While most college students see their spring break as a time to get away from academia, several new classes offered this semester incorporate a trip abroad – taken during spring or summer break – as part of the course requirements.
These classes are what the study abroad office calls “Short-Term Abroad” courses. Most meet regularly throughout the semester before the class takes the trip. Short-term abroad destinations include various cities in England, France, Belgium, Germany and Chile.
Lee Huebner, the director of the School of Media and Public Affairs, will lead his global media seminar class on a trip to Paris over spring break.
“(The trip) will let students look at the media world from an international perspective. They can see what the contrasts are, and also the comparisons,” Huebner said.
Students were offered a similar opportunity to travel to Paris last spring, but this is the first time the class has been offered for credit.
“The students told us we should really turn this into a regular class,” Huebner said of last year’s trip. “The advantage now is that students receive credit, and it gives us a chance to do some reading before, and to talk about what we learned.”
While in Paris, the class will speak with international journalists and other media officials. Speakers from the Middle East and England are also expected to give presentations to discuss what Huebner calls the “changing media scene around the world.”
Another class that will incorporate a trip abroad this semester is U.S./UK Relations, a seminar for political science majors. Taught by professor Chad Rector, this new Writing in the Disciplines course studies the past and current relationship between the United States and United Kingdom, and its implication for the future. It includes a week long “field visit” to London during spring break.
“For only a one-week trip, London is a logical city to visit . (you) can just fall in love,” Rector said.
Reaction to the class, particularly among students, has been favorable and encouraging. Rector said he hopes that feedback will be positive enough for him to teach the class again.
Another new class this semester called “Leadership, Culture, and Communication” will compare the functions of different organizations and will culminate in a study trip to China in May during the Summer Olympic Games.
Professors Andrew Critchfield and David Costanza are co-teaching the course, which is a joint product of the organizational sciences and communications departments. The two-week visit to China will include stops in Beijing, Xi’an, Shanghai and Suzhou, and study, among other things, the Olympic games organizing committees.
“(The trip) serves a lot of different purposes,” Costanza said. “More organizations are becoming global . with China, many of our products are made there, and as an emerging market the way that companies are set up is very different . (The focus is) how leaders affect organizations.”
Through a trip abroad, Critchfield acknowledges that students can gain insight that a textbook cannot provide.
“A study tour really makes the classroom come alive,” he said.
GW’s two dean’s scholars programs, separate from short-term abroad classes, also have scheduled trips abroad. Students may apply as incoming freshmen either to the dean’s scholars in globalization, which will travel to Chile, or to the dean’s scholars in Shakespeare, which will travel to England during spring break.
Professor Alan Wade, who will be accompanying Shakespeare students to England, said that a very full tour has been planned, including Shakespeare-themed walking tours and performances. These students, who have taken specially designed University Writing and dean’s seminar courses together, will be getting a unique, hands-on learning experience.
