Students gain knowledge, confidence, college credit with short courses abroad

By Stacey Hartmann

With each midair twist and posture executed while suspended by nothing more than long pieces of cloth called “silks,” Matthew Greenfield, a 20-year-old neuroscience psychology major from Penn State, is positioning himself for a career in the circus arts.

A collegiate gymnast from Villanova, Pa., Greenfield is one of a growing number of U.S. and Canadian college students expanding their educational and career options via study abroad short courses such as those offered by AustraLearn / AsiaLearn / EuroLearn, a Westminster, Colo.-based provider of overseas educational programs.
Greenfield performed his aerial silks act alongside four other contemporary circus arts students this summer during AustraLearn’s “Cirque de la Ville Vivant” short course at the renowned National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA), an affiliate of Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia.

The AustraLearn group, which included students with backgrounds ranging from no circus training to some professional circus experience, concluded their NICA course with a performance June 27, 2008, called “Out Of States.”

“I was amazed by how much went into this performance,” says Greenfield, who besides his solo aerial silks act participated in comedy, dance and drama segments for the show. “Before this, I hadn’t thought about anything like rigging, costumes, or promotion posters. It took a lot of energy, but the show was really fun to perform.”
The one-hour performance also included acts by AustraLearn participants Samuel Sion, an Illinois State University student from Riverside Ill., Jessica Lazarus, an Illinois State University student from Chicago, Courtney Hurt, a Sweetbriar College student from Goose Creek, S.C., and Kristi Taff, an Illinois State University student from Joliet, Ill.

With their individual and group acts, the students demonstrated what they learned during the four-week course in modern circus arts, which encompassed circus arts training, performance, dance and cultural studies of Melbourne and Australia.

“My time in Australia made a big impact on me,” says Taff, an education and French major who performed diabolo, a traditional Chinese circus apparatus, and aerial acts involving the lyric hoop and Spanish webs. “Most of all, I am taking away a lot of confidence that I did not have before.”

Short course appeal growing

More college students such as Greenfield and Taff are seeking shorter-term study abroad options of eight weeks or less, according to the 2007 Open Doors report by the Institute for International Education.
In fact, many U.S. campuses are utilizing short courses to increase their study abroad numbers, a trend boosting short-term program participation over the past decade from less than 40,000 students to more than 115,000, according to the 2007 Open Doors.

Such programs are especially appealing to students who have personal obligations or degree restrictions that keep them from studying abroad for a semester or longer, the IIE report says.

In response, program providers such as AustraLearn are offering more overseas educational opportunities packing into a short timeframe coursework, field studies, training, travel and cultural excursions -- with college credit to boot.

Timed to take place during the winter or summer breaks of North American college campuses, these programs also serve as an economical add-on to a semester or year abroad.

AustraLearn’s short courses touch on a broad range of subjects and include everything from a 10-day study of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef through the University of Queensland’s Centre for Marine Studies to four-week Aboriginal studies intensive learning about the Nyungar people and culture.

At Swinburne in July 2008, eight AustraLearn students will get behind cameras in front of the big screen for a three-week film and television production course coinciding with the Melbourne International Film Festival, a showcase of more than 400 films from 50 countries.

The course represents an opportunity for journalism and film students, in particular, to learn screenwriting, directing, camera/light/sound production, digital editing and film critique and analysis. At course conclusion, each student will have produced his or her own 90-second film and attained 3-4 U.S. college credits.

The idea behind such programs, says Sarah Price, a regional team leader for the Americas and Europe at Swinburne University of Technology, is: “Yes, you can go out of the states and get some academic credit, but why not go and do things you can’t do on your home campus?”

Inspiration grows with exposure to top talent

Greenfield, who started taking gymnastics at age five, has competed at a national level since he was eight.
At Penn State, he is a member of the gymnastics team, which in 2007 won the NCAA Championships. Greenfield’s events include high bar, floor, vault and rings.

But while many of his teammates are focused on the Olympics, Greenfield says, “I decided it’s not for me.”
“I’m 6-foot-2,” he says. “I’ve been doing it for so long. I want to do something after college, and 2012 is too far away.”

Greenfield has for many years been intrigued with the circus arts, which he finds interesting for its artistic expression. He has long been a fan of the ground-breaking Cirque du Soleil, famous for reinventing the circus show.

He became especially interested in aerial circus acts when he was younger and got to try the flying trapeze while attending International Gymnastics Camp.

As he approached his junior year, Greenfield began exploring training options in contemporary circus arts.
“I looked online for a couple of months for programs in the United States and outside the United States,” he says, and AustraLearn’s circus arts NICA program “really stood out.”

When Greenfield and Taff arrived at NICA, they were impressed by the facilities and expertise of the trainers.
“The inspiring coaches never let me quit when it got hard,” Taff says, “and our performance and all of the new skills I learned really gave me a great confidence that I did not have in myself before.”

With the circus arts course, it isn’t until international students arrive that they fully grasp the professionalism and prestige of NICA, Price says.

NICA began humbly in 1999 operating out of an unrenovated warehouse, but successfully running its pilot project. In 2001, it accepted its first students for a degree program, with over 100 people auditioning from across Australia for 23 spots.

NICA now makes its home in the new, state-of-the-art $10 million NICA National Circus Centre and the Sidney Myer Circus Studio. Graduates of NICA often find careers in Australia and internationally with well-known companies and organizations, including Tokyo Disney and Cirque du Soleil in the United States.

Further down the road, Greenfield plans to attend graduate school and also use his neuroscience psychology degree to help people as a psychologist or social worker.

But before then, “I definitely want to explore the performing arts world first.”

To extend his experience, Greenfield will remain in Australia an additional month as a NICA intern assisting first-year students,.

“I now plan to apply to circus schools around the country and maybe get more circus experience before I join Cirque du Soleil,” he says.

And as he makes those plans, he will take from his circus arts short course “more experience performing and working in group situations where every member has to participate for the final show to come together.”
“But mostly,” he says, “I’m taking away the relationships I have formed.”

Stacey Hartmann is former newspaper reporter and freelance journalist currently writing on special study abroad topics for AustraLearn / AsiaLearn / EuroLearn – Educational Programs of GlobaLinks. Reach her at Stacey.hartmann@earthlink.net.