The Study Abroad Office announced its upcoming abroad programs for the 2025-2026 school year at the end of last semester. However, when students came back to campus for the 2024 fall semester, some of these programs were no longer offered.
Study Abroad Office Interim-Director Allison Terry released a Watercooler post to the Prin community in March that contained the approved programs for summer 2026 on. These programs consisted of the Alaska Expedition Field Program to be led by Professor Stephanie Lovseth with Dr. John Lovseth, and the Malawi Study Abroad led by Dr. Sarah Andrews and Dr. Matthew Cocks.
Additionally, these upcoming abroads were listed as future programs on the Principia College Study Abroad website, as well as a Nordic Study Abroad led by Gamrath, with Herr and Lovseth as additional faculty support.
However, when the study abroad posters were put up around campus at the beginning of the 2024 fall semester, the Alaska Expedition Field Program and the Nordic Study Abroad were nowhere to be found. The only abroads listed for the 2025-2026 academic year were the Malawi Study Abroad and a Finland Study Abroad
Terry said that new administration contributed to those changes. “Every spring, faculty submit proposals that need to be approved by Principia’s Advisory Committee. We’re in a situation where we have a new administration and with the academic dean on leave last year, part of the process of getting abroads approved didn’t go as it usually goes,” she said, “We preemptively posted those programs without having the full support of the administration in advertising. We then had to go back and do a more in-depth budgeting process.”
Terry also said that some of the previously announced upcoming programs had to be either cut or changed due to budgeting restraints. “The Nordic program, which was originally three countries, became Finland and due to budgeting cuts at the college, we determined that we could only do two programs for the next academic year, “ she said. “We [The Study Abroad Office] also weren’t allowed to accept study abroad proposals for fall 2025, because that’s when Academic Reimagining launches, so we needed to be supportive of that process.”
She said that future study abroads at Principia may look different than before, “Because of competing priorities and over the last few years, we’ve had really low enrollment in students studying abroad. We have to reach a certain threshold of students in order for programs to be financially viable. With low enrollment at the College, we’re looking at what would happen if we decrease our program offerings and things like that just to see if more students would be interested in studying abroad.”
Religious Studies Professor and Department Chair Dr. Gretchen StarrLeBeau was one of the faculty who submitted an upcoming program proposal that was not accepted due to other competing study abroad proposals.
“My proposal was for an abroad focusing comparatively on the concept of pilgrimage, and we would have hiked part of the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain, an important medieval pilgrimage, and still a popular pilgrimage today,” said StarrLeBeau.
StarrLeBeau also said the proposal process is competitive among departments, “My abroad was relatively cheap, and if I try again, and if the Study Abroad program continues in a recognizable format, my proposal might have more success. But it’s hard to say. There are a lot of excellent proposals out there.”
Professor of Educational Studies Dr. Nikki Gamrath, the leading faculty member of the upcoming Finland semester abroad, said submitting a program proposal was an easy decision.
“I actually took an abroad to Finland back in the spring of 2016, and Finland is globally recognized for their excellence in education and their sustainability practices,” said Gamrath.
Gamrath also said that since the 2016 program was successful, there are high hopes for the upcoming one in 2026. “We have a special collaboration with the University of Helsinki and we’re creating something really wonderful. I really believe in our abroad programming, especially the semester abroads, since Finland is the only one going next year,” she said.
Sophomore Maria Keller, who went on the New Zealand Study Abroad this summer said that the study abroad programs are valuable to Principia’s community, “There’s nothing that compares to studying abroad. You get to have another connection with the world and we need those connections as humans.”
Gamrath said that study abroad programs at Principia are both transformational and important, “If the time came that every student at Principia had the opportunity to study abroad, that would be ideal.”
