Study Abroad
Study Abroad Spotlight: Bionca Cummings
Bionca Cummings Receives Prestigious Study Abroad Funding Awards
Bionca Cummings, a rising senior Music Education major from Atlanta, Georgia, is the 2020 recipient of the Fund for Education Abroad NAFSA Tamara H. Bryant Memorial Scholarship. Although like many other students she had to suspend her immediate plans to study abroad, Bionca plans to use her funds to participate in Albany State University’s Ghana Education/Communications Program in the summer of 2021.
“I am honored to be selected to receive the FEA award given the nation's circumstances,” Bionca said. “I am very excited to get the opportunity and chance to study abroad for the summer of 2021. I am going to take all of my experiences in Ghana and apply them to my career as a blossoming music educator in my future classroom.”
Bionca, who also received the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship in the fall 2019, is dedicated to teaching music education and character building to students. She is involved in the ASU Concert Chorale, Velma Fudge Honors Program, M.A.L.E.S mentoring program, and Housing, and Residence Life as a Resident Assistant. Bionca is a proud member of the Pi Beta Chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Incorporated.
Bionca Cummings—another great ASU Golden Ram!
Spring Break in London and Paris
Dr. Matthew E. Stanley, Program coordinator- France-Paris
Spring Break Study Abroad Program in London and Paris as a component of History 1112 research class:
This study abroad experience and corresponding course is designed to offer students
the opportunity to travel a foreign country and connect on-site learning and the public
history experience to their coursework. As such, students had time to engage in on-site
learning and examine public history sites, as well as experience London and Paris
as tourists. In leaving their comfort zones and partaking in education not only as
representatives of Albany State, but as global citizens, students had an opportunity
to broaden their personal and academic perspectives through new levels of cultural
appreciation and to better prepare themselves to participate in an increasingly global
society.
Travel improves student skills in processing information, spatial awareness, critical thinking, logical reasoning, clarifying, articulating, summarizing, synthesizing and listening. Travel with an emphasis on learning about the past also teaches students to articulate the interrelatedness of historical themes to other disciplines especially in the social sciences, humanities, natural sciences and fine arts. Most importantly, this study abroad experience is designed to broaden student horizons, integrate on-site, public history experience into the History course and engage students as intellects and as global citizens. I feel my study abroad participants mostly met and sometimes exceeded these objectives.
We began our first full day in London with a guided tour that focused on London during World War Two. This tour culminated with a visit to St. Paul’s Cathedral, which was not only one of the architectural wonders of Early Modern Europe, but also a victim of the German Blitz. One of my students, Jasmine Sparks, is writing her HIST 1002 research paper over this topic.
We traveled via the Eurostar to Paris, France. There we toured Notre Dame Cathedral, saw some sites associated with Revolutionary and Napoleonic France, including the Conciergerie and the Louvre, and, finally, visited the Eiffel Tower.
Next we toured both the Tower of London and the British Museum. I asked my students to think about the origins of these priceless artifacts, whether the Crown Jewels or from objects from Antiquity, as part of the relationship between the British Empire and slavery and colonialism.
In addition to these sites, at various times throughout the week we visited and toured Windsor Castle, London’s Roman ruins, the Houses of Parliament, and Westminster Abbey. We also saw a musical in London’s famed West End.