KRtWith last month’s terrorist attack in Spain, study abroad programs in high schools and colleges are being revamped and extra precaution is being taken to ensure the safety of the students. With approximately 50 students going abroad next year, Cabrini is no exception to the recent trend concerning the safety of its students abroad.
Dr. Nicholas Uliano, the coordinator of the study abroad program, said that while the program itself has not changed, the program is very structured so that every precaution is taken to ensure the safety of the students in the program.
“The directors of all of our study abroad programs at the overseas institutions maintain on-going communication with U.S. embassies and consulates for the latest security information,” Uliano said. In the event of an emergency, the director is able to reach each student and students can reach the director at any time through an emergency coontact number.
The Sept. 11 attacks in the United States and the March 11 attack in Spain that killed 190 people have put travelers on edge. Kathryn Bauman, a high school Spanish teacher at St. Pius X High School in Pottstown, Pa., said that the school’s annual trip to Spain was still on.
“There will be 10 of us,” Bauman said. “Not going means the terrorists win. We have to live our lives; life does not come with guarantees.” Bauman said that the trip will not include rail travel between cities and the buses will be chartered.
Schools around the country are changing the study abroad programs, with some going as far as to cancel end-of-year trips to different countries. Liability plays a major role in changing the way study abroad programs are run.
“The issue of liability is a broad one,” Uliano said. “Normally, it would be answered by the legal counsel of the institution involved.”
In Australia and in many of the other locations where Cabrini students go abroad, health and accident insurance is provided for all program participants.
Junior Stephanie Christ is spending six weeks in Toledo, Spain over the summer and has no worries at all about studying abroad.
“I’m not scared; I travel a lot,” Christ, a business administration and Spanish minor, said. “The only thing I am scared about being in a trange area alone.”
Christ said when she first heard of the attack in Spain, she was upset, but she was not going to let it deter her decision.
“I’m going anyway and hoping I don’t get bombed,” Christ said. “I have a feeling it was a one-time thing and that it had to do with the presidential election, so I am not scared it will happen again.”
Christ said that her parents were not worried, even after the attacks happened.”They said you have to live your life; whatever happens is going to happen,” Christ said.
Posted to the Web by: Scott Fobes
