By: Cameron Ulmer (’20), Staff Writer
The college experience can be either Pandora’s Box or the Golden Fleece of opportunities for college students, especially black students. A varying amount of factors depend on which it is for them. There is an abundance of opportunities on UNC’s campus that can greatly increase the experience of one’s time here. One of those many opportunities is Study Abroad.
Like the pinnacle of college that cannot be missed, many students leave UNC and almost all have advice for those still there or coming into UNC. They tell the students to travel, to go abroad, and take advantage of the time at UNC to do so. Much of this advice comes without account for the barriers that come forth as a Black student that wants to go abroad. In a survey done in 2018, only 4 percent of Black students went abroad for a non-credit bearing experience compared to the 53 percent of White students who went abroad for the same reason. The disparity within Black people going abroad is quite disconcerting because students come to college to learn about who they are and how they fit into the world.
People like Ronald Harris and Eliese Richardson are not going to let these statistics stand. Being Black and abroad is more than an idea, it’s a niche that Harris and Richardson have worked extremely hard to connect and reach out to. They have begun to cultivate a community of Black alumni and current students who have studied abroad in order to educate and give a perspective about going abroad that the University just does not understand.
I had the pleasure of speaking to Harris about the hard work that he and Richardson have put in to help change the narrative and statistics about being black and abroad.
Harris: “First generation black students come here, some from very rural areas, and UNC alone can feel like the study abroad for someone. Like for me, my mother didn’t go abroad. They [my parents] didn’t even travel out of the country for a very long time. So if that [study abroad] wasn’t a conversation in your household growing up, you’re not going to have those kinds of conversations. So when you get here especially when you’re a first gen, you worked so hard to get you out, and you made it here. This can be a very challenging environment for students and so to say not only are you far away from home, in an unfamiliar environment, we want you to pack up your stuff, leave the country and go even further away in an even more unfamiliar environment. That very daunting for students and there’s a lot of anxiety both on the side with students and on the side of parents because parents now become concerned. One because they are financially involved at this point. For the most part number two because all safety nets are on watch leave the country.”
When asked about any advice he would like to give to black students thinking about going abroad, Harris had this to say.
Harris: “There are certain things that you just can’t prepare for. There is a there’s a learning curve that you were once you step off the plane. You just have to be prepared to grow. Do as much research as you can beforehand about the country so you know things about it. How does the currency system work? Where are you going to be staying? What’s going to be nearby and what is food typical like? Know the racial breakdown is as far as demographics. Know how many people you should expect to see that are like you. Make sure you’re as informed as you as you can be before you go abroad and also have an open mind. Don’t necessarily try to impose the U.S. Customs onto the country that you are going to because they don’t work that way.”
More often than not, studying abroad is a thought as far off mentally as it is literally. However, thanks to the efforts of Harris, Richardson, and everyone else involved with the Black & Abroad initiative, globalizing the black population here at UNC is becoming more of a reality everyday.
