With more than one-third of Fairfield students in each class studying abroad every year, many have expressed interest in writing about their experiences.
Traditionally, The Mirror has published personal accounts from student travelers. However, most students are limited to simply sharing their stories with interested family and friends.
A new magazine, Glimpse Quarterly, is a new outlet through which students can voice their experiences and learn about others’ experiences.
Glimpse was founded in 2000 by college students at Brown University. In partnership with The National Geographic Society, it provides a platform for students living and working abroad to share their experiences.
Glimpse isn’t seeking reporters or travelers, but rather, regular students who live in a country for a period of time who want to share first-person anecdotal stories.
In addition to sharing past experiences, students may also prepare themselves for their travels with the site.
Fairfield students traditionally turn to the study abroad office and friends who had studied abroad previously for advice on study abroad options. But students can now use the Glimpse Web site and magazine as a resource for planning their study abroad trip. They can also read narrative stories of other students’ personal experiences.
This can be a tool to aid them in making informed decisions about which study abroad program would be a good fit for them.
“I thought it gave valuable insight,” said Kimberly Lovato ’09, who is planning to study in Australia next semester. “It was nice to see a firsthand student account versus a Brisbane tourism Web site.”
This non-profit organization tries to foster cross-cultural understanding and an exchange of information. Glimpse covers the most popular study abroad locations but also strives to reveal new and interesting countries.
Founders believe that by understanding the daily realities of life around the world, people can become global citizens.
Kerala Goodkin, editor in chief and co-founder of Glimpse, said she helped found the magazine because there wasn’t a forum for students to share unique study abroad experiences.
“There were tourist attraction resources and grass roots newspaper stories, but nothing about the day-to-day realities,” she said.
Today it has an active network of 7,000 people.
The Web site currently is looking to add multimedia resources and has recently added a social networking capability that allows other students to station themselves as “experts” on their location who can answer questions.
By February, students should be able to network through blogs and videos, according to Goodkin.
“We aren’t looking to replace Facebook,” said Goodkin. “However, there is a similar networking purpose for students interested in international studies and study abroad.”
“We want to make sure that our country’s up-and-coming generations care about the world,” said Goodkin.
The magazine is open for student submissions.
This can give students the opportunity to have their writing gain international exposure. Editors are also willing to work with students and give editorial advice.
“We want you to write about a specific moment, such as an afternoon spent walking around the city instead of trying to summarize the entire experience from arrival to departure,” Goodkin told The Mirror.
Many Fairfield students expressed interest in exploring the publication to record their personal experiences.
“I hadn’t heard of Glimpse before, but I would consider writing for them when I’m studying in Prague next semester,” said Becky Krause ’09. “As an English major, it would be good writing experience and also a great way to remember some of my study abroad experiences.”
The Spring 2008 issue’s deadline for submission is Dec. 5, 2007, and the Summer 2008 issue’s deadline is March 5, 2008.
For more information, go to www.glimpsefoundation.org.
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