Seeking to Prepare Global Citizens, Colleges Push More Students to Study Abroad

By DEBRA E. BLUM

Joseph E. Burlett wanted to learn Spanish, but his twice-weekly language classes at Brookdale Community College weren't doing the job. The classes were too short, he says, and he wasn't practicing enough on his own. When an extra session a week with a tutor wasn't helping either, his professor suggested he take an intensive language course in a Spanish-speaking country.

Mr. Burlett, 24, who works 40 hours a week at a local sheriff's office while attending Brookdale, in New Jersey, had never traveled overseas before — or even considered it. But once he got an unpaid leave from his job, and the college helped him arrange financial aid to cover part of the trip's cost, he packed his bags. This past summer, he spent five weeks studying Spanish and Ecuadorean history through a program Brookdale runs in Guayaquil, Ecuador.