Faculty: Dean Tatum Thomas and Dr. Dania Matos

Puerto Rico: Expressions of the Leadership-Identity Nexus is an immersive study abroad experience that invites students to explore how leadership is shaped by identity and culture. Through direct engagement with artists, archivists, business leaders, and civic organizers, students examine the relationship between identity and influence in Puerto Rico’s complex landscape. The program moves across the island, including time in coastal towns, mountain communities, and cultural hubs. Along the way, students sharpen their leadership lens through project-based learning, identity-based learning, and time to recharge in places of significance, including guided reflection on the beach. This is leadership learning grounded in place, purpose, and practice. Through immersive travel and reflective, project-based learning, this program positions Puerto Rico as a compelling case study in resilience, self-determination, and social transformation.

Pre-travel sessions provide foundations in leadership theory, archival research, identity-mapping, and cross-cultural communication strategies. During the on-site experience, students observe how leadership emerges in grassroots, cultural, and corporate settings by engaging directly with local leaders, organizers, and creatives. Identity-based reflective learning, and guided discussion help students analyze leadership through a multifaceted lens.

Students synthesize their learning through storytelling podcasts, peer-to-peer dialogue, a leadership simulation, and a capstone narrative canvas. This course satisfies multiple undergraduate and graduate learning outcomes and is open to students across the university.

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Faculty: Nancy Morgan

Pre-requisites: Approval by Program and Study Abroad Directors is required for Autumn enrollment.

Course: HC 168

This study abroad course will provide participants with a foundation in the theories of intercultural communications and apply them in Jamaica. Students will take on the role of participant-observers in different cultures within Jamaica; e.g., in public spaces, music venues, schools, and other institutions, and examine how communications are affected by place. Through visits to Montego Bay, Kingston, Mandeville, Ocho Rios, and the Accompong community, participants will analyze how different socio-cultural factors interact to shape interaction patterns in these different settings, as well as in the United States. They will engage with host country scholars and university students to evaluate the impact of communication differences that diverse religious, social, ethnic, and educational backgrounds have on individuals communicating within an organization and in social settings. During the Autumn term and prior to departure, Nancy Morgan will conduct on-ground and online class sessions.

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Faculty: Ray Mosha and Steffanie Triller Fry

Develop a fresh understanding of local peoples, the environment, and cultural practices in Tanzania. The travel experience prepares students for life in an increasingly globalized world by engaging issues and questions of the East African experience, including foreign pressures and influences on indigenous values, social justice dilemmas like class marginalization and the impacts of globalization on lifestyles and economies. Simple observation serves as a powerful tool for uncovering deeper meanings in everyday events in the lives of Tanzanians. Participants’ ongoing dialogue with local cultures and peoples raises consciousness on global issues of justice, peace, politics and traditions. Course destinations will include a safari, a visit to Mount Kilimanjaro, a trip to the island of Zanzibar, and a visit to a former slave town. The class can be completed for eight credits, or three to four competencies H5, A1H, H3B, A3E, FX, A1D, H1H, E1 & E2, L10 & L11. 

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Theatre, live performances, museum collections, and street markets are integral parts of English cultural history; they also represent Britain’s international heritage. London theaters not only celebrate English history, culture and language, they also carry the banner of the English artistic imagination into the future. London’s museums make it one of the most visited cities in the world for the range of its collected artifacts and images. Outside the theater and museum doors, markets teem with life. From Borough Market, established in Roman times to those established in the nineteenth century, the farmers' markets, flea markets, and antique markets present a unique juxtaposition with the established forms of representation and performance found in museums and theaters. We will glimpse at how theaters, markets, and museums create a magical intersection of past with present and future, of art with life and politics, and of cultural stasis with social change. We will question our own approaches to these sites of tourism, entertainment and consumption: what does it mean to perform a service vs. perform for entertainment? How do individuals and groups represent themselves in an effort to draw crowds, customers, audiences, and viewers? The goal of this study abroad program, offered in conjunction with SCPS, is to bring London “alive” in both the past and present and to deepen participants' understanding of London, and the global marketplace the city itself both performs and represents. Email scpsinternational@depaul.edu for more information.

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Faculty: Betta LoSardo and Susan McGury

In this domestic travel course, learners will walk the Freedom Trail, visit Boston’s most famous art collections, and its equally famous North End.  Issues such as Boston’s immigrant populations, fame as a seat of American higher education, connection to events in American history, and economic output will be discussed. Tuition plus fee for museum entry and group tours. Students make their own travel and hotel arrangements. Travel to Boston in Fall term. Competencies:  H4, A5, L10 & 11, or negotiated H1X, A1X. 

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What do traditional healing, ancient kingdoms, colonial history, culture, creativity and self-development, and modern technology have in common? Come to Ghana, Togo and Benin and find out! While learning about traditional African worldviews in connection with modern culture and technology, you will explore the richness of West African cultures. Visit world historical sites, universities, marketplaces and cultural venues to challenge the myths and misconceptions about the continent and her people. SCPS students earn 4 competencies from the following: H1F, H3B, A3B, S3B, S3X, L10, L11 and FX. Non-SCPS students receive 8 credits: INT 399 in Fall quarter and REL 299 (JYEL) in Winter quarter. Osofo Kwesi Atta co-direct the course. Email scpsinternational@depaul.edu for more information.

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Faculty: Ludovic Comeau

In 1990, sociopolitical forces in South Africa began formally dismantling the structure of racial segregation known as “apartheid” that had been in force since 1948. Despite its advanced economy today and boasting one of the most progressive constitutions in the world, post-apartheid South Africa still faces considerable challenges—providing social and economic equality for all races and groups, maintaining the country’s economic strength while fostering social justice, and battling the largest HIV/AIDS epidemic in the world.

Through visits to historical sites and lectures by local experts in law, business, and public health, this study abroad course explores these issues first-hand. See the Constitutional Court and the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg. Visit Soweto Township and walk down Vilakazi Street, home to both Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu. Tour Robben Island (where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years) and visit the District Six Museum in Cape Town. Additional excursions include a safari.

There will be opportunities for service learning, as well as ongoing reflection about the relevance and meaning of this incredible experience via a travel journal and four on-site formal class meetings. SCPS students receive 3-4 of the following competencies: L3, L10, L11, E1, E2, H1X, H1X, H2X, H5, FX, in addition to possible negotiated competencies. Non-SCPS students receive 8 credits total, SAP 200 in the Winter quarter (EL) and SAP 200 (usually an elective) in the Spring quarter. Contact Ludovic Comeau at lcomeau@depaul.edu for more information.

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