VCU news

By Amelia Heymann

For Mariah Cropp and other first-generation college students, studying abroad can feel out of reach. Though she had secured a free passport through Virginia Commonwealth University’s Global Education Office, she figured she wouldn’t be able to use it.

But last spring, she did use that passport through an offering that VCU has modeled and is sharing with other schools. As a new cohort of students heads overseas next week during spring break, Cropp is grateful that more VCU peers from underserved backgrounds are seizing the powerful opportunity to travel and gain insight into other cultures.

“You never know what you may learn, and you never know how similar you are to someone,” said Cropp, a health, physical education, and exercise science major in the College of Humanities and Sciences whose weeklong study abroad experience in the Dominican Republic instilled confidence she is continuing to embrace – by applying to graduate school.

Her opportunity arose through a GEO collaboration with VCU’s TRIO office, whose federal programs support undergraduates who might be first-generation college students, come from low-income households or have disabilities. With its initial offering last spring, VCU became one of a handful of schools in the country to implement a service-learning study abroad program for TRIO students.

GEO had introduced a grant program for free passports two years ago, and it inspired TRIO to consider how its proteges could benefit. GEO and VCU’s TRIO office then designed an in-house study abroad program, which would allow the students to benefit from staff and peers with whom they had built trusted relationships. Chimene Boone, a former TRIO faculty member, received one of GEO’s Global Learning Program Development Awards to fund an initial site visit as they worked to build the program. Then Shay Lumpkin, the director of TRIO at VCU, worked hand in hand with GEO crafting and implementing the experience for students.

Cropp secured a travel grant to supplement her financial aid, and her trip last spring – for which she served as a student leader – included service work related to food security and nutrition as well as health care for Dominicans.

With its successful debut, Lumpkin joined the GEO’s Stephanie Tignor, director of global learning, along with Lindsay Calvert from the Institute of International Education to outline the VCU program at two prominent gatherings last year – the Council for Opportunity in Education conference and the Diversity Abroad Global Inclusion conference.

“Others were motivated to implement similar programs at their universities, so VCU truly served as a national model for TRIO study abroad,” Tignor said.

As a first-generation student herself, Lumpkin had studied abroad, so she understood what elements might best serve her VCU participants. Program organizers chose the Dominican Republic in part because flights could be cheaper than to other destinations, such as Europe. A number of TRIO students also have family ties to the Caribbean island, which could deepen the meaning of the experience.

Though mainly a service-learning experience, the study abroad program also allowed students to receive course credits toward graduation. For the service portion, VCU partnered with 7Elements, a nonprofit in the Dominican Republic whose initiatives focus on improving daily life – from medical outreach brigades and community water tanks to cement flooring and bottle homes.

From the get-go, Lumpkin said, there was tremendous interest in the service-learning trip, with more than 50 VCU students filling out initial forms.

The official program started before students even set foot on a plane. Leading up to the trip, they would meet weekly to discuss topics such as food insecurity’s impact on physical health and working in the medical field.

Cropp noted how the discussions continued after each service-learning activity on the trip. For example, in building houses made from water bottles, students explored how that method could reduce water pollution, offer effective insulation in tropical weather and boost the housing stock for at-risk residents on the island.

Lumpkin said she embedded a reflection piece into the program so that students could think more deeply about social impact – whether abroad or at home. 

“What that does for the students is help them see how literally in just a few weeks, they can have a hands-on impact in the community by just taking a deeper understanding of that place, an understanding of what things could help transform that way of life, and then being given the resources to do it,” Lumpkin said.

When the initial cohort of students returned to Richmond last spring, they built on their service-oriented momentum by developing the idea of creating book bags with basic necessities and school supplies, which could help students returning to school or residents who face housing insecurity.

The students “understood that reflection is something they have to do in every aspect of their life, not just when they’re doing a study abroad or service-learning trip,” Lumpkin said.

Buoyed by last year’s success, the VCU program is taking another set of TRIO students to the Dominican Republic this year during spring break, part of a collaboration with Developing Men of Color.

Lumpkin said she hopes to see partnerships with 7Elements expand across VCU.

“I think there’s tons of opportunity for all academic disciplines, even the MCV Campus, to be involved in the work that we’re doing,” she said, “because it’s so much bigger than just what we do in those eight days.”

For more about VCU’s study abroad and global education opportunities, visit global.vcu.edu.