Study Abroad

Students are encouraged to participate in opportunities to travel abroad. There is no better and effective way to learn a language than to be immersed in a culture that speaks the language you are learning. Being immersed in an entirely new cultural setting provides students with opportunities to discover new strengths and abilities, conquer new challenges and solve new problems. Students return home with new ideas and perspectives about themselves and their own culture. 

Both majors and minors may take 3-6 hours of study abroad courses by participating in one of the following study abroad programs:

The Music and Art of Ghana  

During this workshop, students are emersed in a contemporary African context from the perspective of the arts in order to experience the vitality of the west African spirit. Students will study music dance, and visual arts in Ghana, West Africa. The class will spend one to two weeks at a cultural arts institute near the nation's capital, Accra, with the remainder of the time in Kumasi, the capital of the Ashanti peoples, and farther north in the Dagomba region. Students will participate in morning and evening music and dance lessons, with opportunities during the day to study other arts, such as batik making, kente weaving, adinkra cloth making, and wood carving. The class will also attend local events such as funerals, rituals, and social dance clubs, during which music and art play primary roles. For more information please contact Dr Rebecca Skinner Green, Director of Africana Studies & Associate Professor, School of Art, 419.372.8514, rlgreen@bgsu.edu

French Programs in Burkina Faso

The two-week Spring, and three-week summer study programs in Burkina Faso are offered through the World Languages & Cultures Department. Courses are conducted in French. For the two-week Spring program, students are taken to Burkina Faso after attending a January to March French program in France. The three-week program, worth six credit hours, is held in the summer and designed only for students who have spent at least one semester in a French-speaking country. For both programs, students attend morning classes taught by Burkinabe professors of the University of Ouagadougou and go on excursions most afternoons and weekends. A final exam in each course concludes the program.  To learn more about this program, contact Dr. Opportune Zongo, Associate Professor, World Languages and Cultures, 419.372.7396, ozongo@bgsu.edu