Short-term travel seminars bring classroom learning to life through focused, high-impact experiences.
Traveling to Europe had long been on the bucket list for Madison Frank ’26. During the spring semester, she finally got to check it off, with some help from Stonehill College.
Frank, a health science major and a member of the Moreau Honors Program, traveled to Ireland as part of the College’s Travel Seminar program, which offers three-credit courses with short-term remote study opportunities in destinations that currently include Armenia, Costa Rica, France, Germany, Ireland and Malaysia, as well as a domestic trip to Colorado. The program’s course Irish Literature in Ireland particularly caught her eye.
“I had always been interested in traveling to Ireland,” said Frank. “I had considered studying abroad there for a full semester, but my major has requirements, like labs, that can be challenging to complete when you’re not on campus.”
When she learned this was only a 10-day trip, she saw it as the perfect opportunity to get that experience of studying abroad.
“Walking through a place that you’re learning about is a very different experience than only reading about it in a textbook,” said Frank, who hails from Fall River, Massachusetts, and attended Somerset Berkley Regional High School. “You absorb the topic in a different way.”
The group visited iconic destinations, including the James Joyce Tower and Museum, Trinity College and the Cliffs of Moher.
The students aren’t just learning a list of facts about the places we visit, they’re engaging with the literary expressions and the real places that inspired them.
“The students aren’t just learning a list of facts about the places we visit,” said Fr. George Piggford, professor of English, who led the seminar. “They’re engaging with the literary expressions and the real places that inspired them.”
“It’s very powerful for students to learn about the places and experiences that have shaped real people’s lives,” he added. “Many times it sparks a real interest in them for traveling generally and encountering other cultures. They look for opportunities to integrate what they’ve learned in other settings.”
While the trip included many of the must-see landmarks of the Emerald Isle, the students also enjoyed a special opportunity not available to the average tourist: a private meeting with Claire Cronin ’82, the U.S. ambassador to Ireland from 2022 to 2025 and herself a former Skyhawk.
“We had a personal tour of the ambassador’s mansion,” said Frank. “She showed us photos of all the U.S. presidents she had met and answered all our questions.
Olivia Pham ’26 and Katelyn Kaulbfliesch ’26 explore Nuremburg during their recent travel seminar in Germany.
Amanda Murphy ’26, who is pursuing a graphic design degree, was also drawn to the Travel Seminar program because of its shorter duration.
“I loved the idea of studying abroad, but I wasn’t sure that I wanted to make the commitment to do it for a full semester,” said Murphy, who participated in a seminar in Germany. “This opportunity was a great way for me to get that study-abroad experience without being gone for a full semester.”
Murphy’s course explored the topic of Christian churches in Nazi Germany, taught by Fr. Kevin Spicer, dean of the May School of Arts & Sciences and the James J. Kenneally Distinguished Professor of History.
The group’s itinerary included visits to Berlin, Nuremberg and Munich. While in Munich, they visit Dachau concentration camp — which Murphy found particularly impactful.
“It was so sad to see the prisoners’ letters and pictures,” she said. “We saw the rooms where they slept and simple things like chess pieces they carved as a way to entertain themselves.”
She added: “It was an overcast day and very quiet, which helped me picture what the atmosphere might have been like. I could hear the crunch of the gravel as we walked around. You can’t get that type of sensory experience of a place by reading a book.”
Christina Burney, the college’s executive director of experiential education, says real-world learning experiences such as these trips “help students absorb their learning in a deeper way.”
This fall, the College launched a new initiative in recognition of the value of this type of learning.
The Experiential Education Guarantee (EEG) ensures that all students participate in at least one hands-on learning experience before graduating. Semester-abroad programs, short-term travel opportunities and international internships all fall under the umbrella of the EEG.
In addition to study abroad, the EEG offers students a range of options in creative expression, community engagement, leadership, professional experience and research.
“Trips like these turn the idea of experiential learning into a high-impact practice,” Burney said. “Campus is safe and familiar for the students, but … you grow dramatically as a human being when you get outside of your comfort zone.”
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