Chapter 10: Small Rural Schools Can Make A Big Impact: Building and Growing Transformative International Experiences for Rural, Low-Income Undergraduate Students

Minimal progress has been made over the past 20 years to increase study abroad participation in classically underrepresented U.S. college students. Small, rurally located colleges, many of which educate rural, low income students (of all ethnicities and races), are a group of institutions underrepresented in internationalization activities. Global education opportunities are shown to be valuable for broadening cultural perspectives, changing cultural attitudes, and improving career mobility for students in an increasingly connected world. These experiences may be even more impactful for low income, first generation students whose exposure to cultural experiences may have been limited before entering college. This chapter combines a review of the primary literature with the author’s experience (autoethnography) to discuss and recommend pedagogy and program development for study abroad at small, rural colleges with a high proportion of low-income and/or first-generation students. Rationale and framework for the recommended approaches are gleaned from the published literature and situated within the author’s observations from 19 years of teaching, advising, and 10 years of increasing experience with international programs and partnership development, and assessment at one such college.