Lipscomb Study Abroad alumni are gathering together to support each other in the transition back into life on campus.
Senior Caitlyn Lloyd created a study abroad re-entry group this semester. The group meets in Ezell Chapel and allows students to reminisce with one another but to also look to the future and help each other out.
Around 30 other students and two professors that were in the study abroad group in the fall of 2015 joined Lloyd for the meeting.
Lloyd, who studied abroad in Florence, Italy, in the fall of 2015, said the the idea came to her during a class when she had to think about a phenomenon to research.
“I thought about what was a phenomenon to me . . . the behavioral changes of students who return from being abroad. After that, the wheels in my brain started turning.”
Lloyd said she saw a problem and knew it needed attention.
“When students return, they can feel lost trying to figure out where they fit on campus. I want to provide a community for those students to lean into.”
Lloyd said she sees the program as a way to appreciate the experiences that study abroad students had.
“It’s a community that is meant to be leaned on,” Lloyd noted. “Sometimes we get really excited about a study abroad story, but our friends who haven’t been abroad just don’t ‘get it.’ Everyone in this program gets it.”
Lloyd wants everyone who is even looking into the re-entry program to come and try it out because she sees the program as a way for returning students to find their home.
“The Lord works through our peers to help us out, and I truly saw that at work in our first get together,” Lloyd said. “I can’t speak for those in attendance, but I felt a recharge in my heart after we left. It was like a retreat in the middle of the week to be with ‘your people’ and talk about the travels that filled our hearts with so much joy. And there were donuts!”
Contact Caitlyn Lloyd for more information at cqlloyd@mail.lipscomb.edu.