Study Abroad Program

• CIEE International Faculty Development Seminars take place around the world and include training in how to lead effective study abroad student trips.
• Cross-Cultural Solutions offers organized volunteer trips around the world.
• The East-West Center at the University of Hawai'i offers a variety of content-focused faculty and institutional development programs and activities centered around summer residential institutes, field seminars, workshops, and conferences.
• Education First College Study Tours works with faculty members to organize and lead study abroad programs.
• Fulbright-Hays Seminars Abroad provide faculty development institutes and short term seminars in the fields of social sciences, arts, and humanities.
• Global Citizenship Alliance offers intensive week-long seminars on global citizenship for faculty members, administrators, and students.
• Global Exploration for Educators Organization (GEEO) works with faculty members to design and organize study trips to various places in the world.
• Global Exchange
• NEH Summer Programs in the Humanities for School and College Educators offers opportunities for faculty members to participate in institutes and short term seminars.
• Stanford University Global Studies' Education for Internationalizing Curriculum (EPIC) strengthens the internationalization of curricula and the professionalization of language instruction at community colleges and K-12 institutions. EPIC offers various workshops, courses, a fellowship program, and other programs including the Integrating Global Issues in to Community College Curricula Symposium.
• Our Developing World
• Salzburg Global Seminar/ International Study Program
• Select (program provider, works with faculty members to organize custom faculty-led study tours to Europe)
• Yale University's MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies offers film series, seminars, conferences, and symposia to help support faculty members' teaching and research on all aspects of international affairs, societies, and cultures around the world.

• BUNAC Work, Intern, Volunteer Abroad
• CCIE California Colleges for International Education
• CIA: The World Factbook
• Finding Internships Abroad
• Fodor's Language for Travelers
• Lonely Planet
• Rick Steves' Europe
• Smart Traveler Enrollment (STE) Program: A Service of the Bureau of Consular Affairs, US Department of State
• STA Travel volunteering Projects
• STA's Tips for First Time Travelers
• Staying Connected while Abroad: International Cell Phones
• Students Abroad: United States Department of State Bureau of Consular Affairs
• Studying Abroad Guide
• Time Zone Converter
• Volunteering and Internships Abroad
• World Time Zone Map

Study abroad can mean several things: long-term study abroad entails spending the entire semester, or a year, taking classes at a university outside of the United States. Short-term study abroad entails going on a study tour that lasts from one to two or more weeks. WVC offers short-term study abroad study tours mostly during summer and winter semesters, when it is easier for students to participate. Students may register for classes that include a study abroad study tour, or they may join the study tour without completing for-credit courses. From time to time, WVC's Study Abroad Program also offers study tours within the United States and service learning opportunities locally and abroad.

The top ten 21st century skills are adaptability, analysis/having a solution mindset, collaboration, communication, digital fluency, having an entrepreneurial mindset, empathy, resilience, self-awareness, social and diversity awareness. Exploring other cultures and languages helps you to hone all of those skills. Studying outside of your familiar environment helps you to mature, to expand cognitively, to broaden your intellectual curiosity, and to understand the significance of being a global citizen. Studying abroad helps you to gain cultural competency, international experience, language capabilities, and other skills needed in our increasingly globalized societies.

No, at this time there are no language requirements for participating in any of WVC's study abroad programs.

Each study tour is different. The logistics of some study tours are organized by program providers, and in such cases the program providers may include international emergency medical and travel insurance. If the logistics of a study tour do not include international emergency medical and travel insurance, you will be required to buy that insurance. Check the specifics of the study tour that interests you.

Each study tour has a specific application. Therefore, check the details of each study tour.

WVC strongly supports students who have been granted Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and their access to higher education, including the experience of studying abroad. But, since the January 20, 2017 start of the new presidency and administration, there have been changes to US governmental policy that are likely to impact DACA students. DACA students traveling outside the US may not be allowed to re-enter the US. Therefore, we advice  that DACA students discuss the risks associated with re-entry with their legal counsel.

WVC is committed to fostering diversity and inclusion. Race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, religion, and ability are some of the different aspects of identity. You may feel strongly about one or more of those aspects. But while traveling abroad, depending on the location and situation, there may be different cultural norms and standards. Consequently, it may happen that you feel that an aspect of your identity is not perceived the way that you expect. The key to succeeding in a travel abroad program is to be fully knowledgeable about yourself and the country where you will study. That way, you can anticipate how your identity may be perceived and how, therefore, you will want to best represent yourself.

It depends. Before you register, pay or participate in any study abroad program not sponsored by West Valley College, you should meet with your academic counselor and make sure it fits into your educational plan and transfer plans.

If you have financial aid you may use it, as you usually do, to pay for registration in the classes linked to the study abroad study tour.

Yes. For details, see the Scholarships tab and the WVC Scholarships webpage.

No, not necessarily. Some scholarships are need-based and some are merit-based. Check the details of each listed scholarship. Note that if you register for a class that is embedded in a Study Abroad Program study tour, you may use your financial aid to pay for the class registration and fees.

Qualifications vary depending on the scholarship, but generally, these are the requirements: be a student in good standing at WVC, have the required GPA, have clearly articulated goals for wanting to study abroad, have completed a certain minimum and maximum number of credits, have a letter of recommendation from your professor at WVC, complete the specific requirements of the particular trip, have all documents necessary to travel to the particular country.

The amounts vary. Check the particular scholarship for the particular trip. Most are full scholarships, but some are partial scholarships.

That depends on the number of applications received and the number of scholarships available.

WVC Study Abroad Program arranges for all scholarship monies to be paid directly to the specific and pertinent program provider for the study tour.