PrintStudy Abroad Options
Want to spend the summer in Spain? Don't we all! While that is certainly an option, it is not at all necessary!
If you choose to fulfill the study abroad/internship option by traveling, great! There are a ton of experiences you can do that won't take you out of your life for an extended amount of time.
Embedded options
Several courses offer what is called "embedded travel" experiences. These are courses that are offered online with an embedded travel component at some point in the semester (typically spring or fall break). Often the travel portion of the course is only one week in length, and then students return home to continue the coursework online.
NRG 154 Alternative Energy Technologies (in partnership with Delaware Tech Community College) - This opportunity is temporarily suspended due to COVID.ESP instructor, Dan Kasper, leads an online course and study abroad opportunity that is a perfect fit for ESP students. Dan also teaches at Delaware Technical Community College in Delaware, where he serves as the International Education Coordinator. There he developed NRG 154, an online Renewable Energy course at Delaware Tech, which after completed is followed up with a 12+ day trip to Switzerland. The course itself is a great supplement to your ESP education, as you will learn about renewable energy technologies including solar PV, wind, hydroelectric, and biomass. You will also cover energy policy and energy efficiency, as well as carbon footprint considerations and calculations. The Penn State students that have completed the course and travel experience in the past have found both to enhance the education they have received in the ESP Program.
Dan blogged about the trip in 2015 here, and a student from the 2016 course kept a blog also. Both will give you a very good idea of what the travel portion of the course entails.
The trip includes 3 different locations: Lucerne (a small medieval-era city near the Alps), Interlaken (a small town tucked into the Alps), and Zurich (Switzerland's largest city).
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This course is only 2 credits; Dan will work with ESP students to earn another credit, for a total of 3 credits for the course
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The DTCC coursework will transfer to Penn State and will fulfill your ESP study abroad/internship requirement.
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Students pay for DTCC tuition (approx. $375/credit for out of state), and travel expenses, approx. $3,500)
Penn State Brandywine
Penn State Brandywine regularly offers Gen Ed courses that contain this type of embedded travel experience. Enrolling in a Gen Ed that also has a travel component will fulfill two of your degree requirements at once! For example, in Spring 2019, a course called CIVCM 211N Foundations: Civic and Community Engagement is offered. If you were to enroll in the course and successfully complete the associated coursework, including the travel, you would fulfill both a Gen Ed requirement (GH, GS, US, IL) and the ESP study abroad/internship requirement. You can learn more about what's offered here.
Other embedded options
You can find more courses that offer an embedded travel component by visiting the Penn State Global Programs Office website and entering your search parameters on the Programs Search page. Just be sure to clarify that the coursework before/after the trip is offered online!
The GREEN Program
We have had a few students travel with The Global Renewable Energy Education Network (GREEN) Program, otherwise known as TGP. TGP is a great fit for ESP students because their travel education programs focus on issues related to energy, sustainability, and policy. TGP is constantly opening up new and exciting opportunities in new places that have unique energy and sustainability opportunities or challenges. Right now they offer trips to:
- Iceland
- Peru
Each trip is 8-10 days in length and is intensely focused on learning about the culture and surroundings as well as energy and sustainability. I, personally have attended the Iceland and the Peru programs, and can say without a doubt that both experiences were supremely educational and very fun! They do a great job of mixing up 50 hours of educational programming with adventurous activities such as hiking, zip lining, white water rafting, snorkeling, 4x4 excursions, etc.
A TGP program is not credit-bearing. So, if you choose to pursue a TGP experience, you will also need to enroll in EGEE 299 and complete the associated assignments in order to earn credit for your travel. So, in short, a TGP trip, while amazing is less of a "value" than one of the embedded type of experiences discussed previously.
Notes
- There are scholarships currently available for TGP trips through our College, the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. The scholarship application process is competitive with other majors in the College, but our ESP students have been very successful in securing these scholarships in the past. Watch your Monday emails from the College for when the scholarship applications open up (usually January).
Other study abroad options
We recognize that you're all different, and maybe there are some of you that have the ability and desire to study away for an entire semester! If that's the case, great! Penn State Global Programs offer a host of amazing opportunities all over the world. We have had students that were able, study entire semesters in Costa Rica, Germany, etc. If you find a program that you're interested in, but you aren't sure how that would work with your ESP degree requirements, please reach out to your adviser or me (hjs142@psu.edu) so that we can help you get things figured out!