Penn Global 10 Exploration awaits as Penn Abroad ramps up student trips
March 23, 2022
By
Kristen de Groot | Penn Today
It’s been two years since Penn Abroad quickly mobilized to bring students home from their study abroad experiences due to the pandemic. Despite not sending students on typical trips from fall 2020 to summer 2021, Penn Abroad never stopped preparing and adjusting to all the complications the pandemic brought, shifting to offer a host of innovative virtual programs and internships while readying for the eventual return of in-person experiences.
Now, student trips are back in action, with more being added and plans to ramp up to a busier-than-normal abroad schedule come fall 2022, as Penn Abroad takes some of their creative responses to the shutdown on travel and tweaks them for the future.
Last fall, the first student trips were held since the shutdown, in locales like London, Rome, Scotland, and Seville, Spain. Over winter break, the first in-person Penn Global Seminar in two years traveled to the Galápagos Islands.
“Students were deferred by the pandemic but weren’t deterred by it,” says Nigel Cossar, Penn Abroad’s executive director. “We had all this demand that we could see bubbling, and a lot of students were ready to go.”
It’s not that the trips were without stress or free of COVID-19 concerns—some students tested positive for the virus while away—but Penn Abroad was well positioned and ready for any turn of events.
To commemorate Penn Global’s 10th anniversary, we are featuring stories from the last decade to celebrate Penn’s transformation as a global institution, highlighting key moments of this transformation and the impact of Penn Global and its partners on the Penn community and beyond.
