Gabriela Diaz de Sabates and Marcelo Sabates discuss Columbia’s study abroad and J-term travel opportunities.
Transcript:
00:08
Welcome back to the Chronicle Chronversations. I’m your host, Aaron Guzman. This week on Chronversations, I am joined by Gabriela Diaz de Sabates and Marcelo Sabates to talk about the study abroad and J-term opportunities that Columbia offers. Gabriela highlights the essential qualifications needed for students to be eligible for these programs and emphasizes how flexible these programs are for students and their credit hours.
00:32
And study abroad, what it does is that it offers learning experiences that are different from what students are accustomed to on campus. It is not either or, it’s that it enriches the learning experience. So the specific program that we do, Marcelo and I, is called Art, Culture and Gender in Latin America. And it’s a program that targets specifically Latin America.
00:59
Columbia has a tradition of having study abroad programs mostly to Europe, which is excellent. It’s wonderful. You also asked me first about students’ qualifications. You have to have a 2.5 GPA. You can be either from freshmen to seniors. We had a couple of students who had graduated already who came as graduate students. So that is absolutely doable. Something that is important to know about the J-term that is different from
01:28
the summer session. The J-term is very convenient for students because if you are a student paying full-time tuition in the spring, the three credit hours for the J-term study abroad, the price of those three credit hours are already included within the full-time tuition that you pay in the spring. So in the summer it’s different. In the summer you have the differential cost of the program, which, you know,
01:55
this is for all study abroad programs, the extra cost is related to transportation, housing, meals, experiences, et cetera, et cetera. In the J-term, that three great hours for the J-term are included within the total full-time tuition. So it’s not gonna increase the cost of your tuition. On the contrary, it’s the same. The other element that is important to keep in mind is that J-term
02:23
does not interfere with the spring semester. Marcelo brings us through the advantages that are given to students through connecting with others and learning about the cultures of different countries. So first is the extremely important experience of being abroad with a group of fellow students and Columbia professors, generating community at the same time that you are exploring a very different culture.
02:51
You get to know a different culture and you get to understand how being immersed in a different culture changes you as a person, the kind of skills and experiences that it gives you. But it also gives you an edge in terms of potential professional connections, venues and art production and cultural production that is very different from ours. Now regarding
03:20
experience in a different culture, I can talk about what we do in Argentina. We go to a Latin American, very cosmopolitan city, Buenos Aires in Argentina, and that’s a generator of culture and arts. You are exposed to very different ways of understanding life and art. But then we also go to a northern province in Argentina called Jujuy, which is in an Inca influenced area. So we get to know an original culture.
03:50
With some music, textiles, architecture, it’s totally different from anything else you will have experienced before. That’s all for this week. Make sure to stay up to date with our Campus and Metro news and be sure to subscribe to our newsletter on columbiachronicle.com. I’m Aaron Guzman. Thanks for listening.
Copy edited by Manuel Nocera
