Students can still experience life outside the U.S. through faculty-led classes without taking a semester in another country.
By Olivia Gehm
TAMPA, Fla. – From Australia’s Great Barrier Reef to the canals of Venice, University of Tampa students have ample opportunities to travel and study at universities around the world. A whole semester abroad, however, isn’t always plausible for every student, whether it be due to course load, family expectations, or a job.
Aside from semesters abroad, UTampa offers faculty-led programs that combine instructional time in Tampa with a one- to two-week excursion to another country.
Lisa Yarmosh, University of Tampa education abroad program manager, said these courses are a great way to get international experience, regardless of past travel experience.
“It’s a great opportunity for students who haven’t traveled, maybe, in the past, and have an interest in traveling to be able to kind of get their feet wet,” Yarmosh said.
She also said that learning how to travel is an invaluable skill.
“There is so much transferable knowledge,” she said. “Even personally, and professionally, knowing what to do when you need to travel.”
Students can begin their applications through Via, where they will submit basic information. After Student Conduct approves the student, Yarmosh will change the application status, usually to “conditionally approved.” From there, the process is simple: students complete the required forms and pay a deposit. Featured below are three of these courses available next semester.
COM 212: Co-Creative Documentary Abroad
Immersing students in the culture of Quintana Roo, Mexico, the Co-Creative Documentary Abroad course allows students to create a documentary about a local nonprofit that is working to make a change in the community. Dubbed “change-makers,” these non-profits are the sole focus of the seven-day shoot, which aims to tell their story in a visually compelling way.
Dr. Christopher Boulton, a University of Tampa communications professor, teaches the class. Leading up to the trip, the course has two main goals.
“The primary objective of the trip is to create a short documentary film that’s going to be beneficial to the change-maker locally,” Boulton said. “But beyond that, it’s to get students to participate in a collaborative process, and also have an intercultural experience with their immersive homestay.”
The first seven weeks of the semester are filled with technical content; students practice different filmmaking techniques, ultimately learning how to shoot and produce a documentary. Then, the class will travel to Mexico over spring break, where they will follow the change-makers, immersing themselves in their environment.
Upon returning, students will spend the rest of the semester in post-production, editing the footage they shot while abroad.
“And then we share drafts of that with the change-makers, so they can have input in terms of shaping how that story is told,” he said.
The class then submits the film to multiple festivals, where it is judged by other creatives.
Boulton said that the most influential and rewarding part of the class tends to be the homestays, where students are paired together and placed in a home with a local family for the length of the trip.
“[The students] understand a different way of living, they’ve become quite close with their host families and often stay in touch with them,” said Boulton.
Equally rewarding is the idea that this kind of traveling contributes positively to and invests in the community.
University of Tampa student Lucas Dye, who took the class in spring 2023, said that interacting with locals was his favorite part of the trip.
“In my experience, a lot of travel is being done in areas that are used to tourists,” said Dye. “And I think that although that’s a normal thing, it doesn’t feel as authentic as being in an environment where people are just like, going to work.”
This year, the class will be accompanied to Mexico by languages and linguistics professor Dr. Andrew DeMil. It’s available to students in a wide variety of majors, focusing heavily on skills relevant to those in the communications department. Students with a major or minor in Spanish can also benefit from the course. Applications for the course remain open online through the UTampa Abroad portal until Dec. 1.
BIO 407: Fermentation Microbiology
From the well-known beers and wines to the less obvious chocolate and coffee, the Fermentation Microbiology course explores all things fermented. The class consists of a semester at the University of Tampa centered around microbiology, which involves making fermented products. After commencement in May, the class travels together to Paris, France, and Brussels, Belgium, to get up close with the many food industries involved with fermentation.
According to Dr. Eric Freundt, who is teaching the class and leading the excursion to Europe, the students will spend ample time in France observing how wine and cheese are made.
“We’re certainly interacting with the locals, at each of our sites, you know, and learning about the culture around wine,” said Freundt. “When we go to the wine museum, there’s a docent who takes us around the museum…she’ll basically train the students about, ‘How do you approach wine?’ in order to understand and taste all the different things, and treat it properly.”
Their time in Paris will be filled with museums, dinners, and even glimpses into behind-the-scenes food production. After their stint in France, the class will take a train over to Belgium and repeat the same kind of experiential learning with famous Belgian beer and chocolate.
While students spend much of their time focused on food science, Freundt said there is still time for the class to do other things that pique their interest, both together as a group and on their own. One of these experiences, a boat ride along the Seine River in Paris, was particularly memorable for Freundt because of how his students reacted to it.
“A couple of students started crying, because they were realizing a lifelong dream,” he said. “And so, to me, that was like, ‘Wow, what a moment.’”
The course is aimed towards students who are pursuing a career in the fermentation industry or are interested in food science as a whole.
Since it is an upper-level microbiology course, Freundt expects that students have already taken microbiology and are familiar with the material, so the class can jump right in on day one and begin exploring microbes.
“They’re looking at it from a particular lens, which I think lends itself to a nicer travel experience,” said Freundt.
The class will also be taught by Dr. Lauren Logsdon, assistant biology professor, and applications for the course remain open online through the UTampa Abroad portal until Dec. 1.
HSC 499: Special Topics in Health Sciences – Health Through the Ages
While medical textbooks and 3D models may be the modern standard, nothing brings a tear to the eye quite like a venerable anatomical theatre. Special Topics in Health Sciences – Health Through the Ages takes students to London and Italy, giving them access to two of the oldest of these theatres, and exhibits the vibrant history of healthcare that eventually progressed into modern-day medicine.
According to Health Sciences and Human Performance professor Dr. Abraham Miller, students will get the opportunity to tour health facilities and museums that are not open to the public, and which are generally reserved for local physicians and medical students. He also said that the sheer amount of historical medical instruments, procedures, and diseases on display makes for ample learning experiences.
“If you have an interest, there’s more than you can actually take in,” he said.
The class will meet once a week for an hour and 15 minutes, where students will learn about the history that they’ll soon get to see firsthand, as well as where logistical planning will take place for the trip.
Students will keep a journal to track their learning during educational excursions, and, similar to BIO 407, they will also have plenty of time to explore the countries on their own, broadening their cultural understanding of the world outside the United States. University of Tampa student Hailey Ward experienced the trip in May of 2025, and said that it taught her a lot about the world outside of the U.S., which she had never left before.
“It definitely, like, challenged my view of the world,” said Ward. “I didn’t realize how much culture exists outside of the U.S.”
Dr. Heidi Borgeas, health sciences and human performance professor, said that the independence granted to the students is a wonderful aspect of the trip.
“I loved the delight, that when we took the students in Italy and we said, ‘Go find lunch.’ They just have to go and make their own choices,” she said. “That freedom to experience some things, just in another country, I really liked that.”
However, likely for the best, the trip isn’t entirely independent. The group will have multiple “points of contact,” who both guide the students and faculty where they need to go, and help break the language barrier in Italy. Beyond that, one of the guides in this past semester’s trip gave the class a taste of what it’s like to be a local, showcasing some of the lesser-known spots around Florence.
Despite being labeled as a 400-level class, Miller and Borgeas agree that it’s not a senior-level, high-intensity class that is expected with that kind of course code, and that it’s open to anyone who is interested, even to majors outside the health field. There are no prerequisites, and applications for the course remain open online through the UTampa Abroad portal until Dec. 1.