It’s for Everyone

One of the features of study abroad at Bates is that everyone does it.

We don’t mean “everyone” literally; we mean the full range of students, majors, interests, and backgrounds at Bates – physics majors and French majors, varsity team members and non-members, students involved in extra-curricular activities and students not involved in them, students with lots of travel experience and family resources, and students with minimal family resources and no prior international experience.


Diversity


Study Abroad is For Everyone (the SAFE program)

The SAFE Program encourages study abroad by students with very limited family resources and no prior international travel experience.  Study abroad participation levels among such students, often students of color or the first generation at college, tend to be lower nationally and at Bates.  The SAFE program addresses this pattern with three efforts.

  • Extra encouragement – Additional outreach efforts to ensure these students recognize that this part of the Bates curriculum is fully available to them.
  • Program and grant identification – Special efforts to work with these students to identify lower cost study abroad programs and Federal and program grants that are targeted to low income students, students of color, and/or the first generation at college.
  • Financial support – The Barlow Endowment for Study Abroad supplements the College’s already generous financial aid by providing $500 grants to Pell Grant-eligible students for incidental expenses that are not included in Bates’ regular financial aid award.  The goal is to reduce student anxiety about extra expenses that often accompany study abroad.  This grant is not available if the study abroad program provides similar assistance.