William Pruitt, PhD, (Study Abroad)

One of my most enjoyable responsibilities as the assistant director for global collaborations with the study abroad office is planning and coordinating our annual International Perspectives on Higher Education (IPHE) experience. This year’s journey to Colombia, South America marked the seventh year of the IPHE program and my third year as the program leader. On the past two IPHE experiences (South Africa and Vietnam), several participants expressed challenges with the long flights, time difference, and jet lag. So, imagine my glee when I was informed that this year’s destination was only a three-hour flight from Miami, Florida. It was suggested that we visit Bogota, Medellin, and Cartagena over a seven-day period. The gracious largess from our university supporters made this the most affordable IPHE experience to date as it relates to the program fee and flight. I figured recruitment would be a breeze………but recruitment is never as easy at is seems.

Our faculty led study abroad programs have seen substantial movement in Latin America. Global Classroom study abroad opportunities in the Galapagos, Quito, Costa Rica, Chile, and Cuba have been steady and popular among USC students. And in terms of programmatic growth, Latin American global classroom proposals grew by 11% last year, making up 30 percent of our global classroom proposal portfolio. However, Colombia seemed like a Latin American region that was untapped by USC students and faculty. The opportunities for Spanish language courses, joint research, university collaborations, and student exchanges seemed vast. I was excited about our prospects.

After three weeks into developing our IPHE program I began to understand why the Colombia region appeared uncharted for study abroad opportunities. Very few program providers had the global reach to structure a three-city program in the country. Most providers were able to offer the Bogota experience, but travelling to Medellin and Cartagena proved to be challenging. After weeks of searching, deliberations and negotiations we partnered with ISA-Worldstrides who developed a robust itinerary and provided our on the ground support through their associate VP of custom programs, Mrs. Laura Pierce-Weldon. Laura was amazing throughout the entirety of the program, but the efforts she but in on the front end were redoubtable. As we worked through budgets, international and domestic flight selections, recruitment woes, itinerary changes, conference calls, and pre-departure meetings she always made herself readily available.

I was also honored to be joined by Dr. David Cardenas who served as this year’s program assistant. You could not begin to imagine the reception we received from our prospective partners. A number of this year’s participants said they felt like royalty on our university visits. Dr. Cardenas worked diligently to organize and coordinate our university visits. And while I’m trying to only discuss the pre-trip experience in this blog (while everyone else discusses the international experience), I must say the educational, cultural, and professional components of our visit with potential partners were some of the best highlights of this year’s IPHE for me. I was able to meet with my professional analog at these universities, and we have some ambitious partnership goals for our institutions.

The diversity of this year’s group was exciting. We had representation from several different colleges, and participant from all walks of life. One of the values of the IPHE experience is the environment that it creates for bonding among the group of participants. This comradery contributes to navigating the “silo culture” of major research institutions, allowing for collaborations across disciplines. I am eagerly awaiting this follow up projects from this year’s cohort!