Broader Experiences
Monday, September 16, 2019
Study abroad trips open eyes and minds for OSU faculty and students
In 2007, Keith Teague took his first trip to Asia, visiting industries and political
groups in Vietnam to discuss economic development
and education. Today, Teague, a professor in the school of electrical and computer
engineering at OSU, leads study abroad trips each year to Japan.
“People in different parts of the world deal with being engineers in different ways,” Teague said. “So there are differences in the way they practice and in the way products are designed and manufactured. There are differences in cultural aspects of this, too. In Japan, so much focus is on the community as opposed to the individual, whereas here is much different. Needs are much different. If you go to another country, they have different social, political and cultural needs than we do here.
“I think it’s very important for students to see there’s more to the world than just us.”
Nick Overacker took advantage of the opportunity to study abroad during his college career. Overacker graduated in the fall of 2018 with a degree in electrical and computer engineering from OSU. He cited his curiosity for bringing him to ECE and leading him to a minor in Japanese.
“With electronics, I felt there was this huge part of the world around me that I didn’t
understand, and I wanted to learn what the
secrets were to that,” he said. “When I started studying Japanese, I actually didn’t
know anything about the culture. During my second
year of studying the language, I became involved in the Japanese Student Association.
Through that, I made a lot of Japanese friends and got very close to a lot of them.
OSU has usually fewer than 20 Japanese students on campus at one time. So I was able
to get to know all of them. It made me very interested in going to Japan.”
In 2016, Overacker did just that, spending 13 months as an exchange student in Japan.
“The way people interact with each other and with their environment, and generally
every aspect of their life in Japan is just very different than in the United States,”
he said. “It gave me a completely new outlook and showed me a different way to live
life. I gained marketable language skills and insights on ways to live life. I don’t
have to just follow what’s prescribed for me here. I can choose
the best of everything I know. And I feel like I gained some insight on different
markets, the way people interact with products and technology in other countries.”
Overacker “definitely” recommends studying abroad.
“It’s going to be easier as a student than afterward. You don’t have a summer break
or a year to take off for something like that, after graduating,” he said. “There’s
a lot of funding available, which a lot of people don’t realize. People often say
‘I want to study abroad but I can’t afford it.’ I was someone who couldn’t afford
to go to school in the first place. I came to school on the funding available, and
I went abroad on much more funding that was available. Before I went, I applied for
several study abroad scholarships, some at OSU and some
outside. I recommend everyone apply to as many scholarships as they can. I ended up
going with $30,000 in funding.”
Since graduating, Overacker accepted a position at Wavetech LLC in Stillwater, which was founded in 2011 by Dr. John O’Hara, an assistant professor in ECE. The company participates in cutting-edge research and provides practical, customer-oriented services in engineering. O’Hara recruited Overacker at a robotics event on campus.
Samer Elkhalid, a May 2018 graduate in electrical and computer engineering, also did a study abroad trip. Growing up, he was fascinated with digital devices, especially computers, and enjoyed anime and video games. Those gave him a fascination with Japanese culture, and he fulfilled his dream of visiting Japan on a study abroad trip with Teague and Dr. Norb Delatte in May 2017.
"People in different parts of the world deal with being engineers in different ways. I think it's very important for students to see there's more to the world than just us."
“I loved every bit of it! We got to go sightseeing on many cultural tours seeing many castles, shrines and temples,” Elkhalid said. “We went on various business tours, including a trip to Sony World Headquarters in Tokyo, which was my personal favorite business trip. And we got to have some time to ourselves exploring the various cities we went to such as Tokyo, Osaka, Negoya and Hiroshima.”
The experience changed Elkhalid’s education in the United States.
"Going on this trip was like a dream come true! I definitely have a wider perspective of how a different culture can operate,” he said. “Learning about the importance of teamwork can go a long way. One big thing that I noticed about the Japanese while I was there is that they are very efficient and hard-working. It’s like they are a very homogeneous society, and every individual does what they can to be a productive member of the society. After my trip, I felt more willing to give help and be more of a volunteer to my senior design partners, and at the same time, be willing to receive help from them.”
Teague has spent many years building relationships with contacts in Asia to make the
study abroad trips educational as well as fun. The
itinerary includes tours of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Takenaka R&D Institute and
Toyota, as well as cultural visits to Hiroshima, Miyajima Island and Kyoto.
“I think they’re tremendous experiences and I think there are a lot of students that don’t realize what they’re missing,” Teague said. “If we can help convince them that this is the sort of thing they ought to try at least once in their life, I think many of them would get something out of it they may not even know they’re missing.”
Since graduating from OSU, Elkhalid accepted a job as a software engineer at Epiroc Drilling Solutions.