Students: London program needs fixing

By Allison Sundaram

While abroad, students from Santa Clara's pilot London semester faced cramped conditions and troubles with their internships, leaving some disappointed with the quality of their study abroad experience, but program coordinators promise improvement.

Students were unhappy with the quality of apartments, including the size, upkeep and insufficient access to the Internet. Many students were taking online courses, and were unable to connect reliably to the Internet within their residences, which were supposed to be equipped for wireless access.

The program is in conjunction with the Foundation for International Education, which coordinated the internships for Santa Clara students and provided housing and some classes.

"Internet access was probably the biggest issue. I suppose London doesn't have very high standards for access to wireless internet, so we had numerous complaints," senior Tayiaba Khan said. "They tried their best, but it just never seemed to work."

Within students' apartments, accommodations were cramped. In Khan's case, sixteen girls shared two bathrooms. Junior Megan O'Connor shared one bedroom, and a small kitchen and living area, with three other girls.

Housing and student life will be revised next fall. Plans include a decrease in the number of students per room, expanded locations, and mixing the residence halls with other FIE affiliated universities. Coordinators also promise cultural events and a Santa Clara history professor on site teaching a class and acting as a faculty advisor.

"The thing I think that makes all the difference is having a person on site, but more so, helping create a clear Santa Clara identity," Executive Director of International Programs Dennis Gordon said.

During the second half of the program, many students were under the impression they would be taking one class outside an internship that FIE had set up for them. However, some classes continued through the semester, with an additional internship class required, leaving O'Connor and others having to intern 24 hours per week and take three or four classes.

Khan had several issues at her first internship. Although she had been accepted into the program in May of 2005, she had to be interviewed for a financial analyst position. "They didn't really care about my experience or my concerns about the job," she said.

After her interview, the company Khan was placed with required her to sign a non-disclosure agreement before giving her the location of her internship, one that was different from the location FIE had assigned her.

"It was ratty-tatty, it was in a basement, the entrance was, no kidding, a broom closet," Khan said. "Inside was torn carpet and five computers, and piles of paper everywhere."

After four hours at the placement, Khan quit. FIE was able to find her another placement within the week.

According to Gordon, International Programs was pleased by FIE's response to this and other unforeseen occurrences.

"It was in the way the FIE responded to the atypical real problems that we were most impressed with," he said.

Early problems with internships were made worse by the abrupt resignation of the internship coordinator in London in the middle of the placement cycle. According to Gordon, next year the program will have workshops scheduled for students to help accustom them to internship expectations.

Additionally, next year's program will be limited to 50 students, with increased pre-departure orientation and screening.

Although students had a rocky experience, many still recommend study abroad in London.

"I had a lot of great experiences abroad," O'Connor said. "There were a lot of technical errors which are being cleared up, but I can only see the program kind of improving now, since we were guinea pigs."

Contact Allison Sundaram at (408) 554-4546 or asundaram@scu.edu.