CHICAGO, IL (July 14, 2008) – Thirty North Park students will study abroad this fall, setting a new institutional record.
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\nThat percentage of North Park\u2019s enrollment is roughly three times the national average. Less than 1 percent of all students enrolled in US higher educational institutions study abroad for credit, says Jennifer Pope, director of North Park\u2019s International Office. In the last four years, 2.9 percent of North Park\u2019s students have studied abroad in semester- or quad-length programs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI expect that we\u2019ll far exceed 4 percent in the 2008-2009 school year,\u201d Pope says.<\/p>\n
Fifteen of the 30 study-abroad students will participate in the university\u2019s longest running exchange program, in J\u00f6nkoping, Sweden. Founded in 1976, the exchange with S\u00f6dra V\u00e4tterbygdens Folkh\u00f6gskola pairs North Park students who have taken one year of college-level Swedish with Swedish roommates at SVF for the fall semester in Sweden. The Swedish students then join their US counterparts on North Park\u2019s campus for the spring semester.<\/p>\n
Eleven students will participate in the International Student Exchange Program (ISEP), of which North Park is a member. North Park students will study in Uruguay, Ghana, Costa Rica, the Netherlands, France, England, Finland, and Chile.<\/p>\n
Students from ISEP-member institutions essentially take each other\u2019s place for a semester; they pay tuition, room, and board to their home university, and receive services from a host university in exchange.<\/p>\n
The remaining four students will study in Argentina, Mexico, Uganda, and Sweden.<\/p>\n