The bustling atrium of the Al Lawson Jr. Multipurpose Center served as a gateway to the world, recently, as FAMU hosted its annual Study Abroad Fair, connecting ambitious students with a menu of global academic opportunities.
The event, organized by the university’s Office of International Education and Development, featured representatives from a dozen international programs, each offering details on destinations, scholarships, and application procedures. For hours, students moved between tables, collecting brochures on programs from Seoul to Cape Town and asking questions in eager, hopeful clusters.
“There’s a lot of ways that students benefit,” said Emily Gung, the fair’s coordinator. “It benefits their career, and studies show that students who study abroad make more money, and have higher incomes, management positions, and graduation rates. They are able to work in a multilingual and multicultural environment. Employers are looking for people who are diverse.”
Ms. Gung emphasized that the undergraduate years are a critical window for such experiences. “Just jump right in,” she urged. “You’re at the peak of your youth. This is the best time.”
Faculty members echoed the value of international education, framing it as essential training for an increasingly interconnected world. Kenyatta Rosier,PhD., who teaches global business in the School of Business and Industry, spoke of the academic payoff.
“In global business, we are taking what we learned from the management and marketing side and merging them to see what that means internationally,” Dr. Rosier said. “It’s all about what form of entry you would like to have globally. Learning is borderless.”
For students who have already participated, the experience often transcends the academic. Manyara Nowell, a fourth-year sociology student from the Bronx, studied sustainable food systems in Costa Rica.
“I was really interested in getting a hands-on perspective on the environmental field, and that’s what I got,” Ms. Nowell said. “I studied biodiversity and agriculture, specifically in coffee and chocolate. I learned about how exploitative that business is and how misleading a lot of the labels can be on the packaging.”
Program options vary widely, from short summer courses to full semesters abroad in countries like South Korea, Germany, and South Africa. University officials encouraged students to plan early, particularly to secure scholarship funding that can ease financial barriers.
As the fair wound down, the buzz of conversation lingered, not just about courses and credits, but about the chance to see, firsthand, how education translates across borders.