From Passports to Postcards
USC’s Study Abroad program gives journalism students like Mitra Mobasherat something to write home about

by Kate Wilson

Traveling on your own, experiencing the frustrations of communication barriers, seeing the world from a new perspective and learning from international professors are some of the lessons USC students bring back home after studying in other countries.

More than 400 undergraduates go abroad every year, according to the university's Study Abroad Office. The opportunity to study almost anywhere in the world is open to almost every student in every major.

For journalism students like Mitra Mobasherat, studying abroad offers educational opportunities unmatched in the United States.

Mobasherat, a broadcast major, knew there was more to learning than classroom teaching. She spent her semester abroad in Florence, Italy, her favorite city in Europe, and traveled to seven countries.

Mobasherat said the program she traveled under helped her find an apartment, get a cell phone and make travel plans. She even roomed with a fellow USC journalism student, bringing a little comfort of South Carolina along for the adventure. Her classes, travels and experiences could be scary and hard, she said, but they also were exhilarating and worthwhile and provided her with a changed perspective on culture, journalism and herself.

She took beginning Italian, a history class on the Jewish experience in Tuscany, two international perspective political science classes and, for fun, an Italian cooking class. Mobasherat said the Italian professors were "always open to what questions we had" and "always willing to accept our points of view and respect them." And they all spoke English, so communication wasn't a problem in the classroom.

She didn't take any journalism courses but found what she'd already learned at South Carolina's School of Journalism and Mass Communications to be useful.

"In journalism, you learn to communicate with people and open your mind to different things," she said. "Broadcasting and journalism, in general, taught me to adapt to my environment to be comfortable. If you're not comfortable in your environment, you're not going to be able to get a great story."

Reading different newspapers also helped her understand differences in the way news is covered and perceived. "It is a drastically different point of view" from the United States, she said.

Mobasherat also found herself being more critical of news and hoping that as a reporter herself someday she would be less biased as a result of her international experience.

Of her excursions across Europe, her favorite and most challenging was a ski trip in the Swiss Alps. Getting stuck on trains and lost in strange cities tested Mobasherat's perseverance and determination at every turn. Once, she ended up alone atop a black-diamond ski slope – the most difficult – not knowing how to ski. Ditching the skis, she walked nearly four hours through heavy snow. Thanks to the help of friendly strangers who pointed the way down, she made it back to the lodge – cold, hungry and tired, but happy to be off the mountain.

In Florence, she lived near the Arno River close to downtown and next to the Santa Croce church where Michelangelo and Galileo are buried. "We used to joke around, saying that Michelangelo was buried in our backyard," she said.

Mobasherat also met people she would have never encountered otherwise, one of them a waitress who worked in a Florence café where she went to study daily. Mobasherat began to see the waitress as a friend, despite the language barrier, and was struck by her life and hard work.

"She was there every morning, every day, all day, and she was a single mom, which is rare in Italy," Mobasherat said. "Sometimes, she would have to bring her kids to the café when they were sick or had a day off of school for religious holidays," but she was "always cheery and in a good mood."

Mobasherat said she became intimate with a country she had always admired from a distance. The architecture and history were fascinating, but it was also fun for her to find her favorite café and grocery store and get to know the people who worked there.

While journalism helped her adapt overseas, Mobasherat said studying abroad could help all journalism students adapt to a changing world.

"If you are going into journalism, there is much more that you need to learn," she said. "You need to learn how to deal with people that are different than you and learn to respect other cultures."

Wanting to remember every moment of her semester abroad — what she learned and what she saw — Mobasherat sent dozens of postcards to family and friends. Even the neighborhood mailman tracked her movements, greeting her mother, mail in hand, with, "Looks like Mitra just got back from ..."

Mobasherat advises other students studying abroad to keep a record of everything. "Keep a journal, send postcards and take pictures," she said. "You will want to share it all with the people back home."

Kate Wilson is a graduate student at the School of Journalism and Mass Communications pursuing her master's in mass communication degree. She is a 2004 graduate of Davidson College where she earned a degree in history.