One of the many unique things about college life is that, for a few months, students have the opportunity to pack up, leave the country and learn things that are relative to their majors for a relatively inexpensive amount of money. At no other time in life is there an opportunity to see the world, have an entire trip planned out and further one’s career and major at the same time.
NW offers several study abroad programs that span either a fall or spring semester, or a few weeks in the summer. A few of these programs include the Honors Program summer trip to Greece, the summer London trip and the Taiwan mini-semester. Just a few of NW’s popular semester abroad programs include trips to England, Spain, Costa Rica, Italy and Romania.
For the semester abroad, NW offers a variety of options to all kinds of majors and focuses. There is no one particular major that a student has to be to study abroad through NW. Many of these options, such as England and Romania, work well with many majors because of the great variety of classes offered, giving students options that likely align with their majors. These can be a great way to complete some of NW’s CORE requirements in an unique way.
For some students, however, an entire semester off campus isn’t possible. Many students may be taking on a double major or minor and need to take all those classes on campus, or they might be in a heavily sequential program where all their classes need to be taken in order. For these students, or even for those who don’t wish to spend an entire semester outside of the country, NW also offers summer study abroad programs such as the Taiwan mini-semester, the Greece program and the London program, all of which are happening this year.
One smaller program that is offered this summer is the Taiwan mini-semester. This trip is headed by Professor Han-Yan Kao from the economics department. This summer study abroad program is unique for its many course offerings. Students can choose up to two classes for a total of six credits including topics of STEM, AI, language, music, video games, sustainability, business and more. The recommended timeline for this trip is May 28th-June 26th. This timeline includes classes, weekly corporate visits or cultural activities, day trips every Saturday, and an optional six-day excursion trip around Taiwan after the courses are completed.
“Taiwan has so much more to offer than you can imaginediverse culture that looks dramatically different from America, top notch city vibes, mind-blowing food and amazing nature. It truly is one of the most fascinating places in the world for its economic, geopolitical and historical significance.” said Professor Kao
Another study abroad program that is happening this summer is the Greece study abroad program with NW’s honors program. While this program is more exclusive, it offers a select number of honors students the opportunity to take a deep dive into the legacy of Greece. For this program, students take an honors course in the semester leading up to this trip and they each get to research a landmark of Greece, then on their trip, they get to be the tour guides for the landmark they chose.
The final study abroad trip this summer is the Theatre department’s biannual London trip. This program is headed by Molly Wiebe Faber and Ethan Koerner. For this trip, members of NW’s theatre department will spend three weeks in May in England . For the first week students will stay in an English home with a host family, and for the next two weeks they will get to stay in London where they will attend shows daily, as well as view many great works of art.
“When we interact with other cultures, we get to expand our idea of who God is, because we are interacting with people made in the image of God.” said Wiebe Faber “College is a great time to travel: you are young and independent, but also not tied to the schedule of a fulltime job or family commitments. This is the perfect time to explore a new part of the world.”
This sentiment was also echoed by the head of the global education department, Kendall Stanislav, who also said that if interested in these opportunities, students should talk to the Compass Center.
