The first woman president of Arcadia University in Pennsylvania, and University graduate Bette Landman, gave a speech yesterday on the benefits of studying abroad.

Landman believes in the importance of studying abroad. She has been featured in the book “Against the Tide” written about 20 woman presidents serving as role models.

The Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Council on Education for the Identification of Women in Higher Education Administration named an annual leadership award for women’s education in her honor.

After becoming president of Arcadia University, Landman got together with her senior group members to see where they could go.

(” The school )needed a distinctive identity,” Landman said. According to Landman, an international perspective is needed.

Arcadia’s Center for Education Abroad (CEA) was created in 1965.

CEA has sent many students, faculty and staff members to different countries to study abroad. At first, Landman was afraid that she wouldn’t have enough students for the program.

“I don’t believe you will get enough students to study abroad until you get the faculty to sit down and talk to them about it,” Landman said.

Landman started looking towards the faculty. She remembered an experience she had while teaching fifth grade students in Bowling Green. She was teaching a Social Studies class and wanted the students to decide what part of the world she was going to teach them.

Landman already had an idea to teach about Africa, so she planted African objects and books around the classroom and library.

When Landman eventually asked her students what country they wanted to learn, all of her students said Africa.

“If it worked for fifth graders, it could work for my faculty,” Landman said.

Landman started to pair up faculty and staff members. Once in pairs, each pair got 18 students that would eventually accompany them abroad.

According to Landman, the benefit of getting faculty and staff members to work together was that they could get to know each other better.

“Staff people, for the first time, got to experience a culture not of their own, making them more sensitive towards different students on campus,” Landman said.

The goal was to make sure all students who came to the institution would have the opportunity to study abroad, no matter what their financial situation.

The university wanted to give the students the attention they needed so they would want to go. For a week trip to Great Britain, including all expenses but spending money, a student could go, at that time, for $150 and now costs $245.

The university put out a message to students letting them know what studying abroad could do for them.

“It worked too well. The message was too positive in the market,” Landman said.

The university had to build a new residence hall and had to start letting out apartments. The worst student flow was in the fall. “Typically students wanted to study in the spring, not the fall. So we gave a discount on tuition for students that studied in the fall,”

Landman said. “This way we could keep the halls filled and keep the students coming in.”

Arcadia offers different types of programs. The Sandwich course is one of the most popular.

It starts midsemester in fall and goes through the first 5 weeks of spring semester. During the 3 week break between semesters, students and faculty travel abroad.

The Honors Student Program at Arcadia has the same concept as the Sandwich course but the students go every other year and the trip is free.

Students are not the only ones that benefit from the programs. Faculty are encouraged to develop their own programs abroad and bring them back to share with the students.

Arcadia tries to send students to countries that specialize in the student’s major. Even students that aren’t studying a language can go abroad.

“Students leave with much understanding of the United States and the world, even those who don’t go abroad,” Landman said. Spanish instructor and alumna here at the University, Janice Pauken, attended the speech.

She studied abroad in Spain twice while attending the University.

“I was highly encouraged to go, especially for fluency in the language,” Pauken said.

Pauken teaches Spanish 212 and said that she will take back the knowledge about studying abroad to her students.

“Many students don’t continue on (after 212). I tell them even if they don’t go abroad, I won’t be hurt but now is a good time to go,” Pauken said.

Pauken said the University offers summer clusters. It is a program where students can study abroad while fulfilling course requirements and having fun.