Unpacking

Although the majority of this book is for students, the following section may be more useful to study abroad professionals and offices. You can still read it if you are a student...or don't....I don't care.

Three objectives of unpacking:
1. Help students make critical connections in context of career preparation.
2. Challenge the meaningfulness of a study abroad experience by probing deeper into the ways it may have helped students academically, culturally, professionally, and personally.
3. Help students find confident ways to articulate the skills and knowledge they developed more effectively.

The main idea we promote through these sessions is "you always learn something." At the beginning we establish that unpacking requires deep reflection of the experience. The deep reflection leads the students to connecting experience with learning, instead of unconsciously separating academic and non-academic. This is handy in education abroad since the majority of study abroad programs tend to be experiential. We start the unpacking sessions by looking back at the goals of the programs, which were established in pre-departure. Then we stress how this process is really about discovering skills gained, such as those listed in previous posts. Finally, we split the group into small groups and present a series of questions for discussion such as: Were there aspects of the culture you found frustrating or difficult to adjust to? Our questions were formed for unpacking a short-term program. Semester program questions would need to be worded differently. After the small group discussion, we bring all the students back together to discuss the topic and see if there are patterns. Then we examine how these patterns translate into common skills gained. We wrap up the session by sharing our favorite memory from the program. This usually turns into an informal conversation about how great the program was. At this point, we let the students take over and talk as long as they wish.