CIEE Pledge to Lead Change in Study Abroad - Summer Update

Four CIEE Leading Change in Study Abroad $1 Million Grants are changing international education at four of the nation’s leading universities – Arizona State University, the Borough of Manhattan Community College, Northeastern University, and the University of California San Diego. All four grant recipients are advancing institutional goals and improving student success measures with their bold international initiatives designed to increase enrollment, improve retention and graduation rates, and elevate student success and post-graduate employability.

Below are highlights of summer 2025 programs. You can read about previous successes in our April and May updates.

Doubling Down on Student Success! 
ASU is investing CIEE’s $1 million Leading Change in Study Abroad grant to improve student retention and graduation rates. The ASU Early Start Global Accelerator helps first year-students in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences forge deeper connections at ASU through a 9-day, sustainability-focused study abroad experience at CIEE Monteverde, Costa Rica.

Positive student outcomes observed in the inaugural cohort led ASU to expand the program from 60 students in 2024 to 150 students in 2025! 

In the video below, Dr. Paul Lepore, Associate Dean for Student and Academic Programs in The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and head of the Global Accelerator, explains that students from the December 2024 program remain engaged not only with the university and their academic programs, but also with their peers from the cohort.

“ASU thinks big! And with the partnership with CIEE [expanding the program] wasn’t that much of a challenge," said Dr. Lepore. "One of the things I’ve come to appreciate, and I’ve been running study abroad programs for a while, is that the expertise at CIEE is something you need to lean into.” 
 

A Strategic Path to Institutional Transformation
BMCC is investing CIEE’s $1 million Leading Change in Study Abroad grant to drive significant institutional change through a comprehensive, college-wide approach to global programs as they strive to transform BMCC into the nation’s leading global two-year college. 

In less than a year, 150 BMCC students have been abroad on faculty-led programs (76 students), CIEE summer and J-term programs (61 students) and CIEE global internships (13 students).  BMCC students are from a variety of majors, backgrounds, and age groups, with students ranging from 18-years old to 27-years old. To date, BMCC students have studied or interned abroad in Barcelona, Dublin, London, Paris, Rome, Cape Town, Taipei, and Tokyo. 

BMCC President, Dr. Anthony Munroe, is leading the transformation at home and abroad, joining students and faculty on their study abroad journeys and promoting their experiences on social media with the BMCC slogans "Start Here. Go Anywhere" and a new twist, "Start Here. Learn Everywhere."

Leveraging Skills Honed by Study Abroad
BMCC recently hosted a reunion for students who participated in one of the ten January term programs. In the video below, Students were encouraged to reflect on their experiences and learn how to effectively leverage the skills they honed during their time abroad in their academic and professional journeys.

Learning Starts Before Departure
This summer, BMCC students will study abroad on faculty-led programs in Berlin, Cape Town, Paris, and Rome and take part in the CIEE summer internship program in Barcelona, Dublin, and Paris. In the video below, check out highlights from their pre-departure orientation, which equipped students and faculty with essential information and resources to make the most of their experience overseas. 

 

Northeastern University students in Botswana
Northeastern's Innovative Hybrid Global Seminar Model Optimizes Time Abroad
Northeastern is investing CIEE’s $1 million Leading Change in Study Abroad grant to advance President Joseph Aoun’s strategic initiative to build stronger bridges to Africa and to global public health.

This summer, Northeastern and CIEE created and delivered two summer programs in Botswana and Ghana for Pell-eligible students. The bold new programs were designed to increase access to study abroad by covering participants’ program costs, flights, and housing, as well as related costs, such as acquiring passports and immunizations. 

Unlike the traditional three-week faculty-led study abroad programs Northeastern already offers, the Northeastern Global Seminar programs offered this summer employed an innovative hybrid program model that paired one week of asynchronous online coursework with two weeks abroad. One program, focused on intercultural engagement, was hosted at CIEE Legon, Ghana and another, focused on global public health, was hosted at CIEE Gaborone, Botswana.

Before traveling abroad, pre-med major and Legon participant Jacqueline Beltran, took an online Anthropology course taught by Dr. Carrie Hersh that was specifically adapted to prepare students for their study abroad programs. “Taking this course before going on the more field work, experiential learning aspect of the program, really allowed me to get a stronger foundation on how to approach different discussions with cultural competence and sensitivity,” said Beltran.
 

Future Innovators Begin Their Global Internships
UC San Diego is investing CIEE’s $1 million Leading Change in Study Abroad grant to add an international experience to the already successful UC San Diego’s Future Innovators program. This initiative will train the next generation workforce through exposure to global learning on CIEE internship programs coupled with structured innovation and entrepreneurial training at UC San Diego.

In the first year, UC San Diego provided 40 rising sophomores from low income backgrounds the opportunity to participate in CIEE’s Global Summer Internship program in Berlin, Cape Town, London, and Singapore during summer 2025.

While students have been placed with host organizations from diverse fields, most are STEM majors, and their placements reflect this specialization. Sample positions include serving as an Engineering Research & Development Intern with Boreal Light in Berlin, as a Research Assistant at Oxford University, and as a Data Engineering Intern at Stratificare in Singapore.

Prior to departing for their programs, the UC San Diego Future Innovators attended a 10th-anniversary event for The Basement, a division of the Office of Innovation and Commercialization and co-sponsor of the program, which offers participating students a dedicated space to test innovative ideas and continue their entrepreneurial education upon their return.

Wishing all our students abroad this summer a wonderful time filled with significant learning and growth!