Many colleges and universities helping students study abroad

From Argentina and Vietnam, and dozens of countries in between, three enterprising Weston natives have founded a website that paves the way for college students to exchange information and ideas about their study abroad experiences.Many colleges and universities have study abroad offices to help guide students,explains Mike Stone, a co-founder of Abroad101.com. But we found that there were very few resources for access to genuine, unbiased student feedback. This is a similar idea to the service that TripAdvisor.com provides unbiased reviews of programs and countries.

Stone, along with Adam Miller and Mark Lurie, is a member of Weston High School’s Class of 2003.The idea for this venture came about while I was at Tufts,Stone says.I went to Melbourne, Australia in 2006 on a study abroad program, and similarly, many of my friends either went on programs that weren’t the right fit, or they were overwhelmed by the process. So our goal is for students to share their experiences, so others can find the right program they’re looking for.Abroad 101 is the first website to offer study abroad program reviews, and is now partnered with 101 universities throughout the country. Partnered schools can take advantage of a free online evaluation tool to generate comparative reports, while providers can utilize Abroad101’s platform to more efficiently showcase their offerings and recruit students.Sheila Bayne, director of programs abroad at Tufts University, says, Since using Abroad101, we find that student evaluations are more thorough, detailed and thoughtful, and thus more useful for us. We appreciate that the Abroad101 team has worked with us to create the evaluation tools we need.

A Worldly Idea
It turns out Stone and Lurie, who attended Harvard, both had similar ideas for starting a study abroad peer review website.But neither of us had a technical background, says Stone.We knew Adam Miller was very talented he’s been building websites since he was 14!So the two reached out to their childhood friend, and Miller agreed to join the Abroad 101 team.I had just graduated from MIT, and was running a consulting company I’d been overseeing since I was at Weston High,Miller recalls. I had gone abroad a few times during high school, including a pretty incredible college enrichment trip to Oxford, Paris and Florence. It was a transformational experience for me. I came back to Weston High as a more motivated, interested person, and became class president. I attribute the shift to my experience abroad.The three Weston friends and business partners just might be on to something. Currently, there is a bill in Washington known as the Simon Act, a congressional initiative to greatly expand overseas study opportunities for U.S. undergraduates, with a special emphasis on lower-income students.

The legislation has gained strong bipartisan support in Congress and has been endorsed by more than 40 higher education and educational exchange organizations.Right now about 260,000 young adults study abroad each year, but the goal of this bill is to achieve one million in the next few years,Stone points out. "This notion really emphasizes global citizenship.Recently, Abroad 101 was selected as a finalist in the MassChallenge global startup competition, which helps entrepreneurs turn ideas into viable companies. The final winner will be selected on Oct. 21.
We want to promote intercultural understanding and global citizenship by fostering a safer, better researched and most meaningful study abroad experience for as many students as possible,Miller concludes.We’re passionate about making the world a better place via our work on this business we really want to have an impact on the world.