Students will be given an opportunity to study in India with the Office of Study Abroad Programs’ launch of the Northeast India Program set to start in spring 2017. The unique experience is run by Dr. Sophie Hawkins and Dr. Ann Burlein of the Department of Religion, and focuses on gender, health and religion.
Students will also have opportunities to volunteer and receive training in counseling through work with local non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The semester-long program offers 15 credits in religion and literature courses which help fulfill distribution credits and can be applied toward a variety of different majors including the health sciences, community health and global studies.
A dozen study abroad programs are offered for undergraduate students by Hofstra year-round, spanning across three different continents.
The new program is similar to Hofstra’s European Odyssey trip, which travels throughout about a dozen western and eastern European countries over a 10-week span. The Northeast India program will offer a different way for students to study abroad in the country, as it allows students to take classes while simultaneously traveling throughout the country.
The Northeast India curriculum is the second Hofstra program to launch in the country. The university currently has a partnership with the University of Hyderabad which is located in Telangana, India, a state in the southern part of the country. Every spring semester, Hofstra sends a handful of students to study at the university.
“We see these two programs as complimentary,” Burlein explained. “What makes this program different is that there will be a group of us traveling together throughout the semester. The other program sends students to an Indian university and they’re having the experience that an Indian college student would have. We’re like a classroom on the road.”
Highlights of the program’s itinerary include attending gender sensitivity training for police and doctors, meeting with local authors, day-long hikes, rhino and gibbon safaris and homestays with local families.
Sam Shuart, a junior linguistics and religion double major is currently signed up for the experience. “The classes look awesome, the professors are cool and I’m very excited about the program,” Shuart said.
Professor Maria Fixell, the assistant dean for study abroad programs, spoke on the offerings of the trip. “Northeast India is the place to see such differences between the ways we’re doing things. There aren’t luxuries like we have at home,” Fixell said.
Applications for the spring 2017 Northeast India program are currently being accepted on a rolling basis, however, the program’s capacity is 12 students.
Burlein described the program as suitable for adventurous students. “This is really a trip that’s a once in a lifetime experience. It’s not a tourist trip. India will always be there, but we are going to get to meet people and see their everyday lives. We’ll see how they work and function. This is an incredible and unusual way to see India.”