There’s a nifty program here at Mt. Hood Community College that helps students of almost any budget explore and enjoy studying – in Europe, Japan and Mexico.
“Well, really, it’s pretty simple – we just try to get students to go somewhere other than here in Gresham to study because there’s so much to be learned by going somewhere outside of our own country,” said Dan Hannon, coordinator of MHCC’s Study Abroad program.
“The thing that’s most interesting to me about this whole community college study abroad idea is that it’s affordable for nearly any student,” Hannon said, adding, “Most students, if they really want to, can do it. And financial aid applies. They can put together a package that can get them there if they really want to do it – so that’s pretty cool.”
Students at MHCC have a variety of choices to consider when planning for a study abroad trip. There are two trips to Mexico – one during spring that lasts for eight weeks, and a summer trip that lasts for two weeks.
“The Mexico programs are language programs, pure and simple. So, if you go spring term, you get a whole year of Spanish in eight weeks, so it’s pretty intense, but it’s pretty fun too,” said Hannon.
The summer Mexico trip gifts students with one full term of Spanish in two weeks.
Hannon said the Kyoto, Japan, program is intensive, but is open to non-language majors. Students study Japanese language and culture, and field trips are commonplace.
“The program in Florence, Italy, is a little bit of Italian, and a lot of courses a student might even take right here.”
According to the MHCC Study Abroad site (http://www.mhcc.edu/academics/programs/study_abroad/main.htm), students live in apartments in Florence and attend transferable courses taught by Oregon college instructors.
“Same in London. Your courses might be writing, they might be literature, they might be drama – going out to plays – and they also take a course called British Life and Culture. It involves a lot of field trips, a lot of learning about how the British live and how the British view the world and how they do things.”
Hannon said all the programs offer credit that is state-approved and that transfer to any college in the state, “probably any college in the Northwest.” Students choosing to take Spanish in Mexico will have earned universally transferable college credit.
MHCC is one of seven members of the Oregon International Education Consortium, which Hannon also coordinates. The Florence and London programs are a cooperative effort, so students will enjoy the company of other Oregon, English-speaking students while learning about and living amidst other cultures.
“Seven colleges work together to pool the students and [they] also accept applications once a year for teaching in London from faculty from all seven colleges, and once a year for teachers in Florence for teachers from those seven colleges.” Hannon said faculty from any of the seven colleges can propose courses they would like to teach and explain how the classes would benefit the students in each respective setting.
“So when students go to Florence or London they’re taking Oregon Community College courses. If they’re taking WR121, they’re taking WR121 taught by a state-approved, community college instructor…and the assignments will be tailored to the fact that you wake up every morning in London.”
According to Hannon, students wishing to see plays in Europe will be surprised to know that tickets cost about the same as movie tickets here in the United States.
But, besides classes and fieldtrips, students will have the opportunity to begin the breakdown of stereotyping.
“Last year a woman called about the Mexico program and I explained that you live with a family, and she said, ‘Well, what about the pigs and chickens?’ And I said, ‘What do you mean?’ And she said, ‘Well, aren’t they going in and out of the house and stuff and aren’t the floors going to be dirty?’ And I said, ‘Well, these people don’t have pigs and chickens in their houses, I don’t understand.’ I explained to her that these are middle-class families – they have houses with tile floors, furniture, they eat three meals a day at a sit-down table, they have bedrooms, there’s usually an inner-courtyard with huge plants and trees, and these are just typical middle-class people in a typical town. And she said, ‘Wow.’ She was blown away.”
“So, a couple of thing happen when students go somewhere else instead of here: they learn a lot about another culture, and they get around a lot of stereotypes.”
MHCC’s program is unique in that it allows students who may not have loads of money the same opportunities only well off students have enjoyed.
“When I was a college student, it was really only the wealthy kids at Stanford and places like that who went on these kinds of study abroad programs to Italy or Spain,” Hannon said. “I mean, it wasn’t even in my radar screen as a remote possibility.
“If you have a job, they can more easily put it on hold for three months. A lot of [students] are reluctant to leave their families for that long – well, they don’t have to go a whole year, they can go for three months. The tuition’s cheaper. They can wait until they go to a four-year school, but it would cost them a ton more.”
Hannon said, “I was in Mexico last winter, over Christmas, and I cut my foot pretty badly. So I went to a clinic down the street from where I was staying. So, I had a book – I had a big book – cause I thought this was going to take a long time. So, I hobbled in, sat down, and I hadn’t even opened the book before they said to come in. I went in, and the doctor stitched up my foot. Nobody made me fill-out gigantic forms, they didn’t even know my name. They just fixed-up my foot, and then gave me some antibiotics. So, I hobbled out and said, ‘Well, how much is it?’ And they said it was $70 dollars, but that included coming back to get my stitches out. I said, ‘Can I pay with a Visa,’ and they said, ‘Well, no. We don’t do Visas, just cash,’ and I said, ‘I don’t have any cash,’ and they said, ‘Well, you can walk up two blocks and get some cash from a cash machine and come back and pay us.’ Can you imagine that here? [In the States] they wouldn’t let you leave – they’d send you with an armed guard. They didn’t even know my name yet, and they said, ‘Just go up and get some cash, sorry you have to walk, but go up and get the cash and come back.’ So that’s what I did, and I just thought, ‘Man this is so great.’ The doctor who stitched my foot up said, sadly, ‘You know, if this were the United States, you would’ve had to wait four hours for this.’ And he was right.”
Hannon said the experience students gain extends beyond their stay. He said students “almost universally love [the trips]” and they love their Mexican families so much, they go back just to visit their host families. “Students almost universally have a great time with whatever trip they choose. It’s a wonderful time in a person’s life to go somewhere else…”
“Everybody finds time to go out salsa dancing at least twice or three times a week,” Hannon added.
In Hannon’s experience, students usually experience some level of culture shock. He said students never think it can happen to them, “but it almost always does.” It might show up as dissatisfaction with their host family or impatience with how a school is ran. “Only after we process it do we realize that what they’re really feeling is that this culture runs differently. Until we say, ‘that’s part of the learning process.’”
“My own feeling is that we’re a very insular country. Most of our legislators don’t even own passports, haven’t been anywhere, they’re making decisions in a vacuum – and the rest of the world knows that, they understand how insulated we are and how ignorant we are about the rest of the world when we make decisions,” Hannon said.
According to Hannon, “students learn a lot about the culture they’re living in and they learn there are other ways to do things that also work, besides [their] own way.”
Hannon said, “The other surprising thing that students learn is to see their country through the eyes of other people. And they often come back sobered at how the rest of the world views this country. We are not universally loved and respected. In fact, almost universally, we are not loved and not respected.”
But, said Hannon, students find they are quickly accepted, even as Americans.
“Most people in the world do not like our government, nor do they approve of the way our government treats other counties. And so that is a pretty big thing to understand, and those two things alone are worth the whole trip, anything else they learn is gravy.”

For more information, contact Dan Hannon at (503) 491-7488