware of comparisons – making comparisons between cultures and nations is natural, particularly after residence abroad. However, a person must be careful not to be seen as too critical of home or too lavish in praise of things foreign.
Remain flexible
Seek support networks
Participate – Help out at the Center for Global Engagement

Adapted from materials originally developed by Dr. Bruce La Brack, School of International Studies, University
of the Pacific for the Institute of International Education, San Francisco

Here are some resources that might be helpful to you as you re-adjust to your OWN culture:

What’s Up With Culture? is a free online cultural training resource designed to support and enhance the cultural adjustment of U.S. students participating in a study abroad experience.
It’s Your World—StudyAbroad.com’s pre-departure handbook for students. Refer to Part V for re-entry information.
Reverse Culture Shock and Re-Entry (The Study Abroad Blog)
Coming Home: Relationships, Roots, and Unpacking (Citron & Mendelson, Transitions Abroad)
The Peace Corps Culture Matters Workbook
Reverse Culture Shock (US Department of State resources)
Lessons From Abroad: Study Abroad Returnee Conferences

Books:

Paige, R. Michael, Andrew D. Cohen, Barbara Kappler, Julie C. Chi and James P. Lassegard (2002). Maximizing Study Abroad: A Student’s Guide to Strategies for Language and Culture Learning and Use. Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota.

Storti, Craig (1997). The Art of Coming Home. Yarmouth, Maine: Intercultural Press.

Some times the experience of coming home is harder for some than others. Here are a few resources that may help you:

COVID-19 Specific

Re-entry or return under coronavirus did not follow our normal plans and did not involve a return to the familiar. Now in our distance learning world, study abroad students are back, so it is really a double adjustment are are dealing with.

Dealing with Reverse Culture Shock during COVID-19
An Open Letter to College Seniors (Re: Covid-19)
Try these strategies to help gain meaning from this experience:
- Write a Letter “Dear COVID-19” This can be a rant or wallowing in your loss, no filter, no judgment. If our longer goal is to somehow narrate this disruption into meaningfulness and into our lives, our first goal needs to be figuring out what we need to process.
- Think, write, blog, vlog: Who you want to be in this current space? What skills and identity-pieces from abroad life do you want to use in this current and future iteration of your life?
- What did you learn about how different cultures respond in a time of crisis? What comparative skills did you gain that you can reflect on culture?
- Or ignore these prompts and be a Storyteller. Zoom with us, or record a video about your experience!Helpful Articles, but not specific to Study Abroad:
- That discomfort you’re feeling is grief (The Atlantic)
- Anxiety is contagious. Here’s how to contain it. (Harvard Business Review)
- Self-awareness and well being for educators (Ellen Mahoney

SPE REFLECTION REQUIREMENT

For those of you who chose to do so – congratulations on completing your Significant Practical Experience!

The SPE has 3 parts:

1. Application (with 3 goals – you did this prior to departure)
2. Completion of the actual experience (this will be marked as complete when your transcript comes in)
3. A reflection on the experience

The SPE Reflection Assignment for Study/Intern/Service Abroad can be found at https://tinyurl.com/studyabroadSPEreflectionPlease send it to studyabroad@maryvillecollege.edu by October 1 in the fall or February 1 in the spring (after your return)

CD DOMAIN REQUIREMENT (WRC)

Email studyabroad@maryvillecollege.edu to be added to the CD reflection Tartan course. You will need to complete this reflection (and pass) to earn CD domain credit for your experience abroad.

TRANSCRIPTS

At the end of your semester or year abroad, your program or university should send an official transcript directly to:

Center for Global Engagement, Maryville College, 502 E Lamar Alexander Pkwy, Maryville, TN 37804

Hand-carried transcripts are not accepted.
Do not assume your program or university knows where to send your transcript; please double check that they have the correct information.
It is your responsibility to request a transcript.

TRANSFERRING CREDITS (& Staying On Track For Graduation)

Study abroad transcripts usually arrive mid-semester after you’ve returned. The Center for Global Engagement will receive your transcript and convert your credits and grades. She will make recommendations to the Registrar, who will post your final grades and credits on Self-Service. If you have concerns or need this information sooner, check-in with the Center for Global Engagement (CGE) when you return to campus.
Meet with your advisor to discuss your final grades and credits, determine courses and credits still needed, and update your academic plan to meet degree and graduation requirements. Add/drop courses accordingly, and fill out course substitution/waiver forms with your advisor.
Unofficial transcripts – these can be used for degree planning until we get your official transcript. If you need to do a degree audit before your transcript arrives, you can show your advisor what courses you took. Confirm with the CGE if you are uncertain how many credits you will transfer back.

PROGRAM EVALUATION

Please fill out the program evaluation
This is really important so that we can advise students better, and we can improve the study abroad programs! For those of you who studied abroad with ISEP, CEA, CIS or ISA, please be sure to do their evaluations too!

Continuing your international experience

On-Campus

Continue taking language courses: if you studied in a language taught at MC while abroad, take a language class.
Start a new language! It is never too late to start something new!
Add an International Studies minor
Enroll in courses with an international focus: be sure to let your professors know that you were recently abroad—your input and first hand experience will add to class discussions. Some such courses offered at MC include: International Politics, International Business, World Cultures, World Religions, and more…
Language Tables: take advantage of this opportunity to not only speak in your language of study, but to also share your stories from abroad.
Get involved in GCO: Global Citizenship Organization and work to celebrate different cultures on campus. Be part of World Cup Coffee conversations and help design fun events for the campus community! GCO has won Student Organization of the Year and/or the Nancy Smith Wright Unity Award almost every year for the last 10 years!
Study Abroad Ambassadors on campus: We need you! The opportunity to spend time overseas is open to every Maryville College student, but only a quarter of students do. Help us promote study abroad, and begin to work on articulating what this experience means to you at the same time! Contact us to sign up!
Become an iMentor. iMentors support new international students as they adjust to the College.
International Education Month January is International Education Month at Maryville College. During the fall semester we seek a Team to help us organize this fun month of activities.
Publish & Participate. Did you conduct Senior Thesis research? Participate in on-campus undergraduate research symposia. (Or off-campus…for example: Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) www.cur.org hosts a biannual undergraduate research conference and an annual “Posters on the Hill” event that takes
place in Washington, D.C.

Explore

Career Center: research overseas employment opportunities at Career Center. You just might be able to find a job that will get you back to where you studied
Work Abroad After College
9 Best Jobs for Recent College Grads (GoOverseas.com)
Transitions Abroad How to Find Work Abroad After College
The Abroad Guide 10 Jobs that Pay You to Travel

Teach Abroad Opportunities

CIEE Teach English Abroad: CIEE offers teaching positions with programs in Chile, China, Dominican Republic, South Korea, Spain, and Thailand.
Cultural Ambassadors; North American Language and Culture Assistants in Spain (Spanish Government): English teaching assistantships throughout Spain.
Foreign Language Assistants in France (French Government): English teaching assistantships throughout France.
Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship: Offers a classroom placement to help teach English while serving as a cultural ambassador for U.S. culture.
The Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme (JET): Assist with international exchange and language education in local governments and schools throughout Japan.
SIT TESOL Certification: 4 week intensive 130-hour certification course in TESOL offered in various locations around the world from North Hampton, MA to Bangkok, Quito, Brisbane and beyond.