As Covid-19 ground international travel to a halt and the college gradually rolled out fall and spring closures for all 16 Middlebury schools abroad, juniors watched their study abroad plans crumble. A year later — even as vaccine distribution begins worldwide — many current sophomores are reevaluating their plans while anxiously awaiting news about the status of international programs for the 2021–22 academic year.
Hesitation about study abroad is reflected in the size of this year’s batch of applications. The International Programs office received 424 applications for the 2021–22 academic year, a nearly 13% decrease from this time last year, when the college received 486 applications, according to Associate Dean of International Programs Liz Ross. Though the application period for studying abroad in the 2021–22 academic year closed on Feb. 15, Ross expects that numbers will continue to shift.
Some sophomores decided not to apply to study abroad next year given the significant amount of time they have already spent away from campus.
Ben Knudsen ’23, an English and Education Studies double major, did not submit a study abroad application. Knudsen said he wants to spend his remaining time at Middlebury on campus, spending time with friends and participating in club soccer.
“This is my first spring on campus, and I want to get as much time here as possible,” Knudsen said. “I don’t have an infinite amount of time on Middlebury’s campus. I’ll enjoy my time here; after I graduate, hopefully there’s going to be more opportunities for me to go out and experience the world.”
Other sophomores revised their original abroad plans in light of possible limitations brought on by the pandemic.
Husam AlZubaidy ’23, an International Politics and Economics (IPE) major studying Arabic, originally planned to go to Amman, Jordan during his junior year. Instead, he applied to spend next year at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies via the study away program.
“I think [the pandemic] has helped me moderate my expectations,” AlZubaidy said. “I think that it’s unreasonable that I could expect the same experience I could have gotten before the pandemic, where I could get my linguistic immersion with people who live locally in Jordan.”
Although it is situated in the U.S., the program in California will still offer a change of scenery and the opportunity to meet new people, which AlZubaidy is looking forward to.
“I thought that maybe it would be good to refine some of my language in terms of my profession, focusing on policy development and working on my vocabulary and language at more of an official level,” AlZubaidy said.
Though some have misgivings, many students still applied for study abroad, hoping international programs will be operational by spring 2022.
Sofia West ’23 is studying International and Global Studies (IGS) on the Global Security Studies track. She plans to study abroad in Paris, where she will take the language pledge to speak exclusively in French.
“I’m going to be fully culturally and linguistically immersed for four and a half months,” West said. “I’m looking forward to getting to know the city of Paris and meeting new people.”
Isabela Bahadorzadeh ’23 is also an IGS major and is on the Global Gender and Sexualities track and studying Spanish. Bahadorzadeh applied to a school in Chile but recognizes how Covid-19 has changed her perspective on study abroad.
“I think with college in general, not just with study abroad, a lot more things feel more important right now, like my family and my community,” Bahadorzadeh said.
Current juniors who were supposed to be abroad this spring or this past fall are scrambling to change their plans. Sophie Bardetti ’22, an IGS major in Global Security Studies taking Arabic, had initially planned to spend her entire junior year abroad. She is considering applying to study abroad in Morocco this fall.
Even though her plans have been disrupted, she keeps an optimistic attitude and hopes to travel safely in the future. She picked her major with the intent to live abroad after graduation.
“I am trying not to be too upset because I know that there are opportunities in the future,” Bardetti said. “I’ll get abroad, but it was supposed to be part of my immersive Arabic learning experience at Middlebury.”
Charlie Keohane ’24 (she/her) is an Editor at Large. She previously served as the SGA Correspondent and a Senior Writer.
She is an environmental writing major and a psychology minor from Northern California. Outside of academics, Charlie is a Senior Admissions Fellow at the Middlebury Admissions Office. She also is involved with the women’s track team and hosts Witching Hour, a radio show on 91.1 WRMC. In Spring 2023, she studied abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, watching Greta Gerwig movies, polar plunging, sending snail mail, and FaceTiming her rescue dog, Poppy.
