Study Tour Partnership
Where to start…when COVID hit, one of the areas that many universities cut back on for many obvious reasons is in the area of study abroad and travel programs. As we started to emerge from the ridged restrictions and the acceptance of the new norm, Anderson University decided to bring back one of its distinctive programs that had been put on hold for a year, Tri-S Global.
As the norm pre-2020 was no longer an option, AU had to rethink how we offer the same meaningful experiences that we did before. It didn’t take long to figure out what our solution would be. We had been cultivating a partnership with Living and Learning International for a couple years already with their study abroad programs in Ecuador, Italy, and eventually Baltimore. When they created the study tours arm of Living and Learning, that is when the fuzzy picture became clear. They could help create custom study tours and that is exactly what we needed.
To give you a better understanding of what Tri-S Global does, let me give you some more background information. Tri-S has been a distinctive program of Anderson University since 1964. The three S’s in Tri-S stand for study, serve, and share. The main areas that Tri-S Global serve its students, faculty, and staff are with study tours and study away, aka study abroad, both domestically and internationally with a focus mainly on study tours. Tri-S works with several areas of the university to provide complementary travel experiences in conjunction with courses that are offered in areas such as business, communications, nursing, and education. Tri-S also provides opportunities for clubs, athletic teams, and even some service experiences for the general student body.
So…we began planning all of our study tours in July 2021 with Rachel Roskoski, the Director of Study Tours for Living and Learning International, for the 2021-22 academic year. Anyone who has planned trips and recruited students for a study tour knows that time frame is extremely short. A more acceptable time frame to begin planning a study tour is 12-18 months in advance. I was also asking for thirteen travel programs from scratch with the first trip going in January 2022. Despite the monumental task I was asking for, Rachel enthusiastically jumped in and started planning right away. I could not have made these trips happen on my own and was very thankful for the expertise and quality service that was provided by all Study Tours staff.
Some of the high impact global education programs that Study Tours was able to provide:
Our School of Nursing, which has ranked as one of the top nursing schools in Indiana, offers three or four intercultural experiences either internationally or domestically every spring for seniors. This year one of the locations they decided to travel to was Ecuador. The Ecuador experience was truly a unique experience as students were able to work in hospitals alongside Ecuadorian nurses to learn about health care in a setting, unlike anything they had been exposed to all while getting the necessary clinical hours that they needed for their course requirements.
They were able to serve others at pop-up clinics and had the opportunity to teach some basic health care workshops. Besides the nursing aspect of the trip, students were exposed to Ecuadorian culture through the people they came in contact with, delicious food, bartering at the market, sightseeing at the equator and colonial Quito, and so much more. They built a sense of team as they zip-lined through the forest, hiked to a waterfall, traversed through caves, and soaked in hot springs. It was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience for the students and faculty, and we plan to send another group again in the future.
Our women’s volleyball team had an amazing experience in Spain on a service trip this May. In Madrid, they connected with a women’s ministry that helps rescue and restore victims of sex slavery and built relationships with the women through volleyball and crafts. They explored the sites of Madrid and saw some of the highlights like Retiro Park and the Royal Palace. A high-speed train took the group from Madrid to Barcelona where they saw the Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, and climbed Mt. Tibidabo. There they also assisted at an NGO that serves vulnerable populations through painting and crafts. The focus of the trip was to serve others and build a sense of team. Objective accomplished!
One of the trips we offered to the general student body was a cultural program to Italy. In Rome, students stayed in an active abbey, traversed public transportation daily, saw ancient sites such as the colosseum and the Roman Forum and catacombs, marveled at the art in the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel, and were in awe of St. Peter’s Basilica as they climbed to the top of the dome and saw the location where Peter, the apostle of Jesus, is buried. They experienced an AS Roma soccer match in the Olympic stadium where they were exposed to some exciting modern culture.
A highlight of Rome was getting to worship in an Italian-speaking church where they got to meet many friendly locals. The group left Rome and took a high speed train to Venice where they wandered through the many confusing streets, did the bucket list gondola ride, and got to explore Burano, Murano, and Torcello, islands in the Venetian lagoon. The students were exposed to ancient and modern culture and loved it all!
A few of the many benefits of working with Living and Learning Study Tours:
Customer service focused staff
Exciting itineraries
Amazing connections with partners
Knowledgeable Living and Learning hosts
Great value for the money
On-call staff in case of emergencies
Able to pivot quickly in the case of situations where COVID or war requires a change in location
I highly recommend that anyone looking to offer study tours at their university or college, consider partnering with Living and Learning International. We will continue doing so at Anderson University.
