decade, still under 80,000 of the 12.5 million U.S. university and college

students study abroad each year, compared with 350,000 foreign students

studying in the United States. The assumption is that students with

international experience have more marketable abilities, and can more

effectively function in a world which demands such expertise.

For other higher education institutions, fears of environmental

catastrophes have led to efforts to address, often experientially, sustainable

development and the relationship of environmental problems, poverty and

economic crises. Federal funding of international education through the

National Security Exchange Program has prompted some universities to

expand foreign-language offerings and encourage international

experiences.³For yet others, including Goshen College, which we will address

in this chapter, attention to study-abroad programs is rooted in religious

motivations attached to peacemaking or cross-cultural understanding,

breaking down false barriers and learning to know "the other" on his or her

own terms. For some colleges and universities, philosophical commitments --

whether they be rooted in postmodern political praxis or the rejection of meta-

narratives and the desire to have students experience multiple narratives --

have catapulted them into the international arena.

Education in the '90s," in Stuart W. Showalter, ed., The Role of Service-
Learning in International Education(Goshen, Ind.:Goshen College, 1989):21.

3_{The National Security Exchange Program grew out of "the Boren Bill," passed}
as the National Security Education Act of 1991. Sen. David L. Boren (D-
Oklahoma) described the act as, in part, a way of providing federal intelligence
and security agencies with larger and better-qualified pools of experts on
languages and regions around the world. Critics are bothered by the
program's intelligence and defense links. See Paul Desruisseaux, "Expanding
International Study," The Chronicle of Higher Education(24 November 1993):
A34-35.

2