CIEE Pledge to Lead Change in Study Abroad - April Update
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In 2024, CIEE pledged to lead change in study abroad and awarded four universities Leading Change in Study Abroad $1 Million Grants to support the development and implementation of bold study abroad program models that will:
- advance each university’s unique institutional goals (e.g. increase enrollment, improve student retention, accelerate graduation rates, expand international internships, provide greater access to non-traditional students, etc.), and
- improve individual student outcomes and academic success, and
- serve as a study abroad model for other colleges to emulate based on concrete positive results for both the institution and the individual students.
Four colleges were selected from twenty-one proposals, each with a commitment from their president or provost, and each with $1,000,000 in matching funds to support four years of program implementation.
We are pleased to share the April 2025 update on the progress being made at the four Pledge to Lead Change in Study Abroad Partner Schools – Arizona State University, Borough of Manhattan Community College, Northeastern University, and University of California San Diego.
ASU Early Start Program with International Component
Like most colleges and universities, ASU invests in many student support programs to engage with students in freshman year to improve retention and long-term student success. For ten years, ASU College of Liberal Arts offered a series of support programs for at risk students known as the Early Start Program. ASU’s Leading Change proposal was to add an international component to the Early Start Program for 150 first-year, at-risk students each year for four years, with the goal of increasing retention rates and student success factors.
In December 2024, a pilot cohort of 60 students from ASU's Early Start program embarked on an eight-day immersive experience in Monteverde, Costa Rica, that focused on sustainability and climate action while simultaneously developing personal bonds, respect, and trust between students and faculty.
While walking the mountain paths and rope bridges of one of the world’s most famous cloud forests, students engaged in scientific exploration and research activities, lectures and discussions on ecology, sustainability, and eco-tourism, and experienced first-hand sustainable farming. They witnessed the impact of warming oceans on plants, insects, and wildlife, while gaining confidence in their potential to both succeed in college and make a difference in our world.
See the impact of the Monteverde experience on ASU students in the video below.
Expanding the Pilot in 2025
In December 2025, ASU will send a cohort of 150 students to Montverde, followed by three additional years of 150 students traveling each year. Over 5 years, ASU and CIEE will enable 660 students to participate in this innovative academic model that leverages study abroad to increase institutional effectiveness, student retention, and student success.
On a Mission to Transform Study Abroad for Two-year Colleges!
Like virtually all students of the 1,050 community colleges in America, BMCC students rarely studied abroad. Family demands, work demands, and limited finances were the most common barriers to BMCC students studying Abroad. President Anthony Munroe had a vision that BMCC students could indeed participate in international programs and set a goal to have BMCC be the nation’s leading community college in international education.
BMCC’s Leading Change proposal was to match CIEE’s $1 million grant and support a series of short-term, faculty-led, custom, and internship study abroad programs that allowed any BMCC student to study or work abroad. His motto for BMCC is “start here, go anywhere” and he hopes that this international study abroad model becomes embraced by other community colleges.
The first cohort of BMCC students to begin to realize President Munroe’s vision was composed of 61 students, aged 18 to 37, who participated on ten CIEE January term programs in locations on five different continents, in cities including Kyoto, Cape Town, London, to name a few.
The second cohort of BMCC students to study abroad as part of the BMCC / CIEE partnership participated in a custom, faculty-led program in Rabat, Morocco.
Thanks to the efforts of BMCC's senior leadership and BMCC program manager Sandra Cortez, a diverse group of BMCC students – representing different ages, incomes, genders, and races – were recruited to access a life-changing, transformative study abroad experience.
In the video below, learn more about the student experience of the largest BMCC cohort studying in Kyoto, Japan!
Looking Ahead: Recruiting for Summer 2025
Summer Faculty-Led Programs:
CIEE and BMCC have developed multiple proposals for summer 2025 faculty-led programs, and recruitment is well underway! In this video see how BMCC is encouraging students to study abroad and hear from BMCC alumni of CIEE programs who are eager to study abroad again!
2025 Interns Selected:
BMCC has selected a cohort of Honors students for CIEE Summer Global Internship Programs in Barcelona, Dublin, and Paris. Their recruitment efforts were bolstered by Safiyah Wilkerson, who interned in Paris with CIEE last year, and now creates marketing materials like this video to encourage more students to study abroad.
From Vision to Reality
Northeastern University will launch two custom public health programs with CIEE this summer, one in Gaborone, Botswana, and one Legon, Ghana. The initiative is part of an institutional commitment to investing in Africa and global health, and to pilot a shorter faculty-led program model to increase access to study abroad.
Focused on Pell-eligible students, the programs will increase access to international educational experiences by supporting program costs, flights, and housing, as well as related costs, such as acquiring passports and immunizations.
To maintain student engagement and excitement, CIEE staff in Gaborone and Legon are creating a series of videos to keep students invested in their upcoming adventure. In the video below, Basetsana Maposa, Center Director, CIEE Gaborone, welcomes Northeastern students
Looking Ahead: Ensuring Student Success
In summer 2025, Northeastern will send 26 students to programs in Botswana and Ghana. One outcome Northeastern will measure is whether participants move on to pursue co-op opportunities Northeastern offers in the region, as well as other student success metrics throughout the students’ academic careers.
Fostering Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Global Engagement
As one of the largest UC system campuses, UC San Diego’s Leading Change in Study Abroad proposal centered on a Global Internship program for students that will help foster an ecosystem of access and entrepreneurship at UC San Diego, while also increasing study abroad rates, reducing time-to-degree, and positively impacting student economic mobility.
The initiative uses the 8-week CIEE Global Internship program during students’ first summer as a launch point for participation in The Basement’s Entrepreneurship programs at UC San Diego. This model is poised to train the next generation workforce through early exposure to global learning and structured innovation and entrepreneurial training.
Looking Ahead: Inaugural Cohort
Despite the recent fires in nearby Los Angeles which threatened to derail recruitment efforts, UC San Diego has successfully recruited an impressive cohort of students for the summer 2025 program launch, with 10 UC San Diego students embarking on summer global internships in London, 11 in Singapore, 14 in Berlin, and 6 in Cape Town.
In the video below, meet twin sisters Nina and Nadija, who were both selected as UC San Diego Future Innovators and will intern in Singapore this summer!
We are delighted to see how the innovative efforts of our Pledge to Lead Change in Study Abroad Partner Schools are already increasing access to transformative international experiences for students from all backgrounds and academic majors.
Over the four years of this initiative, we will be collecting data on how these bold programs advance both institutional and student success goals, so they can act as models to the field of international education and can be emulated by other colleges and universities.