OCEANSIDE — MiraCosta College is launching a new, independently operated, study abroad program with an inaugural trip to Italy in July 2020 that administrators hope will be the first in a series of educational visits around the globe.
The trip is being organized by ACCENT International. The program will launch with up to 35 students. Upcoming informational meetings are scheduled for 2 p.m. Nov. 13 in Room 1202 on the Oceanside Campus, 1 Barnard Drive, Oceanside; and at 2 p.m. Dec. 4 at the San Elijo Campus Student Center, 3333 Manchester Ave., Cardiff. The cost of the program is $3,675, which includes lodging. Not included in the cost is airfare and the $46 per unit fee — or $276 for the total of six units. Financial aid is available. For more information, visit miracosta.edu/studyabroad or call (760) 795-6897.
The trip to Italy is part of a new MiraCosta College-led program open to other colleges and universities in the area. The July 1 through July 29 trip includes four weeks in Florence, an overnight stay in Rome, and day trips to Venice, Siena, Bologna, and Ravenna. The courses taught will be history of Western architecture and introduction to Italian culture. Both courses, six units in all, meet MiraCosta College general education requirements and are transferrable to University of California and California State University campuses.
Until now, MiraCosta College students wishing to study abroad had their options limited to England in the fall and Spain in the spring through a Citrus College-led consortium involving several community colleges in Southern California. Those semester-long trips are organized by the American Institute for Foreign Study, a privately-owned travel company that has been managing study abroad programs for more than half a century.
“This is an exciting opportunity to study and learn about the subjects in the place that they were born,” said Professor David Parker, MiraCosta College Design Department chair, who will be teaching the History of Western Architecture course on the trip.
