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Abroad Opportunities Expand for Winter Break Intersession

n a few days, nearly 170 students at the University of Dayton (UD) will turn in their finals, and shortly after will travel abroad on a UD sponsored program over the Winter Break. Of that number, about 40 students are going to China on faculty-led programs; 60 are going to Nicaragua through the Global Brigades program; over 50 are going on Center for Social Concern breakout programs in various countries; and the remaining 20 students are divided between the Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Chile program and the School of Business Administration’s (SBA) Sustainability in India program.

The winter break intersession programs are a great opportunity for students who either can’t commit to a semester-long study abroad due to curricular or financial reasons, or have hesitations about being abroad for a longer period of time. These programs are led by faculty or graduate assistant leaders and are group-structured with ample support for students.

“There is an increased interest in the intersession programs, as well as conversations to increase the number of programs and diversify the models of programs in the future”, shares Kelly Brannan Trail, the Associate Director in the Office of Education and Abroad.

Last year, a new model of intersession programming was developed by a partnership between the College of Arts and Science and the Center for Social Concern. Typically, intersession programs are an isolated program, ranging anywhere from one to two weeks. The breakout intersession program to El Salvador now requires students to enroll in a semester-long anthropology course in the fall, prior to their travel abroad. The idea to embed an intersession program into a longer course allows the students to develop a deeper learning context for their trip. Kelly Trail shares, “this is a model of programming that we will see more of in the future; it reflects best practices for short study abroad programs.”


The following are the intersession programs offered over the 2017-2018 Winter Break:

University of Dayton China Institute: The School of Business Administration,  the School of Engineering, and the College of Arts and Sciences is partnering with the University of Dayton China Institute. Faculty members will be leading their students, in their respective intersession program for two weeks. While visiting China, each cohort will experience three major Chinese cities: Beijing, Suzhou, Shanghai as well as either Nanjing, Xi'an or Hong Kong.

Global Brigades to Nicaragua: The Global Brigades to Nicaragua is the most popular intersession program, led by Dr. Kathy Scheltens, the Director of Premedical Programs. The intersession programs consists of three days of operating a Medical and Dental Clinic and three days of conducting public health projects, as assigned by Global Brigades. This program requires students to attend weekly meetings with program faculty during a semester long planning process.

Master of Business Administration in Chile: Dr. Mark Jacobs, Associate Professor in the School of Business will lead a small cohort of MBA students to Chile, for a week. This is a great opportunity for students, given the recent growth in the MBA program. The primary objective of the course will be to emphasize the study of international culture and business operations.

School of Business Administration in Southern India: This new intersession program will be led by  Barbara John, lecturer in the School of Business Administration. Students have the option to select a one credit or three credit course for this program. This enables students to have flexibility with cost and assignments. The program will consider the tectonics involved when human economic and environmental priorities collide.  

Center for Social Concern Breakout Sessions: Winter Breakouts through Campus Ministry’s Center for Social Concern are a great way to learn about a new culture, meet new people, and grow in cultural understanding, while helping others.  Each breakout has a reflection leader to help facilitate the orientation process, as well as the reflection along the way while travelling. The breakout sessions to Mexico, Ecuador, and Belize are service and immersion focused and are not credit bearing. The El Salvador program is a continuation of a pre-required semester-long course and is credit bearing.

These are just a few of the many study abroad opportunities offered through UD throughout the year. For more information, stop by the Office of Education Abroad in Rike 208, or chat with us online at udayton.edu/edabroad.

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