As a family member or friend of a study abroad participant, your support is necessary to make the student's experience a success. Study abroad opportunities are often transformative experiences, not only for the student abroad, but for her/his family as well.
We encourage you to learn about study abroad at San Diego State through this website, so that you can help your student embark on this journey and so that you can be informed on important matters such as health and safety abroad, financial aid and scholarships and cultural adjustment.
If you need to communicate with the SDSU Study Abroad office on a student´s behalf, then he/she must provide written consent (normally in the Aztecs Abroad application) to discuss his/her records with you. For more information concerning student privacy regulations please visit:
If you need to reach your student because of an emergency at home or if you are worried about their welfare, you should call the Office of Overseas Citizens Services in Washington, D.C. at 1-888-407-4747 (during business hours) or 202-647-5225 (after hours). The U.S. State Department will relay the message to the consular officers in the country where your student is studying. Consular officers will then try to locate your student, pass on any urgent messages, and, if your student wishes, report back to you regarding their welfare. Learn more about emergencies abroad and what the State Department can and cannot do in a crisis.
Dear Parents and Family Members,
We congratulate your student for deciding to study abroad as we hope he/she will find the experience to be both fulfilling and transformative. Furthermore, thank you for offering your material and emotional support to your student through the process of planning, participation and return from the international program.
Learning abroad holds numerous benefits in the academic, professional and developmental arenas. It will likely be one of the most exciting and influential experiences of your student’s life. The period is full of newness and difference, which is important, but those exotic aspects and the subsequent feelings also make understanding the cultural adjustment process critical.
San Diego State University strives to provide all participants the advice, knowledge and tools they need to maximize their experiences abroad. Our main goal is to empower students to make good decisions that first and foremost protect themselves, but also allow them to become more self-sufficient, resourceful and cross-culturally competent. Our staff provides students a well-rounded set of services before, during and after their study abroad program, including personal advising, pre-departure and re-entry programming and referral to other SDSU divisions such as financial aid and health services.
The International Student Center is student-centered. Consequently, we purposefully communicate with and send all correspondence to students directly. We aim for students to be fully prepared to take on the personal responsibilities of traveling, studying and living abroad. While we are pleased to respond to inquiries from parents and family members, in most cases, we cannot share student specific information due to FERPA student privacy regulations. Therefore, we encourage you to discuss any questions and concerns first with your student and allow him/her to find the answers.
If you are looking to collect more general information on the study abroad process, please do not hesitate to browse this website. There is much more information available throughout this site.
Thank you again for your support because it only serves what we hope is our mutual goal, a more critical-minded, culturally sensitive and globally informed SDSU graduate.
Sincerely,
Noah W. Hansen, M.A. Director International Student Center San Diego State University