Experiential Learning Term
EL Terms are three-week travel courses, usually held after the academic year ends in May, in which students travel to Latin America with an Allegheny professor, fulfilling one four-credit course.
Students developed a profound firsthand understanding in these previous courses:
Financing Sustainability: The Costa Rica Case
The course uses Costa Rica to introduce students to development-related problems of environmental degradation, the possibilities for sustainable development, and approaches to financing sustainable development activities. Areas of special focus include agriculture, forestry, and tourism.
Visions of Mexico: Cultural and Historical Interpretations of Indigenous, Colonial and Modern Mexico
Visions of Mexico offers students three weeks of study in Cuernavaca, Mexico’s “City of Eternal Spring.” The city’s deep historical roots offer a rich environment for students to study the connections between historical and cultural knowledge, and the ability to communicate in Spanish. Students examine Mexico’s indigenous, colonial, and modern societies, and trace their cultural inheritance through the architecture, language and literature, and film and food of contemporary Mexico.
Internships
UN ECLAC Internship Program
This program in Washington, D.C. is an opportunity for undergraduate students to become familiar with the research and studies on the economies of the Latin American and Caribbean region, monitor the news related to these economies, and attend conferences and meetings.
Other Organizations
Internships are also available with such organizations as the Central American Solidarity Association, International Development Exchange and the U.S. Department of State.
Sustainable Development
Sustainable development-related internships in Costa Rica are offered with a variety of companies and organizations, including a consortium of rural cooperatives, a clean electric power company, and an international journalism organization, among others.