Safety
Safety Above All 2007 marks HECUA's 37th year of operation free from any serious incident at its programs around the world—in Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Cuba, Bangladesh, Norway, Northern Ireland, and the United States. |
Enrolled students and their families are provided with 24/7 emergency contact information.
ADDITIONAL CONTACT INFORMATION:
HECUA St. Paul Office: 651-646-8831, M-F 8:30 to 5:00 CST
Director of Operations, Patrick Mulvihill: 651/287-3306
After hours: 651/246-1789
Director of Programs, Sarah Pradt: 651/287-3307
After hours: 651/696-1688 or 651/402-5159
These are personal cell phone numbers. If the recipient of your call is unavailable, you can leave a message, but please also try the other number(s) listed.
| Safety | Health | Preparation | HECUA's track record and expertise | More Information |
Safety
Safety is a primary concern for all who are involved in HECUA programs. As we know from recent events in the United States, conditions anywhere can suddenly change. Having policies and procedures in place is critical for addressing and responding to whatever challenges lie ahead. We realize that student participants, family members, academic advisers, the academic institutions that send and receive students, all faculty members and home-stay families who host them, and the staff here at the St. Paul office who administer the programs depend on HECUA to monitor the programs and to ensure their safety.
Here at HECUA safety and security are at the center of our daily work. Staff in St. Paul and faculty and staff abroad constantly track the political and physical circumstances at all HECUA sites of activity in the U.S. and overseas. Staff and faculty monitor the information provided by the U.S. Department of State about all sites outside the U.S., and our local partners at those sites provide us with updates about any situation with the potential to affect program participants. State Department Advisories and Announcements refer to areas within a country and affect HECUA decisions about if, where, and how to run a program within a country. State Department Travel Warnings are our primary source for making decisions about whether site changes are required, and may be grounds for moving a program out of a country altogether. We subscribe to updates from the Department of State and to daily reports from media outlets that are based in and cover sites outside the U.S. We also rely on the contacts and judgments of our resident program directors, who are themselves deeply anchored within local communities and closely connected to local institutions. Home-stay families, some of whom have hosted HECUA students for years, also provide students, program directors, and HECUA administrators with another set of perspectives on both ordinary life and unfamiliar events, and can offer strategies and support as students encounter the previously unknown, whether big or small.
If information from the above sources indicates unreasonable risk for HECUA students, faculty, or staff, then a team made up of member institutions’ study abroad professionals, faculty, and legal counsel will consider alternatives that may include restricting movement of those in the program, changing the program site, or canceling the program. Changes will be made with as much advance planning and communication as possible, but if necessary, HECUA will always take immediate and unequivocal action to ensure safety. Following the guidelines of the Association of International Educators and The Forum on Education Abroad, HECUA has in place, as do our member institutions, a written Emergency Action Plan for managing events and ensuring safety should any event occur that affects or threatens the safety or health of any individual or group involved in a HECUA program.
Health
An abrupt relocation can be disorienting within one’s own culture. When studying abroad, an entirely new environment, differences in language, and unfamiliar foods may mean that physical discomfort may compound the emotional stress present in any major transition. Before travel, HECUA’s extensive and specific orientation materials and sessions provide site-specific strategies for maintaining intellectual, emotional, and physical health while in the program. Students are taught to recognize travel- and adjustment-related stresses in themselves and others, and program staff are trained to offer coping strategies and to refer students to professionals if necessary. Reflection is built into the curriculum of all HECUA programs, and students regularly write about and discuss the challenges they are facing and the adjustments they are making in their studies and internships, and students are guided to see how new intellectual questions are inherently related to new ethical, emotional, and physical experiences.
All students are covered by Cultural Insurance Services International (CISI) insurance plan, policy CISI 0062, which includes provisions for routine care, major medical coverage, emergency medical evacuation, and emergency reunion, and has an associated hotline service with multilingual health care personnel available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. HECUA’s connections with local institutions mean that relationships have been established with clinics at each program site. For details of the CISI coverage of benefits, see a PDF of the certificate here. Students may also be covered by their family’s or home institution’s insurance, and should confirm that well before departure.
Preparation
Students receive broad preparation for their HECUA experience in pre-program orientations, which include material on and discussions about specific political, cultural, environmental, and legal aspects of the program site. HECUA collects and maintains students’ emergency contact information and health inventories, and copies of passports and travel documents; HECUA distributes students’ overseas contact information to their families at home. At overseas programs, students’ passports are registered with the U.S. State Department, a process that allows U.S. consular officers to assist in serious legal, medical, or financial situations, and facilitates communication in a crisis.
Students’ responsibilities
Students choose HECUA programs because they know that in HECUA programs responsible behavior, both personal and civic, will be practiced and supported.
Students participating in HECUA programs should:
- participate fully in all orientations
- read extensively, including all materials provided by HECUA, on safety, health, legal, environmental, political, cultural, and religious conditions in the program site country
- provide itineraries and contact information when they travel separately from the program site (on weekends, for example)
- respect the rights and well-being of others, and encourage others also to behave respectfully
- understand and follow HECUA policies and procedures
- report any and all incidents to program directors
- obey the laws of the host country
- assume responsibility for their own decisions and actions
Students receive detailed pre-program and on-site orientations that set out site-specific guidelines and rules for safe conduct, travel, and daily practices. Failure to adhere to these may result in expulsion from the program.
HECUA’s track record and expertise
HECUA has operated educational programs in the U.S. and abroad using experiential learning (field work, internships, deep community involvement) for more than 30 years. HECUA was the first to offer a study abroad experience in Colombia, was one of a select group of study abroad providers licensed to operate in Cuba, and today offers the only study abroad program for North American students in Bangladesh, the world’s eighth most populous nation. HECUA’s exemplary record of safety comes from long experience across the world—in Central America (Guatemala), South America (Colombia and Ecuador), Cuba, Northern Ireland, Scandinavia, and South Asia; from the domestic and international staff and faculty’s expertise in logistics, communication, and planning; and from the close connections HECUA has forged with local scholars, community workers, and ordinary people. HECUA follows these principles in its safety and security practices:
- HECUA considers the safety of its students and faculty of paramount importance, and will not knowingly place students or program staff or their families in danger.
- While no area in the world can be considered as "absolutely safe" and HECUA cannot guarantee the safety of any student or other person involved in its programs, HECUA endeavors above all to ensure safety.
- HECUA acts responsibility in advising and informing students, parents, and representatives about programs, sites, and the HECUA record and practices.
Wide communities of support stand behind the stability and safety of HECUA’s programs. All Program Directors (faculty who lead the programs) have deep roots in the cities, nations, and regions of sites where programs take place. These professionals are products of the region’s educational systems; their families and friends live, work, and go to school there. HECUA and the Program Directors have close ties with educational institutions that serve and teach young people, and these institutions themselves have, through their connections with HECUA, work toward global education for their own students and for the students who come to study and work there.
Useful information about HECUA overseas sites:
| Bangladesh | http://www.bangladoot.org/ |
| Ecuador | http://www.ecuador.org/main.htm |
| Northern Ireland | http://www.nitakeacloserlook.gov.uk/ |
| Scandinavia | http://www.norway.org/ |
