Education doesn't happen only in the classroom or only near the classroom. Sevin Gallo, a history professor and director of global learning at Northwest Arkansas Community College, can make the case for international travel as a great way to learn, no matter the age. Much of a conversation we had about the value of travel will be on an upcoming Ozarks at Large. But today, we did want to highlight some approaching international travel opportunities with NWACC.
“Iin 2026, we're taking students to Japan with a Food Systems and Global Studies course with Steve Jenkins. He's a chef instructor at Brightwater. He is wonderful. I took his food systems class during the pandemic for personal enrichment, and it was as good as so many of the graduate-level courses I've taken. He's really fantastic. So that program in Japan—and that's about a two-week-long program, a little under.
“And then we have another two-week-long program in Greece, which is food, culture and history. I'm the faculty leader for that trip. I've been taking students to Greece since 2017, so we have really good community connections. I teach history through the lens of food really often at NWACC and Brightwater, but then also at Honeycomb Kitchen Classroom and at different places in the community—food and nationalism and popular cultures in the Middle East, but also I teach world history, so kind of all over the world. One of my passions, it’s what I do on a daily basis. So I like to take that show on the road sometimes and really dig in with an experiential learning opportunity with students to do that. And this time we're going to Greece.
“And then we have a five-week-long program in Siena, Italy, which was first started by music professor Miles Fish. And that has been such a successful program. Everyone who goes on that program loves it. Students study—they have a Reading the City course that is focused on the history and culture of Siena, which, Google Siena, Italy, if this is the first time you're hearing of this place, it really is an unbelievable medieval city with a unique local culture that you really just can't find anywhere else.
“And our students, that program—they're based in one place. In both Japan and Greece, you travel around the country, so you get to see more destinations. In Italy, you're based out of Siena. And that, for students who can spend five weeks and can leave work and can afford a program that's that long, they really get to sink into the local community a little bit more.
“And so that program is for culinary students and then also photography students. Photography is an elective on almost every degree program. You can take a humanities course or a fine arts course as one of your electives or as your major. So we have a lot of students who maybe are business majors, but they're going to use their arts and communications, fine arts and humanities course, and take Digital Photography with Victor Chalfant. And Vince Pianalto is the chef instructor for the culinary students who go to Italy. And he's a local legend. I'm sure listeners know Vince, are fortunate enough to have experienced his cooking. Vince and I teach an Italian food, history and culture class together, and we do cooking classes at Honeycomb Kitchen Classroom together. So we work together on a lot of things. So it's really been natural and fun to support this Italy study abroad program with Vince and with Victor too. It's really great.”
“So these travel opportunities are students only?”
“No. Kyle, I'm so glad that you brought that up because as an open-enrollment community college, there're very few barriers to attend courses at NWACC. We try to mitigate those as much as possible. And community members can study abroad. They apply first to the study abroad program. So they would go on our website and fill out that application and submit that. And then they also will apply to NWACC because we do ask—it is a study abroad program. It's not a vacation. And so everyone who comes with us will be full participants in the program. So you will apply to NWACC, you will enroll in the class. However, community members are welcome, and we're always glad to have them.
“I've had a librarian from Alma come. I mean, just really wonderful—an 80-year-old who was retired from Westinghouse, who was an engineer who wanted to—this was back when I took students to Turkey. So he wanted to go to Turkey, and he outdid the 19-year-olds with hiking around archaeological sites. It was really inspiring and impressive. So the people who participate in study abroad—it’s all kinds of people, people who are professionals, people who are retired. We have 17-, 18- and 19-year-olds who study abroad with us.
“So there's a lot of opportunity. So if you're a community member out there and you're thinking that it’s been your dream to go to Greece, or you've always wanted to go to Japan and you are a lifelong learner so that you would like that opportunity to go with an expert and maybe learn something new or enhance some knowledge and experience that you already have, I think studying abroad with NWACC would be a really cool opportunity.”
“Deadline?”
“That's coming up fast. It's December 31. So the end of this month is when people need to apply and pay because our payment deadlines for airplanes and flights and all of that come up pretty fast in the first part of the year. So yeah, those deadlines are coming up quickly.”
Sevin Gallo is a history professor and director of global learning at Northwest Arkansas Community College. We discussed how she and her colleagues have seen international travel inform students' lives, and much of that conversation will be part of an upcoming Ozarks at Large.
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