The Robert E. Cook Honors College Study Abroad Opportunities

"I went to Cambridge University for its International Summer School this past summer. It was a good experience for me because I was never out of the United States, other than in Canada, so the idea of being in another country and just learning about another culture was a major benefit. I went to the science schools where there were lectures on the latest scientific discoveries given by professors at Cambridge. It's some discussion, but most of the time it's basically just the professor lecturing. And the good thing about it is it's Cambridge, so the people who are lecturing to you are really good. These professors wrote the books you are reading for the essays you have to write, and they're the ones lecturing, they're your teachers, so that was one of the major benefits. The other benefits were other people who were at the summer school from various countries…there were many from Japan, Hong Kong, China, France, Spain, some of the other European countries."

Ryan Rearick, Class of 2003

Study Abroad

Always dreamed of living in England and visiting Stratford-on-Avon during the Shakespeare Festival? Does the thought of studying in Spanish at the University of Seville fire your imagination? Have you always hoped to polish up your Deutsch and walk through the same medieval buildings where Goethe and the Grimms Brothers studied? Can you fantasize about studying art in Florence? Does a Mozart concert in Vienna appeal to you?

Do you think you can't afford it or your parents would never agree to pay for it? Well, at the Robert E. Cook Honors College this is very much in your reach.

Study abroad isn't a luxury only for the heirs to industrial empires. This isn't a vacation overseas. This is an important component to any student's education with tangible and some very practical benefits.

If you can succeed at leaving home, leaving your own country, and finding your way in a university in a different culture, you will grow dramatically. You will see things you never saw at home. You will encounter ways of looking at the world and at ideas that you might have gone your whole life without encountering. You will be forced to deal with other systems and bureaucracies. You will mature emotionally and intellectually at several times the normal rate as you grapple with all the differences and adjustments.

It's fun and romantic. It's also one of the major things employers and graduate school admissions committees look for when they are reading applications. They want to know if you are flexible and adaptable. They want to know if you can succeed in a new environment around people with new ideas. What better way to ascertain that from a typical college grad's application than by checking to see if he or she ever lived in a foreign country?

It's also affordable. Many IUP foreign exchange programs cost the same as a semester or year at IUP, plus a plane ticket. And for those who can't spare a full semester or year for study abroad, both IUP and the CHC offer many options for summer study. Many students have received financial assistance through the CHC Achievement Fund.

For a list of possible study abroad opportunities at IUP click here.