by Lara Garanzuay, Communications Specialist

Learn From Travel is working with Agnes Scott College to offer seven virtual study abroad programs this Spring. Both organizations value providing students with an education that pushes them to think deeply, engage in their communities and have an international perspective. The Agnes Scott College SUMMIT Program is a eight-day faculty-led global immersion experience where students study a non-English language, and get involved in activities to better understand identity and culture in an interconnected world.

SUMMIT ensures that thinking globally begins with learning globally. Students will be more than a tourist, they will build cultural competencies that will serve them in work and in life.

With safe travel not possible in the Spring of 2021, Learn from Travel reformatted several existing Global Journey’s programs and developed several new virtual programs to meet the objectives of the SUMMIT Program at Agnes Scott College. The programs described below are innovative in their approach and powerful in their content.

Featured Study Abroad Virtual Programs

Astronomy and Discovery in Central Florida

This program located in Central Florida includes virtual reality visits to the Kennedy Space Center and other space related sites using VR viewers and 360 degree videos and photos. Students will also explore the connection between Central Florida and Puerto Rico, where the recently decommissioned Arecibo Observatory is located, and learn about the Puerto Rican community in Central Florida. Through conversations with environmental and disaster managers, nonprofit leaders, and Puerto Rican hurricane refugees, students will learn about the coastal impact of hurricanes on Central Florida and on Puerto Rico and its people, many of whom have moved to Central Florida since Hurricane Maria in 2017.

During the four-day program, Agnes Scott College Students will also meet with University of Central Florida faculty and student experts, have discussions with historians and city officials, and learn about Environmental Protection in Central Florida.

Marine Ecosystems in the Florida Keys and Belize

The Florida Keys are a string of tropical islands stretching about 120 miles off the southern tip of Florida. They are an international destination for diving and other marine activities, and are located in a protected marine sanctuary. The Keys are similar to the Cayes (Keys) of Belize, including Caye Caulker and Ambergris Caye, two of the most visited locations in Belize due to their abundance of marine life and international fame for diving and snorkeling.

In this weeklong virtual program, which was initially designed to be a travel program to Belize, students will learn about the various marine ecosystems, their threats, and efforts to protect and restore them in both locations. The group will learn about coral research and restoration, hear from scientists and knowledgeable tour guides, and experience the underwater world through 360° 3D videos. Among many other activities, students will meet their Belizean peers to share culture and knowledge.

Marronage, Freedom and Resistance in the African Diaspora in Sierra Leone

This four-day virtual international education program is designed to explore the connection between the Gullah-Geechee communities in the United States and Sierra Leone, the departure point for thousands of enslaved people during the colonial era. Students will learn about the resistance to slavery, its abolition, and the establishment of a free society in Sierra Leone, including the settlement by African Americans who returned to Sierra Leone after generations in bondage.

Participating students and faculty will experience virtual tours of slave castles and sites of resistance to slavery, visit villages, and watch skits in the Krio language. The program also allows the students to experience Sierra Leone culture by conversing with Sierra Leonean students and political leaders. They will deepen their exploration of the cultural, economic, and ethnic connection between Western Africa and the United States.

By Erik Cleves Kristensen - Freetown street, CC BY 2.0

This virtual study abroad program draws on the support of local partners and features prominent guest speakers and subject matter experts. Live virtual experiences and interactions with Sierra Leonean students are among the highlights of this immersive virtual program.

Diversity and Health in Ecuador and Miami

Students will compare South Florida and Ecuador in a variety of factors that influence health outcomes while learning about cultural diversity, differences between public and private healthcare, and environmental elements.

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Students will learn about health and healthcare in Ecuador through numerous lectures by University of the Americas in Quito faculty. They will also learn about alternative and rural medicine and hear from a group of women in the Chota Valley, a historically Afro-Ecuadorian community, who are starting a tourism initiative.

In Miami students will gain an understanding of social determinants of health through conversations with the medical director of a community health clinic network, a young leader from the Miccosukee Tribe who will share his thoughts on spiritual and herbal medicine, and volunteers at a community garden located in a food desert.

Identity, Globalization and Social Change in Bulgaria and Chicago

Chicago is home to the largest Bulgarian community in the United States. In this virtual education program participants will learn about the past and present day experience of the Bulgarian community in Chicago.

Through virtual visits to Chicago and its suburbs, students will take part in conversations with local leaders, cultural activities, and historical site visits. Additionally, they will visit the Jane Addams Hull House and other iconic Chicago locations to better understand the context of the city. Students will experience unique events by conversing with Bulgarian artist and community leader Kina Bogovska, attending panels on immigrant identity, touring Bulgarian community and cultural centers, visiting the Bulgarian Embassy and touring the Jane Addams Hull-House museum.

Industrialization and Scientific Progress, Benefits and Costs in Chicago

Chicago is the birthplace of the first refrigerated rail car and the car radio, and is home to Willis Tower - the second tallest building in the Western Hemisphere. During the 20th Century, Chicago became the world's largest rail hub, and one of its busiest ports.

The city’s impressive growth and industrialization did not come without costs. The Great Chicago Fire destroyed the mostly wooden city in 1871, leaving 100,000 people without homes. After rapid industrialization and population growth in the early 20th Century, Lake Michigan was polluted by sewage and industrial waste. Each time, however, the city’s engineers found a way out and up. Today, Chicago is ranked as one of the United States’ most diverse cities with a bustling economy.

During their virtual travel to Chicago, through virtual site visits and conversations with innovators, historians, local students, and scientists, Agnes Scott College students will learn about the past and present of the greatest city in the Midwest and have a chance to take a critical look at the costs of its progress. Throughout the week-long experience, students will also tour the 1983 World Fair and Argonne National Lab, take part in diversity panels, and virtually visit a comedy club.

The Presence of the Past in Germany and the U.S. in Washington D.C.

This virtual program, based in the capital of the United States, is intended to help students struggle with the complexities of memory and identity as they relate to the atrocities of the Nazi regime in Germany and slavery in the U.S. The program will allow students to compare and contrast the U.S. and Germany.

Students will embark on virtual visits and discussions by museum guides to the National Mall, the Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Participating faculty and students will deepen their understanding through conversation with topic experts and present day activists. Students will finish the program with few concrete answers, but having explored a number of universal questions that many nations around the world, including the U.S., face today.

Learn from Travel can create customized virtual programs on any subject matter anywhere in the world. For more information, please visit our virtual programs page.