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Studying abroad is the highlight of many Syracuse University students’ academic careers. The once-in-a-lifetime adventure allows participants to spend time in a foreign country, learn a language, try new food and adapt to an unfamiliar culture to broaden their horizons.

Students of color, however, have to make extra considerations regarding safety and racism they may face in their host countries before boarding their departure flights.

“(Before leaving), I would search up things like, ‘Is Italy a racist country?’” said Bailey Davis, a junior in the Newhouse School of Public Communications and Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs who participated in the Discovery Florence fall 2019 semester, said. “What does that experience look like for me?”

Davis said that while racism is something that exists everywhere, it’s important to ask those questions and be aware of the unique instances that can occur living as a Black student abroad.

“It makes you better prepared to be in those environments,” she said.

As a global ambassador in the Syracuse Abroad office, Davis hosts an annual event called “The Black Experience Abroad,” which aims to inform Black students about the positive aspects of Syracuse Abroad and to help ease any hesitations they might have.

Audrey Chen, a junior in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management, said she’s not too wary of studying in Barcelona next semester. She believes that her learning how to code-switch and adapt to white spaces as a first-generation Chinese American will help her in her abroad experiences.

“I’m always aware and never let myself get too out of control or anything,” she said. “I don’t let being scared or nervous stop me from pursuing what I want, and I’ve been abroad before, so I kind of understand how to deal with things.”

Chen also has a brother who studied abroad in Barcelona and enjoyed his time there, so she feels safe as she prepares for next spring and is awaiting her departure with excitement.

Kaitlin McKoy, a grad student in Newhouse and spring 2020 Syracuse Strasbourg participant, felt she was inundated with news articles on racial relations in France before she traveled there.

“I was overly cautious because I had so much research,” McKoy said. “Being overly cautious helped me to a certain extent, but you don’t know how to respond (until) you’re in that scenario.”

McKoy was forced to figure out an in-the-moment response when she was traveling to a different European country and a stranger touched her face without permission. Even though it was to make positive comments about her complexion, she said she “was so taken aback” that someone felt they had the right to invade her personal space.

Despite that incident, McKoy said she feels like her preparation was scarier than her actual experience abroad.

“I feel like I was expecting worse to happen,” she said.

Bailey Davis, a junior in the Newhouse School of Public Communications and Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, hosted an event called “The Black Experience Abroad” to educate Black students about Syracuse Abroad opportunities. Courtesy of Bailey Davis

The host family McKoy stayed with in Strasbourg went above and beyond to make her feel welcomed, she said. Her host mother made McKoy her highest priority throughout her stay and was very involved in her life — even keeping track of her flight statuses when she traveled to different countries and sending helpful links if the flights were delayed or canceled.

Dayel Pope, a College of Arts and Sciences junior who joined Davis in the Discovery Florence fall 2019 program, was shocked that her host mother did her laundry the entire time she was there.

“All the accommodations they made were because they genuinely cared for us,” she said. “It was a very give-and-take relationship; I helped (my host family) learn English and they helped me learn Italian.”

This is a similar experience to Donyell Logan, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences and member of the fall 2019 Discovery Madrid program, who said his host family treated him like one of their own.

Logan added that before leaving for Madrid, he watched Black vloggers who studied abroad to hear their experiences and to understand how to move forward from the microaggressions he would experience abroad. It helped him not react too harshly when he noticed people staring at him in Spain, often on public transportation.

“That’s the culture — they don’t intend the staring to be rude,” he said.

Logan said students of color shouldn’t let the fear of adapting to a new culture stop them from applying to abroad programs and taking advantage of this life-changing experience.

“Remember that you belong in this program,” Logan said. “You are diversifying this space.”

Published on December 8, 2021 at 11:31 pm

Contact Dakota: dcchambe@syr.edu