How a college that serves students with learning disabilities created a study-abroad home in Italy
Beacon College, a liberal-arts institution in central Florida, prides itself on meeting the educational needs of students with learning disabilities, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and other learning differences.
But in one area, the college was falling short: study abroad. Although Beacon ran 10-day international trips during the summer, its students had no opportunity to take part in longer-term immersive and academically focused overseas study, said Shelly Chandler, the provost.
Chandler and her colleagues set out to change that. In the fall of 2017, they started Beacon in Tuscany, which the college says is the first semester-long global-education program for students who learn differently.
Nationally, students with disabilities study abroad at lower rates than their classmates. While about one in five American undergraduates report having a disability, according to the U.S. Department of Education, only 11 percent of students who go abroad do, the latest findings from an annual survey by the Institute of International Education show.
Still, their numbers have increased. When the institute first began collecting such data, in the 2006-7 academic year, less than 3 percent of study-abroad students said they had a disability. Learning and mental disabilities are the most prevalent among current students.
Beacon exports its distinct educational approach to Italy. “We take our teaching model here to another culture and place,” said Russ Bellamy, a professor of studio arts who was a leader of the first Tuscany program.
Beacon’s efforts show that it is possible to expand international opportunities for students with disabilities and suggest some strategies for serving them.
Beacon’s model is a cohort approach, taking groups of students abroad who often already know one another from campus. The program leaders are also familiar faces, and the opportunity to go to Italy with their professors can encourage students to take part. “They sometimes need a bit of your confidence to feel confident,” Bellamy said.
A recent graduate acts as a resident assistant, while Andrea Brode, the program’s coordinator, serves as a learning specialist. A doctor and psychiatrist also work with the program.
Gina Mann, a 2020 Beacon graduate, went on the Tuscany program in 2018. The professors “knew how to teach me,” said Mann, who is now in graduate school studying clinical mental-health counseling. “They knew how I worked, the way I worked, as a person.”
While the faculty leaders have experience teaching neurodivergent students, they are called on to assist students in broader ways. “There’s a lot of crisis management,” Brode said. “When a student has high anxiety at 3 a.m., you have to deal with it.”
Beacon keeps the program small — although 28 students went the first year, the typical limit is 20, Chandler said — so that professors can provide individualized attention.
The program’s location, in the small city of Prato rather than the nearby study-abroad hub of Florence, is meant to give students support and push them out of their comfort zones. Just one other American college has its program in Prato, so Beacon students are embedded in the community, living in a local hotel and using vouchers to eat meals in local restaurants. Unlike in Florence, which hosts thousands of Americans a year, many Prato residents do not speak English, and students have to navigate an unfamiliar culture.
Kyle Richardson, who spent this past fall in Tuscany, said he learned a “different way of living” during his semester abroad. “When I went off to college, I really got a lot of independence, but leaving the country without my parents was the next step — a big one,” he said.
The college regularly posts program updates on a private Facebook page for parents and invites the families to Italy for a special Thanksgiving celebration.
Richardson, who will graduate this spring, is a computer-information systems major with a minor in hospitality, so the 2022 program, led by Michael S. Fallon, an instructor of business management, fit with his course of study. The academic focus differs annually depending on the program leaders: Bellamy taught art, while Gretchen Dreimiller, the director of library resources, led a course on travel writing. Next fall’s program will focus on psychology.
Beacon tries to offer courses that can count as electives and work with major requirements for large numbers of students, in order to reduce students’ anxiety that studying abroad could delay their graduation.
Although Beacon has a small faculty body, this year eight professors submitted proposals to lead the Tuscany program, Chandler said. Student demand is also high, and she hopes to expand destinations beyond Italy. In spring 2020, the college ran a program in Puerto Rico but had to withdraw students when Covid-19 struck. Now Chandler is looking at Tokyo as another possible site.
“There’s absolutely no reason why neurodiverse students shouldn’t study abroad,” Brode said. “They’re quirky and interesting and challenging, and I fall in love with every one.”
