Notre Dame strives to give students a global education, and over the past two years, the University has expanded its study abroad opportunities, adding 10 new summer programs to its study abroad options for students, Rosemary Max, director of international programs at Notre Dame International, said.
“New this summer is Brazil, Berlin, Rome, Japan, two options in Jerusalem, Russia and South Africa, which used to be only open to athletes in the past, but is now open to all students,” Max said. “These locations were chosen for a combination of reasons. Sometimes faculty members have interest in a particular area and approach us in doing a study abroad program. ... Also, another reason is that we often see a need or gap in some of the places our students are able to go, and we might think about a destination and approach a faculty member who may be interested in teaching there. So it’s a two-way street in new program development.” This is the first time Notre Dame has hosted summer programs in Germany and Russia, Max said, to supplement the study abroad options already available in the two countries during the semester. Notre Dame has also added a new session to its existing Jerusalem summer program to allow students more flexibility, Max said. “Both sessions are three-week programs, but now there are two of them,” Max said. “The programs are the same, but this allows students to go early in the summer and then start their summer late or kind of begin their summer and then attend this program. The first session is [from] May 17 to June 7 and the second session is [from] July 17 to Aug. 7.” The Jerusalem program is part of Notre Dame’s Global Gateways network, which gives students the opportunity to study in Notre Dame facilities while abroad, Max said. “We have a building in London, Jerusalem, Dublin and Rome, where we have a physical presence on the ground, where we’ve been there for a while and have a nice program of academics and scholarship happening,” said Max. “Programs that are non-gateway sights occur because we want to go to all these other amazing countries where we don’t happen to have a gateway, [as] we still want students to be able to experience them. There is a whole range of other programs where we don’t have a [Notre Dame facility], but we have programs in these countries.” Max said she encourages students to study abroad during the summer. “We are very interested in summer becoming a key option for students in terms of study abroad. Students should consider the intensive experience they can have in the short time they are overseas. Even in the short time, students can experience a close bond with the other students on the trip and the faculty member on the trip,” Max said. “It’s not something that students think about when first signing up for a program, but it’s really something they should think about because of the intense feel it has to it.”
