International Scholars Program

Imagine yourself just about anywhere in the world. In Spain. Greece. Ghana. India. China. The Czech Republic. Brazil. Wherever.

Imagine yourself speaking the language, getting to know the people, engaging the culture in deep and meaningful ways.

Imagine that you can take special classes to prepare you before you go and put your experiences in perspective when you return. Imagine that you can do this as a complement to any major—no matter what you study, without adding to your course load or interrupting your progress.

Now imagine that there’s a program that will give you special recognition for all of this when you graduate—and a special travel voucher to help you pay your way.

The Goucher College International Scholars Program can make this all come true. It’s a special opportunity for enterprising students to add a whole new dimension to their education by weaving substantive international experience throughout their entire undergraduate careers.

Open to students of any major, the ISP complements studies in specific disciplines by exploring their broader global context through intensive coursework in the classroom and firsthand experience around the world.

Every ISP participant studies abroad. Every participant studies the language of the country he or she goes to and takes special seminars on world history, cultural identity, and the effects of globalization. And every participant gets a study-abroad voucher to offset expenses.

That’s the quick and easy explanation.

The more detailed explanation goes like this:

During your first year in the program, you’ll get a broad view of the modern world through a seminar called “Perspectives on the Global Condition.” It’s a series of three courses tracing the evolution of the Atlantic cultures and the American identity, taken alongside your other classes over the fall, January, and spring terms. You can use it to fulfill your first-year “Frontiers” requirement, and your room and board for the January term are covered.

In the second year, you’ll tighten your focus a little bit in “Local/Global Connections,” a one-semester exploration of the local dimensions of globalization through classroom discussions, field exercises around the Baltimore area, and dialogues with students in a sister city.

Then you’ll go abroad* and all of this will start coming together. You’ll choose a program that fits into your major field of study. If it’s in a non-English-speaking country, you’ll take courses in that country’s language. And drawing on all you’ve learned so far, you’ll immerse yourself in the culture—and see how your major discipline is studied and practiced on an international scale.

Studying abroad will change your life in ways you won’t even be able to imagine until you do it, and it will be very important when you return to take some time to reflect on the experience. To help you organize your thoughts, we’ll ask you to write an essay exploring the changes that studying abroad has brought about in your thinking, your academic and career interests, and your perspective on the world. In three roundtable sessions, you’ll rejoin the other International Scholars you’ve met in your ISP seminars to share what you’ve seen, done, and learned.

Because the ISP is a special program over and above the usual undergraduate requirements, we think its participants deserve special recognition for completing it. You’ll get that recognition publicly when you’re introduced as an International Scholar at Commencement. And your participation in the ISP will be specially noted on your Goucher transcript.

The International Scholars Program is more than a study-abroad program.

It’s a way of assimilating your major studies and your explorations abroad into one cohesive educational experience, further enriched with genuine intercultural literacy and a real understanding of how your learning connects you to the global community in which you’ll live and work when you graduate.

You don’t have to be an International Scholar to study abroad. But if you want to be sure you’re making the most of the experience—and getting a truly global perspective on your whole undergraduate education—the International Scholars Program is the best way to do it.

So imagine yourself doing all the amazing things you could as an International Scholar. And then get in touch with us to find out how to make it happen for real.

* Because genuine immersion takes time, we require that students study abroad over a full semester or academic year. Depending upon your needs, schedule, and academic goals, however, you may petition to substitute two three-week intensive courses abroad for one longer program.