“The goal was actually to start using Spanish and nail it down—I learned it, but I never had the chance to use it and get better, so that was a major thing,” she said. “And then also, Granada, was the kind of place that I was looking for, with all the history and a very different culture.”

Tesoriero, who just completed her fall semester in the program, chose to also participate in a homestay in Granada, where she lived with a Spanish family and “really immersed myself in a different culture.”

Tesoriero is part of a growing number of students who are choosing to participate in the Granada program, which is expecting its largest ever cohort of students, at least 44, in spring 2023, according to Joseph Rienti, director of the Office of Study Abroad.

But it’s not just the Granada program that’s seeing a growing interest from students, Rienti said. New changes in how study abroad is paid for are helping students access even more programs in different locations. And study abroad participation is returning to pre-COVID-19 numbers, according to Rienti, with about half of the undergraduate population choosing to study in one of 100+ programs across six continents.

“It’s a very significant development for Fordham that we can now offer 100+ programs for fall or spring semester at Fordham tuition,” he said. “[Students] can now use Fordham funding for the programs, so the vast majority can fully apply their financial aid packages.”

Previously only about 25 programs were able to accept Fordham tuition rates and financial aid packages, Rienti said. He said the expansion helps offer a “more equitable approach to study abroad.”

“It’s really refreshing to be able to have a conversation with a student and have the whole world being open to them,” he said.

Studying in Granada

Fordham in Granada is one of two Fordham-run study abroad programs, the other being Fordham London. Granada differs from the London program in that students are not at a Fordham campus. Rather, they take courses through the University of Granada and through a new partner, Cultural Experiences Abroad (CEA). However, the University still has more input than a traditional study abroad exchange program, Rienti said. For example, departments such as the history department, are working closely with their partners in Granada to develop “very Fordham-specific type courses” that the students can take while abroad.

The Granada program was recently restructured and enhanced, thanks to Fordham’s new partnership with the Cultural Experiences Abroad organization, which runs study abroad programs across the world. The University began working with CEA during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide virtual options from across the world to students, and the new partnership in Granada allows them to add even more offerings for Fordham students, both in and out of the classroom, he said.

“Through that collaboration, we can now offer the opportunity to do more internships in many more fields,” he said. “We’ve expanded housing options—students used to all have to live in homestays, but we’ve now expanded to include student residences, so students are living with international and Spanish students in Granada. And we’ve expanded the course options.”

Finley Peay, Fordham’s assistant director for London and Granada programs, said that many of the additional offerings have been in the STEM fields, particularly public health, as well as additional historical and cultural options.

“There is a public health and ecology course, as well as some culturally-oriented courses, so thinking about the history of Spain and the history of art in Spain, as well as key types of dance and music that are important for Spanish culture,” she said.

Tesoriero’s favorite course was a media studies and current events class, which she said she’s recommending to her classmates studying in Granada next semester.

“Everything we learned about in the class—from how the family is structured and family works in Spain to the political system—everything that we’ve learned in class I’ve been able to see out on the streets, which is really cool,” she said. “We had a whole unit talking about holidays in Spain and the different Christmas traditions, so it’s cool getting to see that now.”

The collaboration with CEA also expands the out-of-the-classroom experiences for students, such as weekend trips to Morocco or other parts of Spain.

“There’s a wide variety of cultural experiences and benefits, not only Granada, but Seville and visits to less-known, compelling places” Peay said. “We find students are very excited by that.”

Tesoriero said she thought “all of the trips that CEA put on were fantastic.”

“I think my favorite was Morocco, because it was so different. I had never been anywhere like that before.”

She also said that while student housing was now available to Fordham students, she’s glad she chose to live with a family.

“In Granada, my favorite thing is to sit in the plaza near my homestay and just watch people,” she said. “Living with my host family, I feel really lucky. I really wanted that immersive experience and I definitely have that local connection.”

Broadening their Horizon

In addition to the growth of the Granada program, Rienti and Peay said that they’ve begun to see students looking for opportunities outside of the historically popular programs in Western Europe and parts of Asia.

Grace Dailey, a senior at Fordham College at Rose Hill majoring in environmental studies and communications, was one of those students; she spent the fall semester in New Zealand, which she said has fascinated her.

“It’s just such a naturally beautiful place and I’m an outdoorsy type of person, and they really have it all,” she said. “I thought, ‘what a good place to explore.’”

Dailey said that while she took mostly communications courses in New Zealand, such as photography and advertising, her favorite course was a sustainability course.

“I loved taking that while I was abroad, and it was such an exciting and very hands-on type [of course],” she said, adding that the professor was also an “outdoorsy person” who helped connect what they were learning to the natural environment.

Rienti said that he’s excited for the study abroad office to shift from the “emergency response” of the pandemic years into continuing to rebuild and grow the offerings for students.

One of the ways they’re encouraging more students to study abroad is shifting the application cycle, so students interested in studying abroad in fall 2023 or spring 2024 have to apply by March 1. This allows Rienti and his team to avoid turning students away because a program was full. For example, if the spring program has too many students, a student can then be shifted to the fall. He said that he hopes this change, combined with the financial aid shift and the expansion of offerings, will help more students study abroad.

“I encourage students to think about study abroad as a bridge to something,” he said. “What can this be a bridge to—internships, work abroad, scholarships—what could this lead to beyond being an end in itself?”

Four years ago, the University committed to Generation Study Abroad, an initiative spearheaded by the Institute of International Education, to double the number of students studying abroad. At the time, 36% of Fordham undergraduates studied abroad. This month, the institute officially recognized Fordham for passing the 50% threshold.

Joseph Rienti, Ph.D., director of Fordham’s International & Study Abroad Programs, said hitting that number was key to fulfilling Fordham’s goal of educating students to be leaders in a global society.

“It’s one of the best ways we find students can broaden their knowledge of themselves, of their academic discipline, and the world around them,” he said.

“It gives them an opportunity to experience a different culture, a different academic context, and it really just brings that global dimension to their undergraduate education.”

The increase didn’t happen by accident. Rienti said the department underwent a reorganization as part of the push to increase participation. Specific areas of study, such as short term-programs, exchanges, and the London Centre now have individual staff members dedicated specifically to managing them. Outreach has been overhauled as well, and the department now recruits students to be “global ambassadors” and gives them Canon Rebel cameras to document their study abroad trips.

“We think it helped. It’s really given us an opportunity to capture what the students are seeing and doing, and to share with students here in New York, to get them excited about going,” he said.

The new London Centre campus has had a palpable effect, Rienti said, as it enabled his department to offer additional programs, including one connected to internships. The University’s study abroad program in Granada has also expanded in the last three years. Rienti said his department has also worked with faculty to both develop summer courses abroad and add international components to courses that take place in New York.

Exchange programs are also a key area of expansion; most recently Fordham has established two with Institut d’études politiques de Paris and the University of Helsinki in Finland. And just as importantly, Rienti said all of the

26 exchange programs have been designed so that students can tap into the financial aid packages they use in New York City, making cost less of a barrier.

“What we’ve done is very strategically look to expand those opportunities, aware of the fact that we could make studying abroad sometimes even less expensive than studying in New York,” he said.

The department has also distributed an additional $50,000 in aid to students last year, thanks to a fund maintained by donations from parents, alumni, and even current students who want to help their peers.

“Sometimes students still have airfare to pay for, there’s still visas to pay for, and we’re able to give some additional funding to students,” he said.

Participating in Generation Study Abroad was helpful, he said, as it added another level of accountability to the department’s goals.

“We had to report back to the institute, and we were able to participate in conversations with other colleges and universities how to come up with innovative ideas and different strategies to get participation up,” he said.