Trav­el­ing Abroad Brings Many Op­por­tu­ni­ties

MISHAWAKA––Each year Bethel of­fers a va­ri­ety of abroad trips for stu­dents, with a wide range of pur­poses. Many trips are com­ing up within the next year from short term trips, task force trips and se­mes­ters abroad.

Tyler Grant, Di­rec­tor of Global En­gage­ment and Ca­reer Ser­vices, said that it has been chal­leng­ing to plan trips this year due to COVID-19, like many things. 

“It’s dif­fi­cult to get a firm plan,” Grant said. 

How­ever, de­spite the chal­lenges, he said that the short-term trips and se­mes­ters abroad are com­ing to­gether bet­ter this year. Sign-ups for se­mes­ter abroad trips launch­ing next year, are hap­pen­ing now.

There are two sum­mer trips planned. The first is Is­rael, hap­pen­ing sum­mer of 2022. This trip is a good op­por­tu­nity for stu­dents to ex­pe­ri­ence cul­ture and his­tory, in ad­di­tion to ed­u­ca­tional op­por­tu­ni­ties. This trip is 11 days and will be led by Dr. Cami Brubaker, Ad­junct Fac­ulty, Old Tes­ta­ment and He­brew, and Dr. David Mc­Cabe, Pro­fes­sor of New Tes­ta­ment and Greek. Dur­ing the trip, stu­dents will travel Is­rael top to bot­tom, hik­ing, swim­ming, tour­ing cities, vis­it­ing an­cient ru­ins, eat­ing good food and trav­el­ing with tents and camels. 

An­other op­por­tu­nity that was can­celled last year and is now moved to sum­mer 2022, is the Spain trip which takes place every other year. Stu­dents spend four weeks with host fam­i­lies in Sala­manca, at­tend­ing classes Mon­day through Fri­day, earn­ing nine cred­its, and be­ing im­mersed in the Span­ish cul­ture. The last two weeks of the sum­mer trip are spent on the road, trav­el­ing around north­ern Spain see­ing mu­se­ums, cathe­drals and spend­ing time on beaches. 

“You’re get­ting some of that broader ex­pe­ri­ence,” Grant said. 

The se­mes­ter abroad trips are of­fered dif­fer­ent times and dif­fer­ent places. There is a new op­por­tu­nity be­ing launched to Fiji fall of 2022 and will span the en­tirety of the se­mes­ter and will take place every fall af­ter its launch. This is open to a wide range of ma­jors, as there are many dif­fer­ent classes that can be taken to fill elec­tives, gen­eral ed­u­ca­tion classes as well as in­tern­ships. The host or­ga­ni­za­tion stu­dents go through is called Is­land En­coun­ters. The leader of the or­ga­ni­za­tion used to have the job that Grant now has when Grant was a stu­dent at Bethel. 

“He knows Bethel peo­ple and has good con­ti­nu­ity there, he knows what our stu­dents need, and he is a Bethel grad him­self,” Grant said. 

Stu­dents in Fiji will live on a sus­tain­able farm and their daily tasks will in­clude farm chores, go­ing to classes and in­tern­ship time. Week­end ex­cur­sions are planned and in­clude snor­kel­ing, go­ing into the moun­tains and may in­clude a trip to Aus­tralia or New Zealand at the end of the trip.  

“In­ter­cul­tural ex­pe­ri­ences have taught me so much about hu­man value. Travel is so en­rich­ing; travel teaches us things we did­n’t know we need to know. I love my job and think every­one should travel,” Grant said.

To ap­ply or learn more about any of the study abroad trips, scan the QR code on any of the posters around cam­pus, or visit the Global En­gage­ment and Ca­reer De­vel­op­ment Cen­ter in AC 346.