Cornell’s One Course At A Time calendar allows for unprecedented mobility. Students have the opportunity to acquire knowledge in the most appropriate setting, where the excitement of generating or using knowledge is at its highest. That might mean studying Spanish in Argentina, Renaissance art in Italy, archeology in Greece, meditation in India, or tropical insects in Costa Rica.Each block—or 18-and-a-half days—Cornell sends students to the far-flung corners of the world. Some stay for a week or two, others for a full block, and others for longer. International study prepares students for living, leading, and serving in a world of global interaction. It enables students to reflect on their own culture and see themselves in a new light. Study abroad can be profoundly empowering, awakening, and disturbing.
Since opening in 2006, the Office of International and Off-Campus Studies has helped increase the number of opportunities for students to study away from the Hilltop. Twenty-three off-campus courses are scheduled for 2011–12.
The photos that follow, most of which come from the second annual Cornell Off-Campus Study Photo Contest, offer not just a moment in time, but a glimpse of what it’s like to be a college student far from home in the early 21st century.
After a brutal 420-rod portage into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northern Minnesota, students were rewarded with a stunning sunset.Once the site of gladiator contests, the Colosseum is now a step off Rome’s Metro. Art history student Katelyn Hillmeyer ’13 preferred the nighttime view, calling it “magical.”Students observed everyday life by venturing the labyrinth streets and alleys of Fez during the course Islam and Postcoloniality in Contemporary MoroccoA Shakespearean actor leads a workshop at the reconstructed Globe Theatre.Students in Religions of Laos lived briefly with local families and observed religious and cultural practices.Geology students set off toward Wharariki Beach on the South Island, New Zealand, to examine the cross section of exposed rock cliffs on the beach.A small boy singing in Arabic accompanied students on a camel ride in MoroccoMonica Brown ’11 captured the Cellarium at the Fountains Abbey outside of York, England. ” I was very artistically attracted to the space, and it remains one of the most memorable moments of the trip for me,” she wrote.Several hours after this photo was taken, a political protest took place at the Obelisk of Buenos Aires. Students studying Spanish in Argentina lived with host families and were steeped in local culture.Locals walk through the rain to a temple in Hanoi, Vietnam, near where Allie Jagielo ’11 served a Dimensions-sponsored internship working with disabled children.Students record data on coral species for an honors thesis project off the shore of Caribbean island of CuracaoVisitors walk through the nave of the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, built over the tomb of Saint Paul. The building was one of many highlights in the course Rome Reborn: Imperialism in the Renaissance.Students studying Spanish in Argenina visited the mighty Iguazu Falls, or Las Cataratas de Iguazu.Danielle Cobb ’09 poses outside St. Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow’s Red Square during the course Russia TodayAndrew Patzke ’11 discovered this colorful apartment building in Geneva, Switzerland, while taking Global Health and Development through the College Semester Abroad program of he School for International Training.Austin Neverman ’12 and his classmates meditated on Mount Arunachala, and Indian holy site, during the course Namaste: Mysticism, Meditation, and Servant Leadership in India.Through the Irish-American Scholar Program, Abbey Bavley ’11 spent a semester in Belfast, where she passed by city hall each morning. “I loved the beautiful contrast of modern and classic between the Ferris wheel and city hall building,” she wrote.During her semester in Granada, Spain, Alissa Benjamin ’11 visited Barcelona. “This was taken on a spring evening as the sun began to set creating a beautiful glow on the National Art Museum of Catalonia and the fountains in front of it,” she wrote.
