Study Abroad at HBCUs: Challenges, Trends, and Best Practices

In a world that is increasingly global and interconnected, study abroad programs provide the “greatest potential for experiential international education” (Brux & Fry, 2010, p. 508). International experience is considered important in today’s job market. However, the population of American students going abroad has historically been quite homogenous; even today, nearly 80% of such students are White, and mostly upper middle class (Brux & Fry, 2010, pp. 511–514). Concurrently, demographics in the United States are shifting in such a way that the American undergraduate population is increasingly composed of non-White and lower-income students—groups that have historically had low participation rates in study abroad, and have been underserved by higher education more broadly.