Summer Abroad Options for Athletes and Busy People
Summer courses abroad attract between 65 to 80 St. Lawrence University students each year. Participants earn up to 1.5 course credits, which is not a strong source of motivation alone. Many students who attend are athletes who are always in season, majors with demanding courseloads, and those who cannot spend an entire semester abroad.
Assistant Director of Off-Campus Programs, Kim Longfellow, believes that summer programs are beneficial in introducing students to what it is like to be abroad. “We have a lot of students that participate in summer programs after their first year or sophomore year,” she said. “And that kind of informs and helps them decide, ‘Okay, I am going to do a full semester [or] a full year.’”
Longfellow also thinks that the summer abroad programs provide an opportunity for faculty growth. “Summer courses allow our faculty to really dive deep into an area,” she said. The control faculty members have in designing each course often sparks student interest. “When it’s outside of the academic year, courses that successfully have a high degree of interest are those usually drawn from a professor’s own research or personal experience and expertise,” Longfellow said.
Political Science professor Mert Kartal designed his program titled “The European Union: Past, Present, Future” around centers of European politics. “We go to four different cities,” he said. “Frankfurt in Germany because the European Central Bank is there, Strasbourg, France, because the European Parliament is there, Luxembourg City because of the European Court of Justice, and Brussels because it is the capital of the European Union.”
According to Kartal, the benefits of this program extend past academics. “One of the ways I look at this program is basically an experiential learning opportunity, so I provide students with chances to engage in meaningful discussions with people from Europe,” he said. Kartal’s course involves political study, but he encourages non-political science majors to apply. “I try to recruit as many non-political science majors as possible, and many students that I recruit for the program are usually [first-years] and sophomores who are undecided,” he said.
Certain majors are more drawn to the summer abroad programs, especially those with larger courseloads like neuroscience major Whitney LaFave ’26. She will be attending the program in London this summer titled “Neuroscience of Fear.” “I really wanted to do a semester program, but my schedule was very rigid, and it was too tight to fit in all my required courses, so I chose to do a summer program instead,” she said.
Many athletes take advantage of the opportunity to study abroad in the summer. Captain of the SLU softball team, Eily Crain ‘26, believes that going abroad to Ireland this summer is the best choice for her as an athlete. “I think it’s a really good opportunity for me because I am an athlete, so I can’t go abroad in the spring for the whole semester,” she said. Summer study abroad also fits well with Crain’s personal goals. She said, “I think that going away for a whole semester would be too long of a time, so I think this is the perfect amount of time for me to be able to study abroad since I’ve never been out of the country, other than to Canada.”