Going on safari across the Namib Desert – and earning college credit for it – is now possible through Metro State. The new study-abroad trip, approved at the June 4 Board of Trustees meeting, is another addition to the long list of international study opportunities for the students and faculty at Metro State.

In the two-week Namibia program, students will engage in field experiences that will include visiting traditional villages, taking a safari excursion, and learning about the environment and cultural adaptation in Namibia and the southwest region of Angola.

This trip is the second study-abroad course that Helle Sorensen, associate professor of hospitality, tourism and events (HTE), has organized in the last year.

“Study abroad validates what students have learned in the classroom,” Sorensen says. “I don’t give exams when on these trips, because I believe the experience is the exam.”

In each of her abroad programs, Sorensen works in different themes to help students better understand tourism management and business. Themes can range from looking at mass tourism to hotel management and sustainable tourism.

Sorensen also has accompanied the student club, Metro Travel Society, to the Adventure Travel World Summit in Whistler, British Columbia.

“I wanted to have my students realize that tourism is a global business,” she says. “It was a good networking opportunity for me as well as my students.”

Going global
In the last academic year, Metro State offered 14 faculty-organized study-abroad programs, visiting more than 10 countries.

Akbarali Thobhani, interim executive director of the Office of International Education, says that international education fits with Metro State’s goals and mission to enrich and prepare students for successful careers through multicultural learning.

“Studies show that United States students score below their counterparts in other advanced countries on indicators of international knowledge,” Thobhani says. “If U.S. students are able to experience different cultures, customs and languages they will have a better understanding of the world around them.”

Currently, Metro State has two agreements with universities in India and China (To read more go to http://www.mscd.edu/~collcom/artman/publish/india_twv5012308.shtml and http://www.mscd.edu/~collcom/artman/publish/chinese_twv5112807.shtml.) These partnerships, which involve faculty exchanges, will give students a more unique learning experience, Thobhani says.

While Chinese and Indian universities are the first to have agreements with Metro State, many more countries are visited every year, thanks to faculty interest and connection.

According to Thobhani, 38 professors were involved in seminars, conferences and research in more than 10 different countries around the world in the last year.

Meanwhile, Sorensen plans to organize one more study-abroad program to Kiruna, Sweden, to visit the first ice hotel ever created. If this course is approved, it will be another to add to her repertoire of study abroad programs to Borneo, Denmark, Germany, the Caribbean and now Namibia.

“Students learn best when they see tourism theories (in action) at a global scale,” she says.