On Friday, November 13, eight simultaneous terror attacks erupted across Paris killing 130 people. The day before, 43 people died in a suicide bombing in Lebanon. A week later, 27 people died in a shooting in Mali.
Despite these and other recent attacks, over 700 students from the University of Massachusetts Amherst are still planning to spend next semester in a foreign country. The mantra supporting their decisions: it could happen anywhere.
“I think people just sort of realize that these are isolated incidents,” said Kalpen Trivedi, the director of Education Abroad at UMass.
Living abroad allows students to gain valuable experience engaging with different cultures, but the attacks have raised questions from some students and parents about the safety of students studying overseas.
Junior Brianna Castoldi is not letting the attacks affect her plans. She will be studying at the Universidad de Seville in Spain this spring through Academic Programs International. She has been planning her trip since middle school.
“I think not doing what you plan on doing or want to do is letting [the attackers] take away a piece of your life,” said the communication major.
Junior journalism major Caroline McCann will also be studying abroad next semester. She will be going to Paris through API’s partnership with the Institut Catholique.
“I think that it’s important that we don’t stray from France right now,” she said, though she had spoken to a student who was considering pulling out of the Paris program.
“They’re afraid that places like Paris aren’t going to be what they wanted,” said McCann. Though she is still determined to go, McCann understands that the terrorist attacks have affected Paris’s mindset, and that it may not be as welcoming as in the past.
According to Trivedi, dropping out is an uncommon decision. All of the UMass students who are abroad this semester are staying in their programs, and Trivedi and his colleagues have only spoken to four or five students about pulling out of their trips for the spring. So far, only one student has decided not to go abroad.
The Paris attacks are more concerning because one of the victims was a study abroad student from California State University, Long Beach named Nohemi Gonzalez.
“Any one student being lost you feel like it’s your own student, so that was a very sad moment for all of us,” Trivedi said.
He also remembered a University of Leeds student who died when Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down by a missile last year. He was travelling to a study abroad program in Australia. There have been a few incidents, but overall study abroad student deaths from terrorist attacks are highly uncommon.
“It’s worth remembering that, with that exception and the exception of one student in a plane crash back in the 90s, there have not been U.S. student study abroad deaths due to terrorism. It’s a very, very, very rare event,” Trivedi said.
Even so, Trivedi is unsure how these attacks will affect the longer future of study abroad programs.
“If this kind of tension persists or if there’s another catastrophic event within the next six months to a year, I think that long term there might be a little bit of a downward trend,” he said
Trivedi believes it remains important, especially in light of the attacks, for students to travel abroad because they are beginning their adult lives and careers.
“I think that we need a way to foster greater international cooperation, greater international understanding, greater international knowledge, because we’re going to have to work with this world no matter what,” he said. “One of the lessons that I take away from this is just how important the work of international education is in the face of such disasters.”
McCann said it would take consistent attacks to convince her not to go. Castoldi would reconsider if someone she knew personally was a victim of an attack. For now, they are both comfortable listening to what their program advisors tell them.
McCann looks at her trip as a learning experience that will help her succeed in her future career as a reporter.
“From a journalistic perspective, I think this is a great opportunity for me to learn firsthand about the events going on in the world and give me an inside perspective,” she said.
For Castoldi, this is the best time in her life to go abroad. She plans to spend another month in Europe after her program ends to visit family she has never been able to meet. Castoldi’s family in the U.S. remains supportive of her decision to study in Spain, but she does think it depends on location.
“I could understand if you were planning on going to France that might be a little eye-opening. I’m sure my parents would not want me going,” she said.
McCann’s mother, Karen McCann, does not believe her daughter should give up the chance to study abroad because Paris was one of the places under attack.
“I think it is just the new normal and I don’t think you can avoid it. It could happen anywhere. I also think that Paris may actually be safer now because it’s under such scrutiny,” she said. “There’s a lot to be concerned about, but we live in Boston. We still go to the Marathon. We have friends in New York City. You can’t hide away from these things.”
The International Programs Office is confident in its ability to protect its students. Trivedi and his colleagues work with the Overseas Security Advisory Council of the U.S. Department of State and individual program directors to decide if programs can run. During the Paris attacks it took only two hours to account for every student in Paris.
“We don’t fly into the face of danger without thinking about it,” Trivedi said. “We wouldn’t run programs that we don’t think are safe.”
IPO is not cancelling any of the spring programs, but students are free to decide what is right for them.
“Although some people are telling me it’s not wise to go there, I think it’s really important that we don’t pull away,” McCann said. “I don’t want to let the fear keep me from fulfilling what I’ve always wanted to do.”
Is she scared to go to Paris?
“Definitely.”
Careri, Jenna 
Great Post
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