A Life-Changing Experience Abroad! Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

The academics were definitely challenging in some aspects and easy in other ways. For example, we were expected to write up entire lab reports and 10+ page papers in only a few days or a few hours, but we also didn't get very much homework or reading assignments and almost no tests. Some classes could have been taught better. Language courses in particular I did not find to be that valuable, mostly because I think I was used to a different teaching style compared to my Malagasy professor. I think they could have given us more chance for review and structured the class better.

On-site administration of your program

Administration was very friendly and I definitely felt closer to them than I have to other professors at my home college. They were in other ways, however, extremely unsupportive and unprofessional. I wish that their communication with us could have been better and that they had checked in with us more to see how were were doing.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

I loved my host family, they were definitely one of the best parts of the program. They were a little out of the ordinary in terms of how a typical Malagasy family lives (they had a refrigerator, two maids and a very nice house) but that was ok. The only difficulty was that they lived very far away from the main town and transportation was tough.

We ate a LOT of rice and beans so be prepared for that. Food with my host family and in Fort Dauphin was good, it became not as good sometimes once we started traveling and we were on the road a lot. The professors could have tried to provide us with more snacks because we were frequently hungry between meals.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

Living with a host family both in Fort Dauphin and during the village stay definitely helped me feel more integrated with the local culture. Otherwise, we got to do a lot of projects where we interacted with Malagasy people and tried to understand their culture. We also lived and worked with Malagasy University students for about 3 weeks.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

Administration could have handled health issues better. Many of the students felt frustrated about the fact that they tended to either invalidate our concerns or did not provide very helpful advice about the actions we should take when we felt ill. Local healthcare was also not the greatest. Other students were GREAT with supporting each other during sicknesses. Overall, no one got extremely sick but there were frequent minor illnesses. Stomach/diarrhea issues were the most common.

The host city (Fort Dauphin) was a very safe city and I never really felt too unsafe while walking around on my own there. Other cities we travelled to were less safe and I definitely felt like I had to keep my guard up more in certain places (I did not feel particularly safe in Antananarivo, for example). Our program administrators were not always great about maintaining our sense of safety, especially during our ISP program. We had an incident of stealing during the program in one city.

I know a lot of minor things could have been improved on in the program, but overall, this study abroad program was amazing. It was amazing for the people I met in Madagascar, my friends I made on the program, and most of all, the new perspective that you gain when immersing yourself in a world so unlike your own at home. I highly recommend this experience!

(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost)

Things in Madagascar are very cheap and overall, I spent my own money but very little of it (about $35/10days or so). During the ISP though, the budget money they give you will most likely be not enough and you will have to spend a considerable amount of your own money.

0 = No encouragement, 5 = frequent encouragement to use the language

French skills varied among students in the program so some students were better about using it than others. Our program tried to encourage us through classwork and through activities to use our french.

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• Host Family
• Hotel
• Hostel

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• Americans
• Host Family

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• Local Students
• Americans

• The "experiential learning" approach
• The other students
• My host family

• Classes
• Communication
• Support

The Avid Adventurer