| Safety
Safety
is always a concern, and we know that no place is 100% safe. In order for any
program or foreign institution to be approved for study abroad at Trinity,
there must be sufficient staff, experience, and resources on-site to assist
students in an emergency no matter how unexpected or unlikely. We do not
approve study in areas under State Department Warning, but sometimes events
occur with no warning. Consider the natural disasters and even terrorist
activities in our own country.
However,
the most common crime abroad is theft. The most common causes of injury or
death abroad are traffic accidents and anything related to alcohol or drugs.
The same is probably true for every campus in the United States, including
Trinity.
The
dangers are the same, but realistically students do need to learn how to
prepare for and respond to safety issues in a new cultural context. For
instance, 911 does not work abroad. Students need to learn what does.
We devote a great deal of attention to these
issues in our
Orientation materials, emphasize it again in the Study Abroad Manual, and spend a portion of every
Pre-Departure Session talking personally with students about this. We know that families add your own good advice to our words
of caution. Programs
and institutions abroad also address these issues in a more site-specific
context in their own pre-departure materials and on-site orientations.
Finally,
we also expect students to prepare themselves by learning as much as possible
about the culture they are entering (language, laws, customs, local issues, manners,
etc.) and by taking full advantage of the advice and preparation available to
them.
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