The Institute of International Education just released the results of its annual survey on study abroad participation, and the findings show that for the 2007-08 school year Georgetown had the 8th highest percentage of undergraduate students studying abroad.

Out of a graduating class of 1,730 students, 989— or 57.2 percent—had gone abroad last year.  That’s an increase over the 2006-07 percentage of students studying abroad, 52.3 percent.  The 2006-07 seems to have been a bit of an anomaly, though: in 2005-07, the rate was 55 percent, in 2004-05 it was 58.7 percent, and in 2003-04 it was 58.9 percent.

Other D.C. schools also had high rates of study abroad participation.  American University had the 7th highest percentage nationwide, with 59.5 percent of its students studying abroad.  George Washington University came in 18th with 45.9 percent studying abroad.

Overall, 262,416 American students studied abroad during the 2007-08 school year, an increase of 8.5 percent from the previous year.

The survey also looks at the most popular study abroad destinations.  The top five destination countries were the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, France and China.  While the majority of students (56.3 percent) went to Europe, there were slight gains in the percentage of students going to Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

The regional trends nation-wide are largely in line with what Vox found when it looked at the top study abroad destinations for Georgetown students, except for the Middle East.  While only 1.3 percent of all students who went abroad in 2007-08 chose to go to the Middle East, at Georgetown, 5.5 percent of students who went abroad during the 2008-09 school year studied in the Middle East.

L’Aquila after the quake

Last spring an earthquake hit the little Italian town of L’Aquila, where Georgetown holds a summer study abroad program for students taking Italian. Due to the damage, the summer 2009 session was relocated to Rome.

While hosting the study abroad program in Rome certainly has its benefits, the Office of International Programs is looking to return to L’Aquila when possible. The historical town offered a quaint cultural experience for students unavailable in other, larger cities. However, the location for the 2010 summer session is still uncertain.

“The situation there is – obviously – complex, and it will take some time for us to know how feasible it is for us to return,” Cristina Dinu, the Director of Summer Study Abroad, wrote in an e-mail.

If the program cannot be relocated to L’Aquila for this summer, she wrote, it will most likely take place in Rome for a second time. The administration is looking into some other, although less likely, possibilities. Another option would be to move the to another town in the area around L’Aquila.

Photo by Flickr user leandrodemori, used under a Creative Commons license.

Georgetown student Arielle DaCosta (COL ‘11) passed away yesterday evening in Salamanca, Spain, where she was studying abroad, according to an email just sent out by Vice President of Student Affairs Todd Olson.

The email does not include details of what happened; it only says that she was pronounced dead at Hospital Clinico, near the University of Salamanca where she was studying this semester.  According to the email, she was planning to spend the whole year studying in Europe.

There will be a memorial Mass held at 5:15 today in Dahlgren Chapel.

The Voice will have more information in tomorrow’s issue.

Have you ever wondered what the most popular study abroad destinations are for Georgetown students? Ever wished you could see a graphic breakdown of which regions are the most popular? Well, this is your lucky day! With the help of the Office of International Programs, Vox is proud to bring you a pie-chart analysis of where your fellow Hoyas are studying abroad:

(The numbers for the 2009-10 graph are lower because applications for spring study abroad programs aren’t in yet.)

As you can see, Europe remains the undisputed study abroad champ, followed by Asia and Latin America. Given how strong our Arabic program is, I was a little surprised that the number of students studying in the Middle East is so low.

Here’s what Jim Burke, Information Manager for OIP, had to say:

[In the upcoming academic year] students will be attending 70 different programs in 26 countries. We have strong enrollments in our Middle East and South American programs, but the largest contingents of GU students studying abroad by country would be to China, UK, Spain, Italy and Australia …

It’s always difficult to compare years because so many factors come into play as students decide on abroad programs, but the enrollment seems to be similar to last year.