The Council on International Educational Exchange has selected Arizona State University as one of four nationally recognized higher education institutions to receive $1 million in matching grants over four years to establish new study abroad programs.
ASU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences will enhance its 10-year investment in early-start student success programming to launch the ASU Early Start Global Accelerator Program for high-risk, first-year students, a press release explained.
The university seeks to increase student retention, accelerate graduation rates, improve student efficacy measures and enhance student success measures for an estimated 660 students who will participate in the program over the next five years.
“Study abroad is one of the most transformational college experiences that supports student retention and persistence to graduation,” Nancy Gonzales, ASU executive vice president and university provost stated in the release. “For these reasons, ASU has made it our priority to expand access to study abroad opportunities, as it has historically been accessible only to students from higher income families.”
The ASU Early Start Accelerator Program was established in 2014 in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences to assist students in their transition to college, measured by increasing retention for first-year, at-risk students and increasing six-year graduation rates.
Each year, ASU analyzes data from Early Start initiatives and adjusts program specifics to increase impact, according to the release. In 2024, ASU will add an international program element to Early Start, the ASU Early Start Global Accelerator Program.
The ASU Early Start Global Accelerator Program will pilot in summer 2025 with 60 ASU high-risk freshmen attending an 8-day program in Costa Rica. ASU will entirely fund the pilot program.
Following the pilot year, the Early Start Global Accelerator Program will be expanded to 150 students each year and funding will be shared by ASU and CIEE as part of the Leading Change in Study Abroad Challenge, the release stated.
“It will be transformational for students. We hope that more students will take advantage of the opportunity to study abroad so they can not only learn in new countries but also experience different cultures,” Noah Rost, ASU global education director, stated in the release.
Announced in November 2023 at the 76th Annual CIEE Study Abroad conference in Paris, CIEE’s Pledge to Lead Change in Study Abroad seeks to show how a well-designed international exchange program can improve college enrollments, student retention rates, student graduation rates, and perhaps most importantly, enhance student employability and economic mobility.
From a pool of 21 proposals from institutions across the country, ASU, Borough of Manhattan Community College, Northeastern University and UC San Diego were selected for their proposed study abroad programs.
Each of the four winners pledged to match CIEE’s $1 million grant resulting in a total of $8 million in funding over four years for students to study abroad in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Australia, Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe.
The four colleges chosen will launch national models of international education programs by showing how study abroad programs can advance both institutional and student success goals, expand access to students from all backgrounds and academic majors, and improve our world through impactful student engagement abroad, the release explained.
“ASU’s Early Start Global Accelerator Program accomplishes all three goals of the Leading Change in Study Abroad Challenge, and we look forward to working with ASU leadership over the next five years to help them implement their bold vision,” President and CEO of CIEE James P. Pellow stated in the release.