Study Abroad Op­por­tu­ni­ties!

Carla Mon­taruli

Staff Writer

Mishawaka- Bethel Uni­ver­sity of­fers sev­eral op­tions to study abroad in dif­fer­ent parts of the world. There are three types of pro­grams that al­low stu­dents to grow and learn through trav­el­ing: Se­mes­ter Abroad, Sum­mer Study Travel, and Task Force. Study­ing abroad for a full se­mes­ter can help you learn about a new cul­ture and get aca­d­e­mic credit, as well as, earn aca­d­e­mic credit while trav­el­ing and see­ing new places this sum­mer, Spain, Is­rael, Greece, Italy, and oth­ers are ex­am­ples. Trips range in du­ra­tion from 2 to 6 weeks, and each one pro­vides a spe­cial chance to study abroad. Lastly, the main goals of the ‘Task Force’ are spir­i­tual growth, cul­tural im­mer­sion, and learn­ing via ser­vice. Every year, Bethel pro­vides a range of one- to three-week mis­sion trips that help both do­mes­ti­cally and in­ter­na­tion­ally.  

Ac­cord­ing to Tyler Grant, Di­rec­tor of Global En­gage­ment and Ca­reer Ser­vices, what helps stu­dents de­pends on the in­di­vid­ual. While it may be more ca­reer-re­lated for some, for oth­ers it may be more about per­sonal de­vel­op­ment and in­ner growth.  

“It's kind of dif­fer­ent for each per­son. For every­body, though, it re­ally does end up be­ing about the kind of ex­pand­ing, the world­view of un­der­stand­ing how other peo­ple think and op­er­ate,” Grant said.  

An­other im­por­tant as­pect of this ex­pe­ri­ence is the cross-cul­tural as­pect.  

“Bethel is more about who you be­come on the way to get­ting the job. So study­ing abroad ends up be­ing a lot about that,” Grant said. “We see great value in stu­dents un­der­stand­ing how to re­late to peo­ple who are dif­fer­ent than them.” 

Some of the trips that are be­ing of­fered this year are: 

-Is­rael (May 18-30) 

-Italy (May 19-29) 

-Ecuador (June 22-July 1) 

To ap­ply for this amaz­ing ex­pe­ri­ence where you will be able to dis­cover new as­pects of your life and oth­ers' cul­tures, you will find fly­ers around cam­pus with a QR­code ready to be scanned.  

Also, to gain more in­for­ma­tion about these pro­grams, you can reach the de­part­ment, by email­ing GEO@bethelu­ni­ver­sity.edu or vis­it­ing us in Aca­d­e­mic Cen­ter, Room 346.