More than 154,000 students in the U.S. choose to study abroad yearly, yet many Washington University students and parents have reservations about going abroad in times of world turmoil. Especially with recent State Department warnings to U.S. citizens located in a number of foreign nations, they are particularly wary.

At WU, Robert Booker, director of Overseas Programs, and Amy Suelzer, assistant director of International Studies, keep track of dozens of WU students scattered around the world. On-site staff members and other personnel serve as contacts overseas for WU students studying abroad.

Frequent check-ins with on-site staff and e-mails to the program directors are WU’s main methods for keeping track of students, yet difficulties occur when disaster strikes overseas.

“The biggest problem is hearing [and] actually knowing that something has happened,” said Booker. “Frequently a parent will be the first one to contact us, which is the exact opposite order in which we’d like it to occur.”

In many cases, parents worry more than the students about events in the country where the student resides.

“There are a number of times where something happens that the student’s not involved with at all, and maybe the student heard about it and doesn’t think much about it,” said Booker. “Yet I’ve got panicked parents because their student was within 1,000 miles of that event.”

Students’ frequent contact with parents, especially with increasingly widespread cell phone and e-mail use, can be a boon when a student is unreachable by other means.

“If a site director is unable to reach a student, we’ll get a hold of the parent, and very often the parent knows where the [student] is,” said Booker.

Suelzer is also a proponent of this method.

“More and more students are carrying cell phones abroad, particularly in Europe, but also in other parts of the world,” said Suelzer. “We, the parent, or the resident director have that phone number and can reach a student wherever they happen to be.”

With recent news reports stressing the vulnerability of American students who are overseas, Suelzer emphasized that students should be cautious.

“I think that in these times of political instability, and particularly in many parts of the world that are very stable, there’s a certain amount of anti-American sentiment, or at least criticism of American government positions on many issues. It’s probably not a good idea to be walking around with an American flag posted on your shirt,” said Suelzer.

WU refers students to guidelines for safe travel recommended on the U.S. State Department’s Web site, with suggestions for proper attire, vaccinations and other necessary precautions for students traveling abroad. Regarding dress, however, Booker adds an important point about cultural sensibility.

“We also ask [students] to be careful what they wear in terms of being culturally offensive,” said Booker. “For example, it’s not good for girls to wear shorts and t-shirts in Africa.”

When briefing students about travel abroad, Booker often reminds students that when they cannot avoid being noticed as Americans, they should remain cautious, especially when choosing to observe liberal drinking laws overseas.

“[American students] are recognizable not just by how they appear or how they sound, but where they go. They tend to frequent the same nightclubs or the same tourist spots,” said Booker. “You can’t really tell them to avoid it. But if you feel uncomfortable, go somewhere else. Don’t just hang out because you think you’re invulnerable and you might not get hurt.”

Suelzer noted that women planning to study abroad should be particularly wary due to cultural differences. American women grow up with a greater sense of invulnerability and confidence, yet in a foreign nation, an unsuspecting woman can become a prime target for criminals.

Freshman Arts and Sciences student Jennifer Chung said that other worries are foremost in her mind.

“I would be more concerned with becoming fluent in the country’s primary language, as well as worried about adequately understanding its cultural background,” said Chung. “In going abroad, I would try to apply a sense of cultural sensitivity to both local and global issues, putting aside any ethnocentricity I might harbor.”

Residential advisor Erik Peterson, a junior in the School of Art, traveled to Florence, Italy, last spring and encountered few problems.

“On Easter, we couldn’t go out because there was a threat of something happening during a big [celebration] at the Duomo,” said Peterson. “We had to cut one of our field trips because of that, but other than that I didn’t feel too much of a danger; you just had to be aware of the news. I’d say it was definitely worth what little risk there was.”

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