EXPLORING Exeter

BY DR. BENJAMIN SCOTT YOUNG, ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR STRATEGIC INITIATIVES & INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN a cohort of Judy Genshaft Honors College students gather and take their diverse aspirations, talents, and disciplinary trainings along on a semester abroad to investigate the foundations of human understanding and well-being? In short, the best of what Honors education has to offer. The Semester in Exeter program combines a traditional study abroad exchange experience with a distinctly Honors interdisciplinary research engagement. During the near 6-month-long spring program, students take courses at the University of Exeter, an esteemed institution of higher education located in southwest of England. It is member of the Russell Group, a consortium of leading universities in the United Kingdom, similar to the American Association of Universities (AAU), and one of the top universities in Europe. Unique to the Honors Semester in Exeter program, however, is the opportunity to travel in a cohort with other Honors students accompanied by USF faculty member and Associate Dean, Dr. Benjamin Scott Young.

In addition to courses at the University of Exeter, students also attend two Honors seminars, each of which is designed to take full advantage of the rich educational and cultural environment that the University of Exeter and England have to offer.

The first course, titled Wander: Food, Field, and Friendship, investigates the basic structures of human understanding utilizing our encounters with, and explorations of, the English culture, landscape, and people as our “studio.”

The second course, titled Flourishing: On Cultivating Persons, Cultures, and Environments of Well-being engages students with the constellation of contemporary ideas, practices, and opportunities for promoting well-being. For this course, we have partnered with the Wellcome Center for Cultures and Environments of Health at the University of Exeter, wherein Honors students have the opportunity to learn alongside world-class engaged research programs that enhance health and well-being from a broadly interdisciplinary frame.

Moreover, both courses offer the opportunity for students to travel together across England, encountering its people, landscape, and history. Centered at the University of Exeter, the program creates a Judy Genshaft Honors College campus abroad that is set at the doorstep of one of the most historically rich, vibrant, and forward-looking intellectual and cultural centers of the contemporary world.