Abstract
The 23-campus California State University (CSU) system has an excellent record of sending students abroad and remains a champion of this high impact practice. Despite system-wide policies and Executive Orders that include requirements to promote pre-departure information sessions and support for returning students - gaps remain. This research argues that the popular models of culture adjustment no longer adequately frame the processes that students experience before, during, and after transformative (and potentially traumatic) study abroad. This is particularly the case for BIPOC, First Gen, undocumented/DACA, URM, and LGBTQ+ students who are increasingly represented in study abroad cohorts. The authors therefore applied the ‘Figure-8 Model of a Complete Transformation’ to three CSU study abroad related courses.
This article is an initial report of a two-part project. The first part involved a survey of study abroad coordinators across the CSU to discover current practices. The second part implemented versions of Ross’s Transformation Curriculum with students in Spring 2023. Students from CSU Long Beach used this approach during a faculty-led semester-long program in Costa Rica, while students at Cal Poly Humboldt were offered several tools before and after their study abroad as part of courses required in the International Studies degree program. These preliminary results strongly suggest that we can and must change our approach to study abroad curriculum to better support our shifting student populations.
Recommended Citation
Ross, Susan L.; House-Peters, Lily A.; and Holmes, Alison R.
(2025)
"From Adjustment to Transformation: Applying an Evidence-Based Figure-8 Model to Guide Students Through Transformation Before, During, and After Study Abroad,"
csuglobalaction: Vol. 2, Article 1.
DOI: [https://doi.org/]10.55671/2837-0643.1006
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/csuglobalaction/vol2/iss1/1