Students have the opportunity to participate in one of five separate study abroad programs during the summer and fall of 2024, according to the Los Rios website.
Students can enroll in a month-long summer course or a full-semester program in the fall. Summer destinations include: Paris, France; Florence, Italy; Tanzania, Africa; and Kyoto, Japan. The fall semester program gives students the opportunity to study in London, England, according to the website.
“We can’t help but gain experience interacting with people who are different than us, who grew up different than us,” said Gregory Beyrer, a professor of history and the distance education coordinator, who will be a part of the London trip. “Students are going to gain adaptability.”
This will be Beyrer’s first study-abroad trip and he said he’ll be accompanied by three other faculty members from surrounding community college districts. Together, they will offer courses on history, literature, communication and journalism, Beyrer said.
Applications were due Friday for the Florence semester program and are due throughout March for the summer courses. The priority application deadline for the London trip is April 19.
Prices for the summer programs range from $4,435-$5,295 to attend Florence, Paris, and Kyoto. Prices go up to $11,983 for the Tanzania trip, according to the CRC website. The latter is all-inclusive, while the other programs will require students to pay for their flights as well as most of their food.
The trip to London starts at $9,495, not including airfare, tuition or books, according to the American Institute for Foreign Study, a collaborator for the study abroad programs.
Beyrer said there are ways students can help limit the burden of the costs of these programs. He said another way to reduce the cost includes limited scholarships allowing students to become an ambassador for the program while they’re overseas.
“Financial aid can be used to help pay for the expenses, so that is permissible,” Beyrer said.
Ellie Hokerson-Brun, an 18-year-old communications major at American River College, was one of the previous ambassadors who went to Barcelona last fall. She said ambassadors help create promotional material for future study abroad programs and take pictures of designated locations or events laid out each week by the program’s organizers.
“As far as being over there, I definitely wouldn’t say it was too much at all,” Hokerson-Brun said. “Obviously you’re over there and taking a bunch of pictures and videos anyways.”
Hokerson-Brun said she would do the study abroad program “a thousand times over,” but acknowledged the difficulties faced from being overseas and away from family.
“It’s not all sunshine and rainbows. It’s hard, especially in the beginning, kind of getting adjusted to living away from home for the first time, as is the case for many students,”
Additional information can be found on the Los Rios website and in weekly Zoom sessions hosted by Beyrer on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Hokerson-Brun said. Hokerson-Brun said there is a lot of support for students from the program’s organizers.
“All of the staff, from all of the schools that participated, were just incredible in assisting in that process,” Hokerson-Brun said. “You can tell everyone is truly dedicated and really cares.”