Students who want to study abroad without the price tag can apply to be resident advisers in one of the University's pre-college summer study abroad programs, which expanded its offerings this summer. Since 2010, Brown has offered three-week programs based in Italy, Spain and Greece, and it now has added Costa Rica to the list. The program, which employs undergraduate and graduate students as resident advisers, pays for their airfare, room and board, in addition to a small stipend.
"By offering this opportunity to Brown undergraduates, they are able to have the abroad experience in a leadership capacity ... because they're both learners and also really leading a group of students while abroad," said Rosario Navarro, director of international programs and language area studies. In addition to undergoing the required RA training program, students must demonstrate proficiency in the language of their program's location to be accepted as an RA.
"RAs are really the core of these programs," Navarro said. Except for the program directors and traveling Brown professors who teach some of the classes abroad, the RAs are the go-to authority figures on site, she said. The programs maintain a ratio of no more than 10 high school students per RA, with total numbers varying depending on enrollment.
"You're kind of put in the position where you have to be a leader," said Kayla Smith '12, who was an RA for the programs in Rome and Segovia last summer. Beyond the regular obligations that come with advising other students, RAs abroad must also deal with the potential language barrier and unfamiliar geography.
"Because you're in a place that's new to you as well ... you have to learn everything twice as fast," Smith said, which "pushes you out of your comfort zone. It pushes you to be more courageous."
The majority of students who go abroad as Resident Advisers have previous experience being an RA at Brown. Because their job is a "24-hour responsibility," RAs abroad cannot combine the role of advising with taking their own classes, as the on-campus program allows, Navarro said. They are invited to take the courses with the pre-college students.
"Pretty much everything that you could imagine we had to deal with, we had to deal with," Smith said. "They were teenagers," she said. "They could come to us with literally any problems."
While the high school students are in class, RAs have free time to explore their surroundings on their own.
"I did a lot of wandering around and exploring the city," Smith said. "It was kind of my opportunity to experience it ... and get to see Rome on my own."
But the majority of the time is spent with the students. RAs are responsible for chaperoning the students between their hotel and their classes, organizing meals and facilitating evening activities such as playing soccer, going to the beach or attending a local musical performance.
In Greece, the group takes day trips to other islands, said Kathryn Lamb '10, an RA in the Naxos program for the past three summers.
Being an RA for one of the summer abroad programs offers the opportunity to travel and gain leadership experience without concerns over cost. For Smith, this was the perfect compromise.
"I went into college knowing that I really wanted to go abroad," she said. But she said she ended up asking herself, "Do I want to go to Italy and pay $8,000 to spend a month, or do I want to go to Italy and get free room and board and get paid a tiny bit?"
The experience was more than worth it, Smith said, and it was rewarding "to feel that it benefited (the high school students) as much as it did me."
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