By: Carlos Torres
Matthew Woodcock stepped off the plane and into the rural jungle town of Rurrenabaque, Bolivia, finding himself immersed in a new world. The chatter of wildlife and the rustle of the wind would be the sounds of his new home as he began his journey abroad as a student missionary.
Every year, hundreds of students like Woodcock from all over the United States pack their bags and leave the country. Some students chase their dream of global adventure and cultural immersion, while others follow a calling to serve communities in need. Regardless of their path, each student learns to live a life different from their routine—a life far from home.
Students experience change and challenges as they learn to live away from friends and family while adapting to a culture unlike their own.
For some students, life abroad was an incredible experience that taught them growth and helped them value the beauty of life. They experienced the freedom of a new environment filled with novelty and opportunity. On the other hand, other students faced circumstances that sparked a flame of perseverance and purpose in their lives. In each story, a transformation took place—in mindset, plan and destination.
Woodcock, a junior theology student from Southern Adventist University, was one of the students whose life changed when he left home.
“It was an amazing experience,” Woodcock said, thinking back to his time as a student missionary.
Woodcock served as a house parent for 15 boys at Familia Feliz, an orphanage that more than 40 children call home.
“I was genuinely like a parent to them. I was getting them up in the morning, cooking for them, helping them with their homework—everything, everything, everything!”
As he became absorbed in caring for these children, Woodcock learned of the challenges that their community faced. The lack of resources and the constant needs of the children became a reality he had to wake up to every day. They yearned for home-cooked meals, a clean bed, but most of all, a caring home—a home Woodcock would now nurture.
“I would think ahead to the future of being back [home], and I would get excited because I would think to myself, ‘This is hard right now. I think I’m ready to go back,’” Woodcock said. “Things are going to be easier when I get back.”
Culture shock at home
However, for many students who go abroad, returning home is not as easy as it seems. They step into a new world, far different from what they have grown up in. The food looks different, the language is confusing and the culture is unfamiliar.
Makena VonBergen, a student from the West Coast who now attends Southern, spent 10 months teaching high school religion in Micronesia.
“I expected coming back to the States would be easier,” she said.
Things that she once longed for, like a hot shower or familiar food, didn’t feel as comforting as she had imagined. Even after reuniting with her long-distance boyfriend, their interactions initially felt strange despite a year of constant communication over the phone.
For Woodcock, the contrast began as soon as he stepped on American soil.
“As soon as I got back to airports in America, I could see the difference in how much everything becomes about yourself,” Woodcock said. “People don’t have the same care for others that I saw when I was abroad.”
After molding his mindset to be focused on service, it was frustrating to see the complete opposite back at home.
On top of culture shock, returning students said they faced challenges regarding their identity.
Elena Weiss Segui left Andrews University to study in Italy for 10 months. She remembered the disappointment she felt when she came back home and interacted with people with expectations that no longer fit. She saw her experience abroad as one filled with growth and maturity, but when she returned, people did not seem to understand how she had changed.
“When I came home, I realized that people expect to see the same person you were before you left—that just wasn’t the case,” she said.
As she tried to acclimate to her new lifestyle and take on old responsibilities, she couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed.
“When I first started going back to school, I was a mess,” she said. “Not only because I wasn’t ready for school, but also because of work. I was not prepared for the constant stress I would be under.”
For Pedro Aragon, the struggle to readjust after six months of studying in France was not something new for him. Having been born and raised in Mexico, he remembered the initial shock he experienced when he came to the United States to study marketing at Southern.
He was accustomed to a culture that prioritized the social experience and embracing their collective culture over the idea of always progressing and staying one step ahead. As he learned about the United States culture, he was met with the cultural shift that accentuates future and status.
“My level of anxiety increased here, as everything was more fast-paced and loud,” Aragon said.
Everything changed when he moved abroad to study in France and found a cultural middle ground.
“It was the perfect balance of both worlds: the States and my country of origin,” he said. “It was still focusing on growth, but it also focused on the social aspect of travel and hanging out with friends.”
After his six-month adventure, Aragon prepared to come back home and wondered if this transition would be similar to the one he had many years ago—It was.
“I could have prepared better for that [transition], but I just didn’t want to think about going back to the States with its crazy big highways and loud cities,” Aragon said. “When I got here, I was hit with reality. You have to work to pay for college and study to maintain your grades. It was putting your feet on the ground and having the mindset of ‘Let’s work hard.’”
Byard Parks, Student Missions director in the Office of Ministry and Missions (OMM) at Southern, credits the shock of students’ re-entry to the capitalist and power-driven mentality of American society.
“They come from places where there’s time to sit with some tea and talk,” Parks said. “Then there’s this maddening rush to get things done, to move on and meet deadlines.”
As a leader in the Student Missions department, Parks has studied the effects of re-entry of student missionaries back into college life and the United States. He has witnessed what he describes as the stress and confusion that students experience due to the sudden forced interruption of their lifestyle and mindset. Those around them don’t understand the experiences they’ve gone through and often, leave student missionaries feeling unheard.
“It’s very important to validate the total experience that students have had,” Parks said. “If they come home and people don’t take a significant interest in the thing that has been most precious to them, it actually distorts their whole experience.”
According to VonBergen, when people asked about the experience, it often felt like they did not really want to have a conversation.
“Once back home, it was difficult to have to deal with the question, ‘How was your mission year?’” she said.
She recalled the confusion in her mind during those interactions, wondering, “Do they want an hour version of it or just a 2-minute version?”
A big part of students’ lives abroad changes as they take on various responsibilities, especially for student missionaries.
“They don’t go away as students,” Parks said, describing how students reinvent themselves for the mission and pour out from their cup into others. “They go and become a mister or a miss, and suddenly, they are somebody with heavy responsibility and respect.”
However, Parks explained that everything changes once students return to their university.
“They come back into student life, and you’re basically just a guy sitting at a desk with everyone else,” said Parks. “That’s a really big culture shock.”
Pierre Nzokizwa, PhD, is the Adventist Colleges Abroad (ACA) program director for Southern Adventist University. He noticed the discomfort that students feel upon re-entry.
“They feel estranged and they don’t fit in,” Nzokizwa continued, “After making all the efforts to adjust to that culture, they have to come back. They come back and start noticing aspects of home in the United States that they don’t like. But what can you do? You’re home.”
A thread connecting
Each one of these stories shares a common theme: Re-entry is a disorienting and confusing chapter of many students’ journeys. However, it is not the end of their story.
In the middle of the chaos and uncertainty, many students found ways to adjust by reliving memories and taking intentional steps to grow into who they’ve become.
Colette Williams, senior marketing major at Southern, studied and worked abroad in Italy for a cumulative 11 months. According to her, the transition is much easier if students are intentional about connecting with others who lived through similar experiences.
“There are pieces from Italy that I was able to bring back with me,” she said. “There are things that I learned abroad that I still incorporate into my life and into my identity. Italian culture still felt familiar. I was still able to speak with my friends in Italian and make the Italian food I used to make.”
Hannah Krause, another senior marketing major at Southern, studied at Villa Aurora in Florence, Italy, for over seven months. Coming back, she came to realize that she could romanticize life at home just as she did abroad.
“One thing that has helped me is realizing that every stage of life is beautiful,” she said. “I had to convince myself that there’s no way that this was the best life experience. Life keeps going. Good things have to leave for better things to come.”
Departments on Southern’s campus are also intentional in trying to create ways and spaces in which students can feel validated in their experience and exercise their passions, according to Parks. OMM has a dedicated retreat for returning student missionaries so they can exchange stories and bond with others who can relate to their hardships and loneliness. Similarly, the Modern Language department at Southern offers a course specifically for students who studied abroad to share and build on experiences learned overseas, according to Nzokizwa.
The experience that these students feel goes beyond programs, classes and retreats. It is a journey back home that holds memories that are felt in a deeply personal way. Spending time abroad has transformed the lives of many students like Williams, who believes it will continue transforming students only if conversations continue to take place.
“I think it should be encouraged to have conversations about the transition,” he said. “Not enough people talk about it, and it is very real.”
