University of Evansville student Hasaan Ladha will be on his first flight across the Atlantic in a few days. He’ll begin his sophomore year at Harlaxton College, UE's sister school in England.
A U.S. State Department travel alert is in place for Europe, and expires at the end of August, while reports of turmoil have dominated the news cycle. But Ladha said news reports about violence in abroad haven’t affected his decision to got to Europe.
“A lot of those things you try and keep out of your mind, and hope that nothing like that ever happens to you,” he said. “I really hope it doesn’t happen to anyone. But things like that, it’s unfortunately part of the world that we live in so you can’t really let those stop you."
UE’s International Programs Director Dr. Wes Milner said this is truefor most students looking to go to Harlaxton.
“We’ve seen with Harlaxton over the past couple of years, increasing popularity not just with the University of Evansville, but throughout the country,” he said. “We’re seeing more interest instead of less interest.”
He said studying abroad is essential in a modern education and makes students more competitive and well-rounded.
“It’s really a necessity,” Milner said. “So even though you think ‘Well, the risks are too high, the costs are too high’ I would say the costs of not doing that are too high.”
Living in a foreign country exposes students to the realities of cultures they might have made assumptions about. UE history professor Dr. James MacLeod said meeting people in places we usually only hear about on the news leads to a more complex understanding of the world.
“I think for our students, for young Americans to explore that, and then for all these different people in different parts of Europe to encounter young Americans who are curious about it--that’s the way forward I think, young people talking to one another,” he said.
Students studying at Harlaxton this semester will be in England during a time of political change. The UK voted to leave the European Union in June and the decision was followed by protests and economic uncertainty.
“I think that the students who go there in the fall are going to have a really great kind of civics lesson,” MacLeod said. “You’re watching this country really trying to figure out who they are and what they are and how they fit in with their neighbors.”
When signing up to study at Harlaxton last year, Ladha didn’t know Brexit was even on the table. And though he’s studying engineering, not political science, he’s still interested to see the aftermath of the vote.
“Maybe if I had heard that they weren’t going to stay with the European Union I might not have gone,” he said. “But even with all the ISIS tragedies and whatnot that are going on--there was one that happened in France last semester--I still wanted to go.”
But for Ladha, the opportunities that come with studying abroad outweigh the risks.
“There’s a few people that I know that just really are like, ‘Let’s just stay in our little bubble, let’s just not let anyone mess with us, and let’s not mess with anyone else.’ I honestly don’t think that’s the best way to approach life,” he said. "If you're gonna stay in your own little bubble, you're not really moving forward with your life. You're just staying confined so you can't really fully develop to your highest potential."
During his time at Harlaxton, Ladha plans to visit Spain and hopefully see one of his favorite soccer teams, Barcelona or Real Madrid, play.