Away We Go!

Selena Guo ’22 was thrilled to beat Cambridge University as a member of Oxford’s volleyball team last year, then celebrate at a local pub. More than 2,000 miles away, Elaine Zhang ’23 spent a memorable spring afternoon in Jordan baking Easter cookies with her host family.

For Guo, Zhang and dozens of other Rice students, the return of Rice’s study abroad program is a welcome development after being shut down in 2020 due to COVID-19, causing some 50 students to rush to return to the U.S. Since fall 2021, however, study abroad has started a steady comeback.

“Students are really gung-ho about studying abroad again,” Yahaira Verdejo ’13, assistant director of Rice’s Study Abroad Office, says. “They’ve found they can still have a great experience even with protocols in place.”

In England, Guo, who majored in economics, spent the 2021–2022 school year building lasting friendships in her Oxford dorm and traveling with her volleyball team. Free COVID-19 test kits from the U.K.’s National Health Service made regular self-testing seamless. “I felt very safe.” Now in medical school, she’s focused on global health.

Zhang, who’s majoring in political science and managerial studies, spent spring 2022 taking courses in international relations in Jordan’s capital. While paperwork took time and her pre-flight COVID results were delayed, “overall the process was relatively smooth,” she says. “I’m so happy I went.”

In fall 2021, Lizzy Gaviria ’22 learned about Denmark’s sustainability culture and energy infrastructure while living in Copenhagen. She lived in a “kollegium,” a building that houses students from different universities, and had a host family she visited often. One memorable day she went on a walking tour of the city with fellow students that ended in a dip in the canal. Another highlight was visiting an electricity transmission company. “I learned to appreciate things I’d taken for granted, but also came back inspired to change things here by implementing what I learned abroad.” These lessons inform her current work at Tennessee’s state energy office on infrastructure planning to bolster the electric grid.

Study abroad these days does require some flexibility, says Verdejo. For example, a student who originally planned to go to Singapore in 2020 pivoted to the U.K. in 2021 instead, given the lockdowns in Asia. “COVID may be around for a while and there may be more challenges to study abroad,” Verdejo says. “But overall, the experience is worth it in the end. You go as one person, and you come back as another. Students say it’s the best experience they ever had.”

— Debbie Blumberg