Working with Parents

Study abroad is perhaps one of the richest learning experiences (and likely the most memorable) of an undergraduate student’s education. It also involves a complex web of very invested stakeholders who need to be engaged and artfully guided through the experience.

Parents tend to be among the most interested—but potentially challenging—stakeholders; how can education abroad professionals deal most effectively with this generation of super-involved parents? “First, take a deep breath and remember that parents become involved in their student’s program because they care,” says Beth Laux, director of learning abroad in the University of Utah’s Office for Global Engagement. “Just like us, they want their students to have the best possible experience. It can be helpful to recognize that common ground, and build the relationship from there.”

Robin Melavalin, director of global connections and continuing education at Mount Ivy College in Massachusetts, adds, “Parents are as excited as the students are about international travel, and they tend to be eager to learn about logistics and  opportunities for their students.”

Getting Ahead of Questions: Top Parental Concerns

“Parents have a wide range of concerns related to study abroad,” says Stacey Tsantir, director of health and safety at DIS–Study Abroad in Scandinavia. “They worry about the quality of the education their students will receive abroad; how the credits from abroad will apply to their degrees, finances, application requirements and deadlines, housing, and more.”

“They worry about not only the cost of education abroad, but its value,” says Laux. Over the past three years, the University of Utah has adjusted its approach to handling parental concerns about the cost of study abroad by providing a detailed estimated budget for each program, which includes everything from tuition and housing to immunizations and books. According to Laux, “Parents appreciate authenticity and transparency. For most families, there’s a certain amount of sticker shock involved in a study abroad program. We find that parents feel more comfortable asking financial questions when this information is available.” She adds, “We also talk about prices in terms of the cost of attendance instead of tuition. Most students and families don’t really know how much it actually costs to attend school on campus, because they are billed separately for tuition, housing, utilities, books, meals, parking passes, etc. Many study abroad programs roll all these costs into one price, which makes it look more expensive.” By starting the conversation with the total cost of attendance, Laux says, parents have a more realistic baseline for understanding what they’re paying for.

“Some parents are skeptics when it comes to education abroad,” she adds. “Many of them have limited international experience, and if they have spent time abroad, it’s usually vacation based. So their perceptions of study abroad may be skewed.” At the University of Utah, they use two strategies to help with this. “First, we go to great lengths to clearly explain what study abroad is. Second, we’ve adjusted our marketing to help parents understand the ‘real life’ value of these experiences. Most of our programs fall into four categories—career development, community engagement, language immersion, and research experience. We’ve designed icons that correspond to these activities, and when we create marketing materials, we put the icons in a prominent place on the brochure. This is an easy way to communicate what a student will be doing abroad, not just where they are going and what classes they will be taking. We’ve found this strategy to be very effective.”

“In addition to concerns about how the program is run, parents also are concerned about whether their students will be good participants,” says Melavalin. “They also worry about daily care—will they be able to safely eat street food? Will there be vegan food available? Is the drinking water safe? And they worry about access to high-quality medical treatment with English-speaking doctors. I tell them that the students should notify us of any concerns they may have, and that we will then notify the airlines and our partners in-country about food allergies and eating preferences. I also tell them that bottled water is always available. Regarding medical issues, I tell them about our resources with International SOS,” a medical and travel security services firm.

In her role as a health and safety professional, Tsantir most often receives questions from parents who are concerned about issues related to health, safety, and security. “Many are exploratory questions: questions about insurance coverage, and general safety tips for life abroad,” she says. “There are also often concerns about a student’s well-being while they’re abroad. For example, often a student will tell their parent they aren’t feeling well, rather than contacting someone on site to help them.”

In cases like this, Tsantir says, encouraging parents to get their students to reach out to the on-site or home campus staff is a more productive way of dealing with the situation.

Melavalin agrees. “When there’s an illness or an incident abroad, if a student contacts the parent, it can cause undue stress for the parent, who might try to intervene; meanwhile, the student might be continuing to enjoy their travels.” She tells her students that if they do open an issue with a parent, they should be sure to close the loop again too, as soon as possible. “In one of my previous jobs, a student reported to her mother that she had woken up with bug bites,” she remembers. “Her mother insisted to the president of the college that she be brought home immediately, but in the meantime the student had gone on with the trip’s activities, was having a great time, and had no intention of returning home.”

How to Make Parents Part of the Team

Before departure, Melavalin offers parents the opportunity to participate in regularly scheduled conference calls, arranged with a service that provides a toll-free line that is billed to her office. “There is no limit to the number of people who can call at one time,” she says, noting that on a recent call she had 19 parents on the line. She offers two conference calls in early February, a few nights apart, during which she reviews information about the college’s faculty-led travel courses, which depart in March and May. “I send an e-mail invite to the students that they can forward to their parents if they wish: This provides implicit authorization [for parental participation] from the students.” During the calls, Melavalin explains the college’s expectations of the students, shares safe travel tips, and goes over the content of the predeparture orientation with them, so that they know what the students have been told and can help reinforce the messages students have been given by the school. Melavalin also tries to make parents aware that it’s best not to “overcommunicate” with students while they’re away, so that they can focus on their studies and their experiences abroad, rather than being constantly engaged with communications from home.

What about those parents that just don’t get the message? “If a parent is particularly involved, especially predeparture, I kindly remind them that while I understand their interest in supporting their child, they will not be abroad with their child, so we all need to work together to help empower the student. Where possible, I also try to give them a task, or a set of tasks, to help them redirect their energy,” says Tsantir. “But no matter what the reason is for the parent’s call, it is most helpful to put yourself in their shoes,” she adds. “Starting from a place of understanding their concerns, and doing your best to answer the question is always best.”