Students Go Abroad Despite Fears of Terrorism

Margie Torres of Newport Beach will spend the summer exploring the wilds of New Zealand while her sister, Susana, is leaving in August to study at a high school in Iceland for a year.

Margie, 17, and Susana, 18, are among 168 Orange County high school students who in coming months plan to travel and study overseas on foreign exchange programs--despite fears of international terrorism that has caused many Americans to cancel trips abroad.

“Concern about terrorism had no particular influence on our decision to let Margie and Susana go overseas,” said the girls’ mother, Joan Torres. “In fact, my husband and I are planning a trip to Switzerland in three weeks.

“Compared to the dangers of driving on the freeway, for example, terrorism just isn’t something that ranks high on our list of worries.”

The Torres’ views reflect a dramatic reversal of the feelings voiced just two months ago by many parents who were then considering whether to send their sons and daughters on foreign exchange programs. Fresh in their minds were April’s bombing of Libya by the United States, the October, 1985, hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro and the December, 1985, terrorist attacks at the Rome and Vienna airports.

Had Expressed Fears

These incidents caused spokesmen for many foreign study programs--interviewed last April--to say they feared this year would be the most difficult one for their programs since World War II.

Today, the picture has brightened for student exchange programs, said spokesmen for organizations approved by the Council on Standards for International Educational Travel in Reston, Va. It claims to be the only national body to set standards for exchange programs and monitor their compliance.

As Orange County high school students prepare to leave for summer study tours later this month and others are anticipating their August departure for yearlong study at foreign high schools, there is no evidence of a decrease in participation, according to spokesmen for the five exchange groups that keep separate records on Orange County youngsters going overseas on their programs.

Although some of these groups report a slight increase in student enrollment, the remainder report a slight decrease. An overall tabulation of their numbers shows that 168 county youngsters will be traveling the globe, the same number as last year.

“International terrorism has had no impact on us,” said Klaus Bergmann, program director for American Intercultural Student Exchange of La Jolla. “We sent seven students from Orange County overseas this year.

“This coming academic year we expect to send a few more than this. We send our students on Pan Am (airlines), which has increased its security checks.” Bergmann said this and other safeguards seem to have satisfied any fears about terrorism Orange County students and their parents may have had.

‘Fewer Cancellations’

Mary Houts of Laguna Beach, one of the three area representatives in Orange County for AFS International/Intercultural Programs, said the national headquarters “has reported fewer cancellations this year than last.”

However, Houts noted that 85 Orange County students would be going overseas with American Field Service this summer and fall, five fewer than a year ago.

“Some of the cancellations were because of concern about terrorism,” Houts said. “But probably playing an equal role is the declining value of the dollar (down 30% against major world currencies during the last year). This makes these trips (that cost $2,375 for the summer and $4,450 for the year) more expensive.” AFS sends more than 3,200 students a year to 65 countries.

Houts said AFS’s still-strong student participation probably resulted from meetings with prospective students and their parents in which she and other AFS representatives explained that the organization keeps in close contact with the U.S. State Department to monitor developments in potential trouble spots around the world.

“A few years ago we didn’t send students to Iran because the information we received from the State Department made it clear that a revolution was going to occur,” Houts recalled. “At the time of the Libyan raid, parents were kept fully informed about whether their children in the area were in danger.”

The Educational Foundation for Foreign Study this year has one student from Orange County studying in Germany. However, it expects to have six county high school students studying overseas during the coming academic year, spokeswoman Carriellen Angell said in a telephone interview from the organization’s headquarters in Santa Barbara.

One of the 225 Southern California students scheduled to go abroad with the Youth for Understanding summer and yearlong programs decided to stay home, said spokeswoman Joan Robonson. However, none in the 50-student contingent from Orange County has canceled, Robonson said.

Some Negative Impact

The fear of terrorism had a slightly negative impact on the number of Orange County students participating in the American Scandinavian Student Exchange, which has national headquarters in Laguna Beach. “We sent 20 students (from Orange County) overseas this year and will be sending the same number next year,” spokeswoman Chris Vilicich said.

“We had expected an increase, but (about five of the Southern California) students who had expressed an interest in our program backed out because they said they were troubled about the terrorism problem,” she said.

The only program to report a major decline in the number of students it is sending abroad is the Greenwich, Conn.-based American Institute for Foreign Study. Spokesman Bill Gertz said the program, which annually sends 10,000 students nationwide overseas, has recorded a 30% drop-off in its summer program.

However, his organization does not keep specific figures on Orange County students, Gertz said. Therefore, he was unable to say whether there would be a decrease in the number of Orange County students his group would be sending to 25 countries.

“We’ve had a problem with terrorism, but it’s a short-term problem,” Gertz maintained. “This spring a lot of parents and school systems got scared and didn’t sign up for the summer program. Parents then perceived overseas travel and study as being dangerous.

“Since then many students have reapplied because they and their parents realized that no exchange students had encountered any problems overseas. But now it’s too late for them to get into our summer program.

“Parents whose kids are roaming the streets of America’s cities this summer now realize that their sons and daughters might have been safer in Europe under the supervision of one of our program’s teachers,” Gertz added. “Next year, we think the number participating will increase 40% over this year’s level.”

‘Maturing Experience’

Orange County residents who have studied abroad say it is unfortunate that the specter of terrorism has cast a shadow over foreign exchange programs. Elizabeth Schroeder of Irvine, who four years ago spent the summer on the Indian Ocean island nation of Sri Lanka, said: “It was such a maturing experience for me. It’s too bad that someone would let the possibility of terrorism keep them in this country.”

Schroeder, 22, noted that while Sri Lanka’s “political system was in turmoil” during her stay because of ethnic and religious conflicts, she never felt in danger. Indeed, she used some of what she learned that summer to write a 75-page paper on Sri Lanka and Indonesia as a political science major at the University of Colorado, from which she was graduated this spring.

Concern about terrorism has had no effect on the number of foreign students who will be coming to Orange County in ensuing months, exchange program spokesmen said. They report that the number will increase by 48, to 209.

And foreign students who are ending their yearlong stay in Orange County this month are torn between looking forward to joyful reunions with their families and dreading leaving behind the host families they lived with during their stay in this country.

Ingunde Ritz, an 18-year-old Brazilian who lived with Elizabeth Schroeder’s family in Newport Beach while attending Corona del Mar High School this past year, said, “It’s going to be difficult saying goodby to the Schroeders because I called them mom and dad; they are so warm, and they made me feel so welcome.”

Added Ritz, “I’ve wanted to come to the United States since I was a little kid. To Brazilians the United States is kind of like a dream. They worship the United States and its products.”

While Ritz found America lived up to her expectations, she has decided that she no longer wants to live here permanently.

“I’d like to come back to the United States to visit or for graduate school,” Ritz said. “But I wouldn’t want to come back here to live.

“All my family is in Brazil. During my year here I realized I was too attached to Brazil and its way of life. I guess it’s part of growing up.”