Liberal Arts students spend spring break abroad through embedded courses

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Nearly 70 Penn State students spent their spring breaks traveling to Switzerland, Italy, Curaçao and Greece through College of the Liberal Arts embedded courses, which are Penn State courses taken on campus or online that include a short-term international travel component. The students saw the classroom come to life by visiting historical and cultural sites and interacting with local people.

ECON 315/333 Economics of the Swiss Economy

For Liberal Arts student Brooke Judy, traveling out of the country for the first time through an embedded course allowed her to gain connections within the Department of Economics while also becoming part of a close community of students from the trip.

“I’m a [Commonwealth] campus transfer student,” Judy, a junior majoring in economics, said. “I didn’t know many students in the economics department or at University Park in general [prior to the trip].”

Judy traveled to Switzerland for the week as part of ECON 315/333 Economics of the Swiss Economy, which Jadrian Wooten, associate teaching professor of economics, and Pitchayaporn Tantihkarnchana, assistant teaching professor of economics, are teaching, respectively. Through analyzing the content of ECON 315 Labor Economics and ECON 333 International Economics, Tantihkarnchana said she and Wooten agreed that Switzerland would be an ideal destination — it’s the home of the United Nations, the International Labour Organization and the World Trade Organization.

The students heard talks from organizations and companies like EY throughout the week to learn about furthering their careers, as most students on the trip were economics majors. The group also spent time soaking in historical sites and other destinations, like a chocolate factory and a cheese factory.

“We don’t want students to just go sit and listen to people,” Tantihkarnchana said. “We also want students to actually experience what Switzerland is about and the culture.”

Tantihkarnchana said she enjoyed witnessing students being taken out of their comfort zones to see different ways of life. Judy was one of those students who said she experienced a culture shock while in Europe for the first time.

“One of the biggest takeaways from this trip for me was experiencing visiting another country with a great group of people,” Judy said. “The study abroad program was a way for me to interact with a lot of my peers … but then it also allowed me to see the different opportunities I have in the job market.”

Tantihkarnchana and Wooten watched friendships blossom among the students on the trip. The group didn’t know each other that well ahead of time.

“On the way back, they spent the entire time talking and laughing,” Wooten said.

After experiencing rich social, cultural, educational and professional developments during the trip, Judy said she’d encourage other students to apply for the course.

“This is such a great group of students because they are very open-minded, and they are willing to talk to new people and create new friendships,” Tantihkarnchana said. “It was really cool to see the transformation from the first day to the last day because now they’re best friends.

IT 175/SC 475N Anatomy in Italy

Jason Laine, associate teaching professor of Italian, Joel Waters, coordinator of education abroad and international programs, and John Waters, teaching professor of biology and anthropology, took students in IT 175/SC 475N to Italy to learn about the history and development of science. Specifically, the course focused on events in Renaissance Italy.

Laine taught the students about the Italian language and culture to prepare for traveling to Italy.

“Then, we spend the rest of the semester sort of unpacking that experience and understanding what they saw and why we think it was interesting and how study abroad might shape a student’s career in general,” Laine said.

A junior Paterno Fellow and Schreyer Scholar majoring in psychology and minoring in biology, Mary McDavid said the trip allowed students to “dive into an academic experience that is very outside the box but provides even more of an educational opportunity than a typical classroom.”

The group participated in a variety of activities throughout the week, including visiting art museums and looking at the art “with an eye of anatomy and biology,” McDavid said.

“Every opportunity we have integrates things in a way that I don’t think any other class at Penn State could truly allow for,” she said. “The fact that this class has a science base but is completely rooted in history, culture, language and self-reflection allows for a really unique opportunity to dive into science in a very human way.

“Too often, we try to separate subjects, and I don’t think that’s how the real-world works,” said McDavid.

Lyndsay Rathbun, an anthropology major who wants to go into nursing, said one of her favorite experiences of the trip was meeting medical students from the University of Bologna.

“It was really cool to be able to bounce back and forth ideas about what’s going on in the world,” Rathbun said. “We talked quite a bit about our different governments. Having that intercultural access was really interesting.”

Students spent time in Bologna during the first half of the trip and then they headed to Florence for the second half.

“What comes from all those introductions of new places and new things is self-discovery and self-growth,” McDavid said. “You can break down every emotion, every experience, every piece of history and learn how to apply it to yourself or learn how to apply it to future life experiences.”

CRIM 425 Organized Crime in Curaçao

Students in CRIM 425 spent the week in Curaçao. Gwendolyn Boe, a junior majoring in criminology, said the trip focused on studying organized crime.

“I learned a lot about how different law enforcement work together, even internationally, to have a coordinated response to organized crime,” Boe said. “While a lot of the information was similar to what we had already learned in class, being there and hearing from the people directly involved helped me understand the true impact and the challenges that these people face.”

Second-year criminology student Taylor Needleman said she appreciated how the trip allowed her to study abroad for a shorter period of time to determine if a longer education abroad experience might be right for her in the future.

“I was able to experience multiple different cultures and environments within a criminology context while on the island,” Needleman said. “The difference in lifestyle was really eye-opening for me and contributed to my perspective and thoughts about crime.”

As the Liberal Arts Career Enrichment Network’s global experiences coordinator, Brandon McCartney accompanied Associate Teaching Professor of Criminology Howie Smith to Curaçao as a trip leader.

“[Liberal Arts] embedded courses allow students to apply what they’ve learned in the class in a real-world experience,” McCartney said. “Employers are looking for people who can think critically, who can problem solve and who can work with people who are different from themselves.

“By participating in one of these courses, students are exposed to that," he added.

McCartney said he sees students continuing to carry study abroad experiences with them in these academic and professional ways but also in ways that allow them to grow as a person.

“After participating in an embedded course, I hope that students have some degree of greater empathy to take a step outside the U.S. context and go somewhere different,” he said. “I’d encourage all [Liberal Arts] students to participate in any sort of international experience, whether it’s an embedded course, whether it’s more traditional study abroad, it’s a great time to do that.

“Penn State has a huge portfolio of programs that students can choose from," he said, "so there's probably a program for you.”

Embedded courses in the College of the Liberal Arts

In addition to the wide array of semester and summer study abroad programs offered by Penn State, the College of the Liberal Arts offers short-term global opportunities through embedded courses. Embedded courses are Penn State courses taken on campus or online that include a short-term international travel component, typically during spring break or Maymester. They are an excellent opportunity for students who are seeking a shorter, more affordable alternative to a traditional study abroad program. For many students, embedded courses serve as a great introduction to international learning that spark a desire to pursue additional global experiences in the future. Interested students can learn more about embedded courses and other education abroad experiences through the Liberal Arts Career Enrichment Network.