Lewis and Clark has an amazing Overseas Office, and an abundance of incredible study abroad programs available to undergraduate students. You can study abroad as soon as the fall of your second year and as late as the spring of your senior year, and around ⅔ of all CAS students end up studying abroad for at least one of their eight semesters at LC. You are limited to two semesters abroad, as the college prefers a majority of your time to be spent on campus in Portland, but most students find that that’s plenty of time to explore the world beyond Palatine Hill.
I want to talk a little about the logistics of studying abroad, what it means in terms of four-year plans and graduation, and where to begin if you’re thinking about traveling overseas.
First, you should have an idea of which program you’d like to go on. Maybe you have a dream destination in mind, or perhaps a gap in your schedule that you’d like to fill. Picking which program you want to apply for is just as important as the application itself, as many have pre-requisites that can take a semester or two to complete. Additionally, some programs only run on odd or even years, so if there’s one you’re desperate to go on, make sure to plan your schedule accordingly.
Lewis and Clark offers over 30 study abroad programs each year, and they’re all incredibly varied. The programs that run almost always have LC staff as program directors, which means you’re not just shipped to some institution that LC partners with, you get actual faculty members to teach you and explore their areas of expertise.
LC’s programs typically fall into three categories: language-intensive, regional area study, or major-specific.
Language programs have a language requirement, typically somewhere around the 200 level, and the focus is cultural and linguistic immersion. You will most likely end up taking classes entirely in that language, and a lot of these programs will satisfy credits for World Languages or cultural studies degrees.
Regional area study programs focus on a specific geographical location rather than a particular subject or language. These programs allow students to learn about other cultures by first-hand experience, and typically involve a lot of travel around the country/region.
A lot of regional area programs overlap with major-specific programs. For example, I’m going on the England: Fine Arts program which is a regional area study, meaning we will travel around the UK and learn about culture and politics, but we do so with an emphasis on the fine arts. The program is designed for theater, music, or art majors, but is not limited to them. My program actually is mostly people in non-arts majors, myself included. However, if you intend to double major or minor, picking a study abroad program aligned with your studies can help you save time when it comes to credits. One of the more popular programs for STEM students is the Berlin trip, which offers an upper-level chemistry course alongside classes about German history and International Affairs.
You actually don’t have to study abroad through the LC programs. It’s more than feasible to find a program that interests you and then just transfer the credits once it’s over, but the support of the Overseas Office and the infrastructure surrounding the LC programs can make them a lot more accessible. You can even make an appointment with some of the Overseas staff and work with them to figure out which program is best for you.
Once you’ve chosen the right one for you, applying for a study abroad program is actually pretty simple. Applications go out the academic year before the trip runs, so if you’re going on the Fall 2023 trip, you’ll apply during the fall of 2022. Students need to submit two letters of recommendation from faculty members, a copy of their transcript, and a few essay questions about their character and why they want to go abroad. The essays are the most time-consuming part of the application, but to anyone familiar with writing college applications, they should feel fairly standard.
There is also a brief interview with the program director of the trip before all applicants are finalized. I cannot speak for all programs, but mine was fairly casual and brief, not at all a stressful experience. I even ended up turning my application in late (something I do not recommend doing) and still got accepted on a really amazing program. It never hurts to apply, or ask the department if there are still open spots, even if you think you might not get in.
Studying abroad is an incredible experience that allows you to live abroad and immerse yourself in different cultures. The resources available at LC make it easy to do so, and I highly recommend any student take advantage of the incredible opportunities the college offers.
(image stolen from the Overseas website about the England: Fine Arts program)