Deanna Behring in front of the Nile in Cairo, Egypt.

by Jeff Mulhollem

There are some things Penn State students just can’t learn at the University Park campus, or in Pennsylvania, or even in the United States. Important things, such as the wisdom to compare U.S. culture to others around the globe, and the perspective to contrast this country’s affluent way of life to the relative poverty in many other parts of the world.

Through the college’s Office of International Programs, students can learn these things by participating in a range of established international programs. They can even create their own study-abroad opportunities most anywhere in the world.

“Understanding the international nuances of the agriculture business can help students succeed in a big way,” says Deanna Behring, the college’s director of international programs. “But the character-building impact of studying abroad transcends the career boost an international study experience can provide. Almost all of our international study participants come back and say they will never look at things the same way again. It’s a life-changing experience.”

The college has a long history of international work. Its first international agreement dates back to 1907, when the college started working with a school in southern China. That school evolved into South China Agricultural University, now a leading institution in China. Today, faculty members in the college are active on every continent but Antarctica, and many take students with them.

In support of the college’s efforts to internationalize its curriculum, Behring’s office offers a small grants program to help faculty integrate a one- to two-week study-abroad component into their courses. The program awards three small grants of up to $5,000 each year, which can be used to pay for planning, logistical support, offsetting costs for students, or other associated expenses.

In recent years, the college has created a larger menu of options for students interested in studying abroad. Opportunities range from weeklong visits to summer internships and semester experiences in Australia, Germany, Japan, Thailand, Russia, Chile, Costa Rica, Turkey, South Africa, Ghana, Ireland, Argentina, France, Honduras, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Mexico.

To prepare students for study and work in other countries, the college established an International Agriculture minor. The curriculum helps students understand and appreciate the interdependence of nations and develop skills for international work, with the added benefit of broadening their understanding of agricultural issues both at home and abroad.

“Our students have a deep and profound interest in other people and cultures, and they really want to make a difference in the world,” says Thomas Bruening, associate professor of agricultural and extension education and coordinator of the minor. “International Agriculture gives them an opportunity to understand the theories and concepts behind international development and to fulfill a deeper understanding of what people, culture, and international community are all about.”

Danielle Cowden, a senior in Agricultural Business Management from Hickory, Pennsylvania, earned a minor in International Agriculture when she went to Moscow for four months during her freshman year. She also went to Ukraine over spring break of her sophomore year, studying agricultural education. “The international experiences made me realize how lucky we are in the United States to have the stability that we do,” she says.

In Moscow, she attended classes taught in English with 10 Russian students. They visited farms and other agricultural facilities as part of the course. “The farms there are decades behind ours,” Cowden says. “The Russians know that the technology is there, but in many cases they just don’t have the money to use it. They have pieces of machinery sitting around that they’d like to fix, but they don’t have the money.”

Penn State and Ukrainian students took agricultural education courses together in Kiev.

Bruening has helped many students from both the United States and countries in the former Soviet Union learn about each other’s cultures. In the last seven years, Bruening has traveled to Russia many times to initiate international programs, starting with a two-year cultural exchange program in which Russian and American students and professors visited schools, farms, and agribusinesses in Russia and the United States. A second initiative took more than 20 Penn State students to Moscow for a semester to study international agriculture with Penn State and Moscow State Agroengineering University professors.

During the last two years, he expanded the study-abroad program to include five other land-grant universities. This collaborative effort has broadened the original concept and has provided a unique twist. Now Penn State students are also able to interact with professors and students from across the nation. Now, he and Behring are expanding their efforts in a four-year program designed to help students from universities across the nation understand Russian and Ukrainian culture and language before participating in exchange programs.

Elio Chiarelli, from McDonald, Pennsylvania, a junior majoring in Agricultural and Extension Education, went to the National Agrarian University of Ukraine in Kiev for his international experience. His favorite part of studying abroad was interacting with Ukrainian students. “I was surprised to see how the Ukrainian students learned about agriculture compared to how we learn about it,” he says. “They had a lack of hands-on experience. At Penn State, we concentrate on learning by doing. There, they have not really grasped that concept. I would have expected it to be just the opposite.”

Some students create their own study-abroad opportunities. For instance, Lincoln Rodgers, from Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, a recent graduate with a degree in Agricultural Science, arranged his own international study experience in Mongolia. He went there to conduct thesis research while interning with ACDI/VOCA, a private, nonprofit international development organization providing high-quality technical expertise at the request of farmers, agribusinesses, cooperatives, and private and government agencies abroad.

“I conducted field research on Mongolian cashmere goats,” he says. “I collected hair samples for genetic research. Cashmere is a major export for Mongolia, but since the fall of the USSR they have had some serious economic difficulties. Uncontrolled goat mating led to a decline in cashmere quality and income, so ACDI/VOCA set up a project to selectively breed these animals in the mid-1990s. My goal was to assess whether that project worked from a genetic perspective.”

Rodgers’ most vivid memory of his stay in Mongolia is a wolf-hunting trip he took with goat herders near the top of a mountain. They didn’t even see a wolf, but he’ll always remember the cold and desolate nature of the terrain. “My trip to Mongolia has given me a lot of confidence, knowing I can get along in Asia on my own,” Rodgers says. “Without going overseas, you can’t develop an understanding about how people around the world really act, how the rest of the world lives, and really understand that the rest of the world is not like Pennsylvania.”

Such sentiments are common among students who participate in international study. Lori Connelly, a senior from Pennsylvania Furnace, Pennsylvania, majoring in Animal Sciences, cherishes the trip she took to the Republic of Ireland with the Penn State Dairy Science Club during spring break of her freshman year. “It gave me a global perspective on the agricultural industry, particularly the dairy industry,” she says. “Now, when a professor lectures in class about a particular issue, I have the experience to know that issue may not be the same in all parts of the world as it is in the United States.”