With the easing of COVID-19 restrictions, the 2022-23 school year marks a re-expansion of offerings for Rollins’ Office of International Programs.
Several new opportunities are being offered this year. This includes programs in Tunisia, Austria, England, Brazil and Trinidad and Tobago.
“Only about 10 percent of US college students study abroad… so studying abroad can really set you apart,” said Dr. Giselda Beaudin, director of Global Initiatives.
“There’s pretty good research now that shows that studying abroad is a high-impact internship, meaning it tends to be associated with students graduating on time,” she added.
According to Sofia Baker (’26), a freshman field study participant in Costa Rica, “Going to Costa Rica was beyond life-changing and really set me on the right path for my career.”
“I learned so much about culture, environment and society,” added Noah Denmark (’26), who also went on the field study.
Rollins’ study abroad opportunities are designed to fit the needs of its students. In shaping semester-long programs, student and faculty input is considered as part of a lengthy review process that repeats approximately every five years. Short-term programs, such as Intersession and Spring Break programs, are led by the faculty and, therefore, change each year. Through these processes, students are introduced to long-established and new programs geared toward their various fields of study.
According to Beaudin, popular past programs have featured destinations such as Spain, England, Japan, Italy, Australia and New Zealand. Although many students choose to study abroad as sophomores and seniors, students can participate during any of their four years at Rollins.
“We have a lot of scholarship funds, and we really work hard to make sure that if you want to go abroad, finances aren’t a barrier,” Beaudin said.
After the temporary shutdown of study abroad during COVID-19, programs are slowly returning to normal; most offers have been reopened.
While the semester programs had just one participant in the 2020-21 academic year, they had 67 participants in 2021-22 according to statistics provided by Beaudin. Numbers are also growing for short-term programs, which saw an increase from 4 participants in 2020-21 to 184 participants in 2021-22. Students interested in learning more about study abroad opportunities are encouraged to meet with a study abroad advisor.
