Linfield is ranked among the top twenty colleges of its size in the US for the number of students who study abroad each year. Over 50% of Linfield students spend time abroad by the time they graduate.

The re-entry program is designed to ease student anxiety when they return to the US. Preparing to return home can sometimes be just as difficult as preparing to travel abroad.

Many students find that re-entry can be a lonely experience. To help with the transition back, Linfield has a mandatory re-entry class for all students who have gone abroad.

Junior Mary Beth, who traveled to Aix-en-Provence France during fall semester, said, “I found that IPO fully supports students before, during, and after their time abroad.” She said the evening session was fun and helpful as she and other students who went abroad were able to reflect and look at how they will be able to use their new skills in the future.

Junior Cruz Morey studied in Vienna last semester and said, “The re-entry session we had to participate in was beneficial but not at the same time.It was nice to get together with all of the people who studied in the Fall but we were under the impression that the session would help us cope with the reverse culture shock.

Instead, we talked about how we could help others in the future.”

Elizabeth Gibson also went to Aix-en-Provence France over fall semester. She said, “The re-entry session was all right, not the most fun thing I’ve ever done or the worst. We learned how to apply our time abroad to be applicable to skills on our resumes. Then we split into groups to discuss things that we learned abroad, which was nice getting to talk about our experiences again to students who could better relate to what we went through.”