A GEOLOGIC JOURNEY ABROAD - A DECADE OF LESSONS LEARNED IN GEOLOGY STUDY ABROAD PROGRAMS

For more than a decade, Frontiers Abroad has designed and implemented both long term and short term abroad programs in New Zealand exclusively for Geology and Environmental Science students. Our semester programs incorporate a six-week field camp with a campus semester at the University of Canterbury while short term programs are run in partnership with US colleges and Universities (US Faculty and FA staff led). In this talk, we will focus on a decade of lessons learned and successes including;

1. establishing short (i.e. Maymester, J-term) and long (semester) term geology programs in foreign countries,
2. health and safety challenges (yes, we made it through the Christchurch earthquakes),
3. short term vs. long term programs - which one is right for your school,
4. maintain academic integrity for US Colleges and Universities
5. integrating field camp with campus semester curriculum
6. integrating research into semester curriculum and into short term programs
7. cultural considerations in geologic study abroad programs
8. business and financial realities of running geologic study abroad programs and finally,
9. what our alumni are doing now

In our decade of running programs, we have served more than 500 geology and environmental science students. We hope our lessens learned will educate others intending upon embarking upon a geologic journey abroad and avoid several of the pitfalls we encountered, and share in our successes.