For the second year in a row, Pellissippi State Community College has ranked No. 2 in the nation among community colleges for its number of students who study abroad.
The 2019 Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange, released Nov. 18, notes that Pellissippi State sent 188 students to study abroad in academic year 2017-18, three more than the previous academic year.
Citrus College in Glendora, California, is the only community college that ranked higher than Pellissippi State, with 193 students studying abroad in 2017-18.
This is the eighth year in a row that Pellissippi State has appeared in the top 5 community colleges for study abroad participation.
“Study abroad is, without a doubt, the most impactful experience students have at community colleges,” said Tracey C. Bradley, executive director of the Tennessee Consortium for International Studies, which serves all community colleges in the Tennessee Board of Regents system. “While students who study abroad have higher GPAs, are more likely to get a job after graduation and, in some fields, earn a higher starting salary, we also know that the value of study abroad is profound in ways we can’t even measure.”
TnCIS, which is housed on Pellissippi State’s Hardin Valley Campus, offers more than 25 study abroad programs each year all over the world, many of them short-term programs designed specifically to suit the schedules of community college students. All programs are faculty led.
The 2019 Open Doors Report also shows that the number of international students in the United States set an all-time high in the 2018-19 academic year, the fourth consecutive year with more than one million international students. The total number of international students, 1,095,299, is a 0.05 percent increase over the previous academic year.
Tennessee colleges and universities had 9,267 international students enrolled in 2018-19, with an economic impact of nearly $350 million.
Pellissippi State had 116 international students during the 2018-19 academic year here on student visas from 35 countries, the highest among all Tennessee community colleges.
Lesli Bales-Sherrod does marketing and writing for Pellissippi State Community College.