Product History
We often get asked about the origins of StudioAbroad. Why did Terra Dotta create StudioAbroad?
Garrett J. Christian and Brandon S. Lee, the founders of Terra Dotta, have a long history with study abroad. Garrett went to Granada, Spain, for undergraduate study abroad and visited most of Europe during his year there. He also returned to Spain (Pamplona) during graduate school to study Romance philology. Brandon’s interest in study abroad dates back to junior high when his family hosted a French foreign exchange student. Years later, Brandon completed his senior year in high school in Pornic, France. During graduate school, Brandon led a group of 12 undergraduate students on a semester-long trip to Paris.
Our Chief Operating Officer, Michael McKeown, was in the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic and has worked abroad in Belize, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Nepal, and Zambia. Terra Dotta’s lead software engineer, Dain Anderson, studied abroad in college in Russia.
Despite the fact that they were doing graduate work in Romance Philology (Garrett) and Renaissance French literature (Brandon) at UNC-Chapel Hill, Garrett and Brandon began doing computer consulting across the campus. It was during this time that the Study Abroad Office at UNC-CH asked if they could integrate and enhance their sundry information stores into a unified, user-friendly interface. After completing this project, the office asked if they could create a system for students to submit electronic applications from the web directly into their database. The project was very successful, but the pair was not satisfied and encouraged the directors to put their entire office process on the web. A year later they had added online brochures, automated acceptance/rejection/waitlist letters, insurance calculations, and much more. The experience they gained in study abroad process management provided the basis for StudioAbroad.
Garrett and Brandon formed Terra Dotta in 2000 with the expressed goal of creating software for the higher education market. In 2002, American University invited UNC-Chapel to present their web-based office in a panel presentation at the San Antonio NAFSA convention. UNC-Chapel Hill, in turn, asked Terra Dotta to present for them on the panel. There were over 200 people at the presentation and many came forward afterwards to discuss their needs and to relate stories of their own attempts at creating a web-based solution for their study abroad office. After hearing all the stories of massive efforts that never got finished, software that was custom built but was no longer supported, and IT departments that could take years to finish a project, they decided to build a commercially available, feature rich, secure system that could work for any study abroad office. A team of seven programmers, database experts, graphical artists, and designers worked for 18 months before releasing the initial version of StudioAbroad.
StudioAbroad University
StudioAbroad University is the perfect time to explore the new features of StudioAbroad, network with users at other schools or institutions, and discuss the future of the software. The third annual StudioAbroad University will be held before NAFSA's National Conference in Washington, D.C., in May of 2008. Click here to learn more on past StudioAbroad University courses.