UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Students from across the Penn State system now have an opportunity to study abroad in in Lima, Peru. The program is called “Cross-cultural Engagement and STEM,” and is a six-week, Penn State faculty-led, and interdisciplinary effort.
The new program gives participants an opportunity to learn in a mixed cohort of Penn State and Peruvian students, while studying Spanish, earning six Penn State credits.
In addition to engineering and Spanish majors, the program is open to science majors, education majors, and liberal arts majors at all Penn State campuses.
Various disciplines
The goal is to bring together Penn State and Peruvian students from a variety of disciplines.
“They’re going to learn how disciplines intersect, how they connect,” said Patrick Tunno, director of the Office of Global Engineering Engagement.
Classes will be held at a local university. All participants will take ENGR 399, Global Engineering Culture and Society. This three-credit class will be team-taught by Penn State and Peruvian faculty, utilizing local resources as an integral component of the academic experience.
Topics to explore
Students will explore global engineering culture and social issues through multidisciplinary, cross-cultural teams.
“The course will address STEM challenges,” Tunno said. “What are the opportunities in the U.S. and Latin America? What are the challenges? Students will analyze these based on the expertise of the different faculty and then complete group projects.”
A student majoring in Spanish or education might focus on those aspects while a student majoring in engineering might focus on the engineering aspect. They’ll put them all together in one cohesive project with a local Peruvian on the team as well.
Real life
So it will mimic real life, with interdisciplinary teams and people from different cultures working together.
The application deadline for the summer 2018 session — which runs May 6 through June 16 — is Feb. 1, 2018.
Students can learn more about the program by attending a “Study-Abroad Summer in Peru” information session on Nov. 8, Nov. 14 or Jan. 18.
Times and locations are listed on the Global Engineering Engagement website at global.engr.psu.edu/events.
