The Global Engagement Office recently hosted its spring study abroad fair, where undergraduates were able to meet with Creighton faculty and learn more about study abroad experiences.
According to Charlotte Pfingsten, a global programs advisor at the Global Engagement Office, there are 23 “Creighton In” programs, which are semester-long academic partner programs. There are also more than 200 partner study abroad programs through the International Student Exchange Program (ISEP) and endless summer programs, such as Faculty Led Program Abroad (FLPA) programs. Information about these programs was provided at the fair last week on Feb. 6.
What started out as an experience travelling as an operating room nurse with a physician group in Kenya turned into something so much more for Jennifer Jessen, an Associate Professor of Nursing and the Executive Director of Center for Interprofessional Practice, Education and Research (CIPER). Jenssen leads a brand-new FLPA, “Aligning Efforts for Health: Collaborative Models in West Africa,” where students can help address critical health issues for two weeks over the summer.
“A lot of times, I get asked, ‘Why do you want to do healthcare in West Africa when there are so many people you can treat here?’” Jessen said. “And I think that students having this idea of what it means to be different in a foreign land would really give them some empathy and compassion for the people they treat when they come back home.”
One hundred and three students studied abroad last semester alone, and the Global Engagement Office is expecting to have over 300 students studying abroad this summer, which is its biggest group yet.
The Global Engagement Office has peer ambassadors who help mentor students looking to study abroad, such as Heider College of Business senior Joey Sullivan.
“It’s really rewarding to help students find a program that works for them, especially when I see pictures and videos that they send me from when they are abroad,” Sullivan said.
One of Sullivan’s favorite memories from studying abroad in Scotland was being “able to visit a friend from Creighton who was studying in London,” and they “got to go to a couple of soccer games.”
“I got to live with a host family, and I think I learned a lot about the culture and kind of the lifestyle there,” Alicia Cepress, a junior in the College of Nursing who studied abroad in Spain, said. “So, that was super cool for me.”
Students can join clubs while attending different universities abroad. Gabi Camara, College of Arts and Sciences senior, was part of a run club at the University of Sydney in Australia.
“During sunrise, we’d run across the Sydney Harbor Bridge and around the opera house, and it was beautiful,” Camara said.
Students can also participate in research with certain programs. Alyssa Bolger, College of Arts and Sciences senior, helped collect shark nursery data as part of the marine ecology program in the Galápagos Islands.
The research team used a big net they pulled both ends up on the shore as one way to catch sharks, and “you would get in and just catch them with your bare hands,” Bolger said.
For any student looking to study abroad in Latin America, students can apply for the Insitute for Latin American Concern (ILAC). Considering both undergrad and graduate students, the ILAC program received approximately 250 students in 2024.
When asked if there is a misconception about study abroad that students should know about, Megan Kelley, a sophomore Global Scholar who studied abroad in Italy and the Dominican Republic said to get out and travel.
“If you have that Friday off, go take Friday through Sunday and travel,” Kelley said.
The study abroad application deadlines are Mar. 1 for the summer term, tomorrow for the fall semester and Sept. 15 for the spring semester.