As an Education Exploratory major or minor, you can:

• Explore a variety of courses that can count towards your major or minor as core requirements, related courses, and electives.
• Experience diverse cultures through approved programs around the globe.
• Engage in courses that expand subject areas of interest in the field.
• Develop foreign language skills that will enhance your professional qualifications.

How will #UConnChangeYourWorld

These programs are recommended based on your academic interests but students can explore additional approved program options via the Program Search.

Faculty-Led Programs:

Summer Exploring Women and Leadership in Iceland
Reykjavik, Iceland
This faculty-led program is ideal for upper classmen considering a career in education. Students will take the course Women, Education and Social Change for EDLR 5343 and there are no prerequisites or particular requirements beyond a learner’s academic level. Learners will examine the lives of girls and women with a focus on the changing women’s roles and social ideologies as related to women’s educational aspirations, career achievement, and leadership in Iceland. Upon their return, all learners will work independently on the completion of a comparative analysis of one of these themes across contexts, on a topic selected with instructor approval.

Summer Racial and Social Justice in the Netherlands
Amsterdam and other locations in the Netherlands
This program is designed to introduce students to international and comparative higher education through a historical and global context. It aims to provide UConn students with comparative methods and cross-cultural analysis to examine the broader issues of equity and access with a focus on race and social justice. Through an examination of critical frameworks, participants will challenge the western view of higher education and explore what it means to be an active global citizen and educators.

Summer Two-Way Immersion Education in Costa Rica
Guanacaste, Costa Rica
This program is open to UConn undergraduates and graduates with an interest in education, languages, and culture. Proficiency in Spanish is beneficial, but not required. Students will develop teaching skills at La Paz Community School, a pre-K-12, two-way immersion IB school on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. Very concretely, this education abroad experience will give students the opportunity to gain considerable contact hours in the classroom with students and teachers. Students will learn directly about approaches that are the cornerstone of instruction at the school: two-way immersion education, place-based learning, cross-cultural competence, thematic instruction, and cross-grade learning. You will come back to UConn with an expanded worldview of what is possible in education for teachers, students, and the broader community, as well as hands-on instructional skills that you can put to use in your future work as a teacher. 

Tuition-Based Programs:

Al Akhawayn University
Ifrane, Morocco
The program offers a uniquely international common core program for all undergraduate students, providing the basis for a well-rounded global education. Rich academics, in English, encouraging choice and experimentation, are available in all schools and programs of study. A comfortable, safe, exciting residential student life exists on campus, featuring hundreds of University student-run activities, with over 96 percent of undergraduates living on campus with roommates from around Morocco and the four corners of the world.

National Chengchi University
Taipei, Taiwan
Established in 1927, NCCU has created a very student-centered environment.  NCCU’s “vision is to build a first-rate international humanities and social sciences academic temple, and nurture ‘Humane, Global, Innovative’ successors for the new century.”

The Umbra Institute in Perugia
Perugia, Italy
The program takes place at a study center with a strong community in an authentic Italian city. Many of the courses are embedded with community engagement, service learning and other projects that benefit locals. The course options include Education in Italy, a seminar and practicum style course that brings students into the classroom to learn from experience in an English classroom with an Italian teacher. Another course students interested in special education will benefit from is Critical Disability Studies, a seminar and practicum style course that brings students together with diversely-abled members of the community at a non-profit that teaches through sports.  Outside of the classroom, there are many volunteer opportunities where students can gain experiences with a variety of community members who may influence their interests in social challenges and community education.

University of Essex
Colchester, England
This University of Essex is consistently ranked among the top ten universities in England for the quality of its research, with many departments rated as “outstanding” by international standards. In this program you will be fully integrated academically and socially, being treated as if you are a British student. This is an ideal way of experiencing true British academic and cultural life. 

Yonsei University
Seoul, South Korea
Korea provides a particularly advantageous position from which to study the changing culture, economics, and politics of all the nations of the East Asian region. As one of the most rapidly developing countries in the world, Korea has become a model for educational expansion, agricultural reform, family planning, industrial development, and a host of other issues facing the nations of Asia and the world. 

Fee-Based Programs:
AIFS Study Abroad in Budapest, Hungary
Choose from a variety of course options at Corvinus University, the leading higher education institute in Hungary and home to over 14,000 students. Located on the eastern Pest side of the Danube River, the campus is in the city’s commercial and political heart. The program also offers a service learning project working with mothers and young children from the Roma community who are learning English.

AIFS Study Abroad in Salamanca: Semester or Academic Year
Salamanca, Spain
Spend a semester or academic year in the charming and lively city of Salamanca, Spain with AIFS! Study a variety of academic program options at the University of Salamanca, home to a thriving international student population. Dubbed the “Oxford of Spain”, the prestigious university has a student population of approximately 30,000 students.  Students can opt to participate in an education internship for an additional fee as part of the semester program, as well as improve Spanish language skills, improving credentials for working with diverse student groups. 

Finances are an integral part of the program selection and planning process. Research scholarships early to meet application deadlines and request feedback on essays from advisors and the Writing Center.

Featured Scholarships: Coming soon!

To learn more and discover other financial opportunities to fund your Experiential Global Learning opportunity, visit our scholarships page.