Princeton to encourage students to travel

Earlier this week we reported on how an ever growing number of young Americans are deciding to travel internationally before they enter their twenties. Princeton University, a prominent Ivy League post-secondary institution in the United States, may now help strengthen this trend by encouraging 10 percent of first-year students to spend a year travelling and engaging in social work abroad, before starting their studies on campus.

If all goes according to plan, Princeton will start offering this program in the 2009-2010 school year and it will be open to 100 freshmen each year. All those students who agree to participate in the program will be offered the opportunity to spend a year abroad doing social work and will not be required to pay university tuition. Additionally, Princeton will award some of these students with scholarships, grants or other forms of financial aid in order to help them pay for their travel abroad. Princeton Provost Christopher Eisgruber told journalists that he believes the program would provide students with a much needed breather and an ideal transition from high school to university, while at the same time allowing them to learn more about other cultures and positively impact other societies with their service.

Princeton will spend the next several months deciding the precise details and parameters of the program, including how much students or their parents will be expected to contribute financially. The school will also come up with a list of social outreach programs around the world that students will be given an opportunity to choose from.