Here goes with a new blog: Smart Study Abroad, and I'll be using it to help document my attempts to put together a study-abroad course on my own. It's the first time I've tried such a thing.
I'm no stranger to travel abroad. As a professor at Simpson College in Iowa, a liberal arts school that puts a focus on study-abroad programs, I've led study groups to various European destinations three times over the past eights years. I've also participated in a faculty exchange with Curtin University in Perth, Australia.
But this year is different: Due to escalating costs and the declining economy, I'm taking on the task this year of planning and leading a travel course on my own, taking 9 Simpson students and an assistant with me on a 15-day excursion to Paris, Bordeaux and Nice in France in April and May.
This is a bit of stretch for me in that my skills in the French language are, well, minimal. But I'm game for about any challenge, and I'm very much looking forward to taking students to see what I've always considered to be a warm and welcoming nation and people.
I'm also a professor of journalism at my college, trying to embrace the multimedia revolution. I'm fortunate enough to be on sabbatical this term — which provides me with plenty of time to put together this study course. But I'm also using the sabbatical to create, promote and maintain this site in hopes of creating a community of college and high school faculty who believe in the benefits of study abroad but also need help in putting it all together.
I'm coming to find that it can be done, as the Beatles said, with a little help from our friends. So let's get to it!
