Upcoming Faculty-Led Courses: Find Your Program
Jules Goddet | February 16, 2023
For many years, students at Warren Wilson College (WWC) have been provided with many opportunities to travel abroad. One opportunity WWC offers are faculty-led courses. During a term or semester, students are on campus studying unique topics. Then, they travel with their class and two faculty/staff leaders. These trips last for two to three weeks and are held either during winter or summer break.
Anna Welton is the associate dean of community and global engagement, helping support the faculty-led courses by reviewing all the courses that get proposed. Rachel Kerr is the associate director of global engagement.
“Rachel and I really do everything together,” Welton said. “Together, we review all of the courses that get proposed, give feedback if we think that they need stronger intercultural components, and then we start advertising them to campus. We are also both supporting students during the application process, which there are a lot of steps to do.”
As a general rule, the courses are divided into two parts. Firstly, students will study on campus for either a semester or a term together. Secondly, they will travel immediately after the semester for two or three weeks. For the fall courses, the travel will occur during winter break, and for the spring semester courses, during summer break.
“Once students have applied, Anna and I work really closely together to review those applications, and then select students who've been accepted,” Kerr said. “Once we're in the semester that the course begins, that's when a lot of some of the behind the scenes pieces happen, as we help the faculty leaders that are actually leading the courses to plan all of the details of the time that the students and the leaders will be abroad.”
To choose which courses will be offered next year, Kerr and Welton had specific requirements.
“We didn't approve all of the courses that were proposed,” Welton said. “We chose these, and it's for a mixture of reasons. But usually, we're looking for a diversity of destinations, a diversity of disciplines. We're looking for strong course leader teams, who we feel confident will build really, you know, interesting, rigorous courses, and who also will manage the logistics of international travel well, and we'll make sure they are keeping the group safe and managing risk management well.”
Additionally, Kerr said that the course leaders need to be able to build a community between students to prepare them for two or three weeks together.
The other things Kerr and Welton are looking at are how strong and meaningful the intercultural component in each course is, the diversity of perspectives in the syllabus and course readings and the possibility to “interact across cultures.”
Regarding the fall 2023 semester, two courses are offered.
The first one, co-taught by Bob and Christine Swoap, is focused on comparative psychology and cultural-historical studies. This course gives the opportunity to travel to Belize in Central America during winter break from Dec. 27 to Jan. 6, focusing on comparing human and dolphins’ behavioral patterns and minds.
“In Belize, they're gonna be out on a boat snorkeling and studying a barrier reef, and then they'll be on the coast in small communities engaging with that community and that's where the engagement will happen,” Kerr said.
The second one is co-taught by Lucy Lawrence and Diamond Slone-Couch and focuses on community engagement in Costa Rica during the second fall term. Students are going to travel from Dec. 29 to Jan. 12 in Costa Rica, to build a communal brick oven in a town that will be used as a local bakery according to Welton.
“Every course is very unique,” Welton said. In Costa Rica, “Students will get a real immersion by living with host families in a small rural area, doing work every day and then end up at the coast for a few days, kind of having reflection and having some kind of group bonding time.”
The application deadline for the fall programs is March 1, 2023.
During the spring 2024 semester, three other courses will happen.
One art and psychology course is focused on the medieval Book of Hours, which are devotional manuscripts that contained daily prayers and meditations that covered topics in everyday life from weather, to travel, to death and grief. This course, co-taught by Cristina Reitz-Krueger and Jessica White, aims to study journaling as a therapy and the production of the Book of Hours. The course is offered during the spring semester with a trip for two weeks, from May 12 to May 26.
Another course, already offered in the spring 2022 semester, is going to Mexico and is co-taught by Jay Lively and Paul Bobbitt. That course focuses on the history and social rights in Mexico and is taught during term four. Then the class will be traveling from May 12 to May 26.
The third course is going to Greece and focuses on Mediterranean climates and climate change.
“It could be appealing to a lot of Warren Wilson College students,” Kerr said. “It is a really exciting topic.”
This course is co-taught by Alisa Hove and Brian Conlan and will occur in the spring semester, before traveling for two weeks from May 12 to May 24.
Their application deadline is Oct. 6, 2023.
Regarding the application fees, WWC can offer fee reductions for students.
“If a student is considered in high need, based on the financial aid office’s definition of that, then they will automatically be eligible for a fee reduction of usually about $300,” Kerr said. “And students don't do anything to make that happen. If they apply, we will automatically consider them for that.”
For the requirements, no language certification is required since the courses are taught in English on campus. However, a 2.5 GPA is required for every course offered.
“The other requirement to be eligible is just being in good standing,” Kerr said “It [the application] also includes a short essay that asks students why they're interested in doing this particular course and how it relates to their academics or academic future at Warren Wilson.”
Moreover, this program starts to be more and more selective. Since last semester, WWC did not have any difficulty choosing which students could be accepted or not for these courses because of the perfect number of applications regarding the number of places offered. However, last semester, the number of applications increased sharply.
“We had the most applications we’ve ever received for our faculty-led courses before, which is pretty cool, and sort of unusual for us,” Kerr said. “But it did mean that it was more competitive to get into the courses. Specifically one course, the one that's going to Germany, the spring semester. And for that we collaborated with the course leaders to offer interviews to students who weren't automatically accepted. And then they accepted students based on the quality of their essay and things like that.”
From snorkeling with dolphins in Belize, to the visit of Trinity Library and Royal Irish Academy in Ireland and passing by the streets of Mexico City, students have opportunities to extend their minds across the U.S. borders and learn more about other cultures.
“Choosing one course is almost impossible,” Kerr said. “I feel jealous of all of them and wish that I could go to all of them.”
According to Kerr, “doing a faculty-led study abroad experience is a really exciting way to do two things. One, for freshmen and sophomores, it's a really exciting way to get your feet wet with study abroad. There are plenty of students who have done a faculty-led trip in their freshman or sophomore year and then study abroad in their junior year for a semester somewhere else. For any student, it is just a really accessible way to get abroad because you can fit it into your regular schedule here at WWC. You don't need to plan to be abroad for a whole semester, you don't need to try and get a visa for anything, but you still get that really exciting experience of being abroad.”
The content, trip details and course fees are different for every course. Go to the Faculty-Led Courses website to learn more about each course. Reach out to the GEO Crew in the Log Cabin, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays and from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Fridays.