Diversity & Inclusion Abroad
At SMCM’s OIE, we strive to make sure that everyone feels that they can study abroad, and that they have the resources to be prepared for an enjoyable and successful time abroad.
It is important to reflect on how you identify, how your understanding and your host culture’s understanding of your identities might change while abroad, and how you can learn to research and understand your host culture before and during your time abroad.
Not sure how to proceed? Take a look at some of the following resources, whether you are curious about being the first in your family to do so, and to research how your racial, social, and/or sexual identity will impact your time abroad. Also, keep in mind that there are often scholarships available to increase diversity in study abroad!
General Resources:
Diversity Abroad Check this organization for information on resources, scholarships, and education and work opportunities abroad. They also have this helpful collection of student publications:
You Can Afford to Go Abroad
Black Student Guide to Global Programs
Why Should Go Abroad
And more!
Allabroad.us Not sure how your identity will be perceived? Browse for testimonials from African-American, Asian-American, Hispanic, Native-American perspectives – and research discrimination by gender and/or racism categories.
The Plato Project is an integrated study abroad training, certification, and diversity outreach program, including lists of scholarships available for underrepresented students in study abroad.
Check out UC Davis’s LGBTQIA Resource Center’s Interactive World Map, which include laws and norms in about twenty countries around the world.
Here are some of SMCM’s very own LGBTQIA resources.
Fund for Education Abroad awards scholarships especially for students from first-generation and minority groups. Application cycles usually open in mid-November for the following academic year.