During spring break freshman Presidential Scholars travel to a country in Europe, while the sophomore Scholars travel to a country in Latin America during winter break.  These trips are intended to be the starting point in the Scholars' journey on becoming "global citizens".  In their freshman year, they spend a week in a non-English speaking European country, so as to realize skills that meet the challenge of linguistic differences.  In their sophomore year, they have an immersion experience of the social and economic challenges for our neighbors to the South.

In the summer following their sophomore year, they are expected individually to construct a minimal eight-week experience that combines language study with service learning, lab work or some other activity where they can become fully immersed into the culture and country where they are spending the summer.  These summer experiences may be extended into their first semester junior year by studying abroad.

Below is a sampling of International Perspective & Language Program placements.

Summer 2012
International Perspective & Language Program reports are available on-line.-- Access to reports is restricted to current Scholars. Please use your BC username and password to view the reports.

• Language & Traditional Medicine and Public Health, Peking and Capital Medical Universities through Northwestern University's Program, Beijing, China 
• Italian Language & Culture Course, Summer School Sapienza, Rome, Italy, Research Assistant, Solid State Chemistry Lab with Professor Marco Bettinelli, University of Verona, Verona, Italy
• French Language Course, American University, Paris, France, Comparative Research on the Issue fo Immigration in American and French Courts, Bibliotheque Sainte-Genevieve, Paris, France
• Intenstive Study in Persian & Tajik-Persian, U.S. State Department, Critical Language Scholarship Program, Dushanbe, Tajikistan
• Research Assistant, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama City, Panama - See a video of this experience by clicking here
• Spanish Language Courses and Program studying Ecological Conservation, Quito, Ecuador and San Cristobal Island, Galapagos, Ecuador 
• Urban Course - Venice: An Imperiled City in Comparative Perspective and research on the role that environmental law has played in the Experimental Electromechanical Model project, Venice, Italy
• Intensive Spanish Language Course, Maryknoll Language Institute and research towards thesis on empowering parents to help families cope with poverty, Cochabamba, Bolivia
• Writing Course - Writing Out of Place: Creative Writing Workshop, Mussoorie, India
  
• Intensive French Language Course, Centre International d'Antibes, Antibes, France
• Mandarin Chinese Research Project, Center for Chinese Studies, Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia and Clinic Intern, International SOS, Beijing, China
• Intensive German Language Course, Goethe Institute, Research under Dr. Dorothea Schafer at the German Institute for Economic Research, Berlin, Germany and Intern at Go Language Press, Munich, Germany

Summer 2011
International Perspective & Language Program reports are available on-line.-- Access to reports is restricted to current Scholars. Please use your BC username and password to view the reports.

• French Language Course, Accord École de Langues and Self-directed creative writing, Paris, France
• Culinary Course, Cooking School of Mente Argentina, Buenos Aires, Argentina and Archaeological Dig, Belize
• Spanish Language Course, Colegio Espana, Salamanca, Spain
• Japanese Language Course, International Christian University, Tokyo, Japan
• Intern, Implanex (Marketing & Consulting Firm), Buenos Aires, Argentina
• German Language, Philosophy & Theology Courses, Father Rupert Mayer, Dominican Monastery, Vienna, Austria and German Language Course, Goethe Institute, Munich, Germany and Magis Retreat/World Youth Day, Spain and Portugal
• Intern, Microenfoque, San Salvador, El Salvador
• Environmental Science Intern, Machalilla National Park, Puerto Lopez, Ecuador
• Spanish Language Classes, Romance Language Department, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA
• Global Health Course, Led by Prof. Joyce Pulcini, Connell School of Nursing, Boston College, Quito, Ecuador and Research Team Member, Archaeological Excavation, Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Novosibirsk, Russia
• Medical Intern, Health Clinic, Puerto Lopez, Ecuador
• Trans-Border Institute at the University of San Diego & the Universidad Iberoamericana, Tijuna, Mexico and Arabic Language Course, Qasid Institute, AMIDEAST Language Study Program, Amman, Jordan