Gap Year Association

PEOPLE AND PLACES - HOW LOCATION AFFECTS CULTURE
In this 200-division course, students will better understand the ways local populations are impacted by their location – environmentally, historically, culturally, and/or economically. Students will explore how social divisions occur as well as how divisions can be positively addressed. Students will learn about how the local culture has evolved to its present state, and strive to understand what influences environmentally, historically, culturally, and/or economically have influenced it. Supplemental assignments offer opportunities for research and reflection of experiences.

GEOGRAPHY OF GLOBAL ISSUES
This course is designed to provide hands-on learning opportunities for undergraduate students who undertake foreign travel. This course introduces global perspectives, basic concepts and fundamental questions of geography. It focuses on how all locations on Earth are interconnected and explores how humanity uses the planet as varies from place-to-place, comparing and contrasting to the students' home. Students will work to understand the growth and distribution of human populations; the complexities and varying systems of land use; geopolitics and colonialism; the geographic impact of selected issues such as gender issues, poverty, racism, religion, etc.

HEALTHCARE SYSTEMS AND THE AFFECTED
This course is designed to provide hands-on learning opportunities for undergraduate students who undertake foreign travel. Students will be exposed to alternative healthcare systems and alternative healthcare practices. They will learn about the pros and cons of the host-country’s health and healthcare, and chart progressive ways to improve. Possible areas of focus might include, obesity, infant-mortality, domestic-violence, addiction issues, HIV/AIDS transmission and prevention, nutrition, water sanitation, etc.

INTRODUCTION TO SPIRITUAL / RELIGIOUS STUDIES & THEIR ROLES IN CULTURE
This course engages students in meaningful work/volunteer experiences while helping them gain understanding, acquire knowledge, and develop the necessary skills for living in a globally interdependent and culturally diverse world. Students will study the spirituality of their region to understand a sense of local spiritual traditions and provide a level of insight into personal belief structures and how they structure daily life during their academic study abroad.

CULTURE AND ITS INFLUENCE ON THE WAYS PEOPLE OPERATE
This course is designed to provide hands-on learning opportunities for undergraduate students who undertake foreign travel. Students will explore the psychological differences and similarities across cultural boundaries, and explore issues like “what is success across cultural lines” and “how does language determine world-view?” Students will challenge their own cultural norms and identify cultural biases in undertaking this course.

SELF AND COMMUNITY - CULTURE, COHORT, SELF
This course is designed to provide hands-on learning opportunities for undergraduate students who undertake foreign travel. It offers the student an opportunity to reflect on the complex relationships within the host culture surrounding a particular event, the cohort of peer-students in which students form a relevant identity, and their own history. Students will have an option to write an ethnology based on living within a foreign culture for two months and use their cohort experience for a detailed study of social systems and self-growth.

PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS; INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS
Students will enhance their understanding of global economics and gain a first-hand experience of the ways that international policy impacts local populations and seek an understanding for how the global supply chain works. Students will be asked to trace a particular commodity from production to purchase, with each step along the way understanding where the dollars have passed and what are the results from each step.

COLONIALIZATION AND WESTERN INFLUENCES
This course is designed to provide hands-on learning opportunities for undergraduate students who undertake foreign travel. In this study of colonialism and the history of Western influences, students will strive to understand the influences that colonialism has had on the host-country. Students will explore the ways local cultures have been impacted by the influences of “westernized countries” that might include infrastructure (roads, trains, and transportation), language, gender roles, world-view, social justice issues, sanitation, food, politics, political influences, natural resource management, etc.

GLOBALIZATION AWARENESS AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
This course provides students with an opportunity to learn through work experience and volunteer service concurrent with assignments while on their academic study abroad program. It engages students in meaningful work/volunteer experiences while helping them gain an understanding of a particular issue of their choosing relevant to globalization and its impacts on local populations including international development initiatives.

LEADERSHIP ACROSS BORDERS
This course is designed to provide hands-on learning opportunities for undergraduate students who undertake foreign travel. This course creates an opportunity for students to assess and understand differing models of leadership in modern societies. Students will explore varying models of leadership from a host culture perspective, compare them to the student’s home culture, and assess personal leadership strengths. Students will be expected to integrate information from participant observation, research, readings and interviews to inform conclusions.

ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY
This course is designed to provide hands-on learning opportunities for undergraduate students who undertake foreign travel. It offers the student an opportunity to learn outside of the classroom and affords an opportunity to take advantage of appropriate technology, sustainability issues in the developing world, and to learn first hand about local issues of environmental sustainability observed through travel and service learning.

GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES
This course is designed to provide hands-on learning opportunities for undergraduate students who undertake foreign travel. It offers the student an opportunity to learn outside of the classroom and to learn first-hand about local issues of global citizenship observed through travel. It will provide an introduction to the richness of cultures in the world, drawing on perspectives from the locals themselves, and rooted in the humanities and social sciences. Students will explore the balance between political, economic, environmental, and cultural systems, to cultivate skills and attitudes in support of global citizenship.

CLIMATE CHANGE AND ITS IMPACTS
This course will provide hands-on learning opportunities for undergraduate students who undertake foreign travel. It offers the student an opportunity to learn outside of the classroom and affords an opportunity to learn first-hand about how climate change affects local ecosystems and the people that depend on them. Through travel and service-learning, the course will equip students with an awareness about global impacts of climate change; students will be able to identify specific impacts local to their travels that result from rising CO2 emissions; and students will research how multiple issues of climate change can compound for great effect.