Study Away – Immersive Term Travel

Would you like to have the opportunity to study and travel with a Franklin College professor and your fellow Grizzlies? Then consider participating in an Immersive Term study away course.

Franklin College offers a variety of faculty-led Immersive Term study away courses for students. These courses are academically rigorous courses in locations around the world. Students have the opportunity to learn about different subjects in a variety of worldwide locations. Opportunities vary by year, but past locations have included Costa Rica, England, Spain, France and Uganda. Courses have covered different subject matter, including: history, service-learning, languages, religion, architecture and sport.

Immersive Term study away courses are an exciting part of the Franklin College curriculum.

Locations for the following Immersive Term are released to campus in early February.

Immersive Term Dates

Immersive Term is held each January. Courses vary in length but will spend approximately 2-3 weeks overseas.

Application Due Date

Applications are available outside the office of global education and are due March 15.

Program Fee

International Immersive Term study away courses have an all-inclusive fee of $4000. The $4000 program fee covers international flights, international health insurance, overseas accommodations, overseas transportation, course excursions, cultural activities, classroom accommodations, historical site tours, local guides, and Franklin College academic credit.

Financial aid is available for Immersive Term study away courses. Students interested in discussing aid options should contact the Franklin College Office of Financial Aid.

The fee for domestic Immersive Term study away courses will vary on location.

Academic Credit

All Immersive Term study away courses are offered for 3 academic credits.

Eligibility

Academic

Students must obtain a minimum GPA of 2.0 the two semesters preceding the time away. For instance, students taking part in a January 2022 Immersive Term course must obtain a GPA of 2.0 in the spring of 2019-20 and the fall of 2021-22.

Social

Students may not be on social probation the two semesters preceding their desired participation in a semester away.

Financial

Student must maintain that their student account is in good standing with the Franklin College business office.

How to Prepare

Students should begin preparing now to study away. It is never too early to start saving funds for an overseas experience. Pick up a guidebook or research potential study away locations online.

How to learn more

The office of global education is available to help make your traveling dreams a reality. Stop by our office in JCFA to learn more about the Immersive Term study away program or connect with us on Facebook.

2022 Immersive Term Study Abroad Courses

2022 - England - London Calling

Course Instructor: Jamie Bromley, Course Coordinator: Bill Eiler

This course will provide Franklin College students an active and immersive course studying British culture. The course will be based in London, but we will venture to smaller, rural areas. This will allow students opportunities to compare the different types of British living environments. Students will explore what it means to be British through experiencing British history, art, music, food, sports, popular culture and politics. In turn, they will have the opportunity to compare British culture to their own cultural backgrounds. And of course, we’ll look for Platform 9¾ in the real King’s Cross Station and at Warner Brothers, UK.

2022 - France - Bon Appetit! French Gastronomy from Paris to Southern France and French Language Immersion

Course Instructor: Richard Erable, Course Coordinator: Kristin Wasielewski

France - French Language Immersion
Course Instructor: Kristin Wasielewski

While in France, students will be encouraged – through what they read, discuss, and write about –  to concentrate much of their critical acumen on the ways French culture expresses itself through its attitudes toward the selection, preparation and consumption of food. Students will also be encouraged to think about the ways French attitudes toward food are similar and different from American attitudes, and about what they can learn from the comparisons and contrasts they notice. A French language course is also being offered in this location.

2022 - Guatemala - Study of Fair Trade Coffee

Course Instructor: Agueda Mayan, Course Coordinator: Tiffany Franklin

This course will provide an opportunity to increase language skills through dynamic immersion experience in Spanish social and cultural context. Along with Spanish immersion, students will learn about fair trade in the coffee industry and its practice of sustainable agriculture in Guatemala. They will experience firsthand how to cultivate, harvest and roast coffee.

2022 - Italy - Language and Culture of Italy

Course Instructor: John Boardman, Course Coordinator: Nick Crisafulli

Italy, and specifically Florence, remains a focal point for the emergence of European Renaissance ideas and remains an aesthetic foundation for western art and architecture. Specifically, students will see how the ideas of politics, sex, and religion are represented in the art and architecture as well as the patronage behind the creation of these lasting works, while studying the Italian language. Italy is the perfect location to see the evolution of medieval art into the humanist aesthetic that became popular during the European Renaissance.

2022 - South Africa - Sport in South Africa: A Radical Divide and Future Transformation

Course Instructor: Adam Heavrin, Course Coordinator: Jason Jimerson

This course will explore the connection between a rich tradition of sport and the history of apartheid-driven racism and oppression in South Africa. Students will learn that the culture of South Africa is in many ways, defined by its connection to some of the world’s most popular sports: rugby, cricket and soccer. This connection will be investigated through the lens of the sociocultural impact apartheid has had on the region. Students will have the opportunity to take in the rich culture and participate in immersive physical activities around Cape Town. 

2022 - New York City - Art and the City

Course Instructor: Nicole Dular, Course Coordinator: Michael Black

This domestic course will take students to one of the most culturally rich cities in the world, New York City. In this ample context, students will learn to analyze, through first-hand experience, two of the most fundamental and most abstract questions about art. First, what makes something art? And, second, what makes something good or bad art? In exploring these questions, students will be exposed to a variety of mediums which have both traditionally and non-traditionally been considered art, including visual art, music, written art, dance, fashion, comedy and food.

2022 - New York City - Model United Nations: The Role of the Diplomat

Course Instructor: Randy Smith, Course Coordinator: Lisa Mahan

This course offers students an opportunity to engage in diplomacy by inhabiting the role of Sun Tzu’s warrior and executing successful argumentation. Within a simulation of the United Nations, students will learn to employ rules of procedure and methods of conflict resolution to affect policy in a manner that best suits their assigned state’s interests. Students will peer into the complexity of the United Nations through the study of current pressing international issues.

NOTE: Travel for Model UN will occur during the spring semester.

2022 - Puerto Rico - Documenting the Architecture, Culture and Landscape through Smart Phone Travel Photography

Course Instructor: Randi Frye, Course Coordinator: Haedyn Scgalski

Through this course students will learn the art of travel photography while capturing the beauty and color of Puerto Rico. Students will enhance their abilities with technology they already use daily. We will start in the capital of San Juan, visiting galleries and museums, and exploring the street art and murals of the neighborhoods. Students will analyze how artists use elements and principles of design, composition, point-of-view and subject matter. They will apply what they’ve learned about the elements and principles, composition and photo-editing techniques to create expressive photographs that reveal their unique impression of the history and culture of Puerto Rico.

2022- Savannah, Georgia - American Horror Stories

Course Instructor: Kellie Schmidt, Course Coordinator: Kristin Flora

Students will study the genre of horror stories in the most haunted city in America. We will analyze literature filled with ghosts, monsters, gruesome secrets and haunted houses while visiting important sites such as the Bonaventure Cemetery, the Pirate’s House, First African Baptist Church and Lafayette Square (made famous in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil). We will examine the ways American authors use horror to deal with cultural anxieties and historical traumas, discovering what these stories can teach us about our own cultural biases. We will read gothic texts from the American South and the move toward contemporary literature, considering the following questions along the way: Why are ghosts and the supernatural so prevalent in American Literature? Why do we read and enjoy horror stories and what makes for good ones? 

2022 - Western United States - Business and Nature

Course Instructor: Emily Jones, Course Coordinator: Jeremy VanAndel

The western United States includes an impressive collection of National Parks, which contain some of the most beautiful natural features that Earth has to offer. The west also embraces some of the largest hi-tech companies focused on innovation that were founded in the infamous Silicon Valley. Does sustainability and the effort to keep our Earth beautiful for future generations collide with the business bottom line or profit motive? How can these two objectives be re-imagined to work with each other rather than against? This course will explore the natural beauty of the western United States through our visits to various National Parks starting with those in the Las Vegas area and working our way northwest to San Francisco.

 

Did You Know?

There were 77 travelers for Immersive Term January 2020.