Alumni Recall Travels Abroad
au Marché Owner Remembers Experience
Lora Duguid attended KU from 1991 to 1995, receiving a B.A. in Art History, and a B.A. in French. She spent the 1993-94 academic year studying in Besancon, France, and is currently the managing owner of au Marche, the European Market in downtown Lawrence.
I was accepted to study abroad but I didn't want to go. Ever since my freshman year of high school when I learned about study abroad programs, I had wanted, thought I needed, to spend a year in France. When the opportunity arose, however, and I was granted a spot on the year-long exchange to Besançon, France, I came up with a million reasons for why I should stay in Kansas: I'd miss walking around campus during the Fall, I'd miss camping out at Allen Field House for basketball games, I'd miss all of my friends and even miss my 21st birthday! My friends thought I was crazy for not wanting to go and my parents wondered what had happened to all of my dreams and aspirations. Eventually, I got over my fear and had a change of heart.
Seven years later, I still think about how lucky I am to have had such an experience. Studying abroad was a 10-month lifeshaping event. Before I left I was a shy student who liked speaking French. I knew that I wanted French to be a part of my life in some way, but I didn't know how. Living in Besançon for nearly a year, and traveling throughout Europe during that time, instilled a sense of self-confidence that I had never known I was capable of feeling, and it gave me a direction in my professional life. The newfound
self-confidence was generated by many little things that can only happen when a person takes a chance and does something new. While studying abroad I improved my French speaking skills immensely, I learned to adapt to a different culture, I became much more independent and I traveled to beautiful, intriguing places that made me think about the world in ways I never had before. I did normal everyday things too, but I did them while speaking French. Successfully buying bread, going to the movies, taking a train and understanding a class lecture are all far more exciting and rewarding when you are doing them in a foreign language that you have worked years to learn. Also, it was during my year abroad that I came up with an idea that provided me with a successful and everrewarding small business in Downtown Lawrence.
The ultimate reward for me was making French friends. I didn't leave having made a lot of acquaintances-I was luckier than that. I left knowing that I had made friendships that will last and enrich my life forever. I guarantee you, it is the people you will meet during your study abroad experience that will make it one of the most memorable summers, semester or years of your life. Once you've established those friendships, you will have a life-long connection to that place, that experience and to a part of your life that you will have to leave behind when you return to KU. I suspect that if you are like me, you will leave knowing that you made the right decision.
Gaining a New Perspective of the World
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Tom Rudkin attended KU from 1969 to 1973, receiving a B.A. in mathematics with highest distinction and honors. He spent the 1971-72 academic year studying in Bordeaux, France. He is currently retired from a career as a full-time software development engineer, having worked for Intel, Bell-Northern Research, VisiCorp, and Microsoft.
In September 1971 I left the United States for the first time to study at the University of Bordeaux, France, on a year-abroad program run by Colorado University. I was a KU junior from Wichita majoring in math. I was somewhat apprehensive. How would I adapt to nine months in a foreign culture,having to deal with everything in a foreign language? With two years of education at a top university and four years of French under my belt,and my own wits,I felt ready to take on the world.
Why would a math major choose to spend a year abroad? Many people thought it was off-track for someone studying math or sciences. However, one of my friends at KU had spent a year studying in Germany. Hearing him talk of his experiences and how they had opened his eyes to a whole new world made me want to try it myself.
The CU group (44 students in all, ten from KU) spent the first five weeks in Bordeaux in intensive French language, history, and culture courses. After that I began to feel comfortable in French. Regular university classes began in late October. From then until the end of May I took a number of courses, some aimed at teaching French literature, history, and so forth to foreign students, and some courses in the regular University with French students, including philosophy, political science, and math. As it turns out, the courses were not difficult to understand because the professors lectured in extremely precise and clear French.
My entire time in Europe was not devoted to studying. Even a serious student like me found plenty of time for fun and informal learning, like hanging out in cafés and bistros with my French and American friends. The CU group took trips around the Borieaux region and nearby parts of France (including the St-Emillion wine country and the beautiful Dordogne region with its pre-historic cave paintings). And I took extended train trips at Christmas and Easter breaks across much of Europe and even into Morocco. (As a poor student, I wasn't
Jayhawks Abroad
So now, over a quarter century later, has any of this really mattered in my life? The answer is an unequivocal Oui! I matured from a youth into an adult during my year abroad. I had to negotiate my way through new situations in unfamiliar places in 11 countries, where often I didn't know the language and where I didn't initially know the customs. I became much more confident of my ability to deal with the unknown. I widened my perspective of my own country and of the world by seeing them from different vantage points.
Of course, anyone who visits a country for a few days or even a few weeks will see the important sites of the country and learn something about its people and its history. But living in a foreign land is quite different. I learned so much about the French people by riding from my place in the city to the campus in in the suburbs with French students. By dining with French students at the student restaurants. By taking a day-long walking tour of Bordeaux with Gérard, a history student whom I met by chance early in the year and who befriended me. And especially by sitting in the living room watching television or just talking with the Florentys, the French family in whose home I lived and who graciously invited me into their lives.
What did I get out of my year abroad? They say that travel broadens your point of view, but I think anyone who hasn't spent time actually living in a foreign country can't truly appreciate this. It's not just seeing new things, as a tourist does, but immersing yourself in another culture until you begin to see things from a new perspective. (I've found that many people don't even seem to realize they have a specific perspective that affects their view of the world!)
sure when I'd be able to come back to Europe, so I thought I'd better try to see the entire continent while I was there and could buy a relatively inexpensive StudentRail pass!)
But most of all, I believe my liberalarts education (in Bordeaux and in Lawrence) and my broadened perspective made me who I am today: a more well-rounded individual, better able to understand and respond to the world around me as it continually changes. This has been essential to me in my career in software development, and to my life. I strongly recommend study abroad to all students.