About 52 percent of Yellow Jackets will get some type of international experience while enrolled. The national average at other colleges and universities across the United States is around 8 to 10 percent.
After doing some calculating, Georgia Tech’s Office of International Education (OIE) determined that in 2016 they would reach the milestone of sending their 20,000th student abroad. They decided to mark that milestone by covering airfare costs for that student.
Students applying for summer and fall 2016 programs were eligible, and the 20,000th study abroad student was one who had been eager for the opportunity to travel.
Kyle Lucas has been looking forward to traveling to South Korea since becoming friends with an exchange student from that country in high school. His father’s cancer diagnosis led to two difficult decisions to delay the study abroad experience.
“It’s kind of a scary thing to say ‘Yeah, I’m going to go away for four months to another country,’ and you don’t know what’s going to happen,” said Lucas.
Now that Lucas is able to travel, it works out well that he’s also Georgia Tech’s 20,000th study abroad student. After getting accepted to his dream exchange program at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea, the mechanical engineering student also earned an OIE scholarship that will help defray tuition costs.
Add the free plane ticket, and the study abroad experience for this third-year student just got a whole lot sweeter.
“It’s great for our office to realize that our work is coming to fruition,” says Education Abroad Scholarships Advisor Ashlee Flinn. “We’re helping students to do something that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to do.”
For more information on Georgia Tech’s study abroad programs visit www.oie.gatech.edu
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