After the enacting of the Simon Study Abroad Bill in 2009, the issue of studying abroad and foreign education have been an in issue in concern. Fundamentally, the bill focuses to not only support the students who study in abroad, but also the conditions and challenges that hampers the student’s ability to study in a foreign country. A major issue that represent these factors is the lack of money (Byram & Feng, 2006). This is the reason why the bill engages itself in providing funds to the student who are studying abroad. Although, the bill stipulates that it provides these funds in the next years, student does not have to wait for all that time to elapse. There are students’ grants that are in existence to assist the student in paying for semester, summer and sometimes a year abroad.
However, the way forward that a student should follow to get these grants remains a mystery to many. Therefore, they have to consider that money that supports studying in abroad are provided in many forms. The first step that a student should take is to fill a FAFSA form and submit it to their respective financial aid office (Pyle, 2006). These forms are available in many schools’ financial aid office which are regarded as annual financial aid. According to student’s financial need the school finance office adjust this grants so that the fund is distributed efficiently.
The second thing that should put into consideration is the fact that grants that are particularly allocated for the program abroad are also available. These funds are not only available in the United State government but also to other governments across the world. They also exist in a personal student’s university or college (Pyle, 2006). Therefore, to acquire these grants, a student should arrange to meet with both school’s international office representative and the financial aid counselor as early as they can. This will enable them to get more detailed information about the grants and find out which forms of funds are available.
The U.S federal government support the students to study everywhere in the world. Therefore, student have a right to choose any country to pursue their studies. However, there are those countries that the federal government does not allow its student to study in due to the challenges and dangers they create to the students. One of the most of the fascinating destination is the semester at the sea program. This program allows daily changes for the student on these floating fountains of knowledge.
However, there have been misconceptions involving the funding for the students studying abroad. Most of the student holds a believe that they would not attain the qualification to study in abroad due to constraints such as money and grades. However, in most cases this is not applicable. In this case, student should seek for the detailed information about this situation since what they does not know usually hurt them (Byram & Feng, 2006). Students should confirm with their representative of the international program office, about the availability and accessibility of these findings.
In conclusion, if a non-traditional student is able to receive a full granting twice a year for studying a broad, the other interested student should make a point to contact the international program office as soon as possible. This is because these grants are not provided from a point of discrimination but fair to all (Peterson’s, 2006).
References
Peterson's (Firm,2006). Scholarships, grants & prizes. Lawrenceville, N.J: Peterson's/Thomson Learning.
Byram, M., & Feng, A. (2006). Living and studying abroad: Research and practice. Clevedon [England: Multilingual Matters Ltd.
Pyle, K. R. (2006). Guiding the development of foreign students. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc.
