Una Foreign Languages Department Gearing Up For 2011 Global Travel

Nov. 19, 2010

Michelle Eubanks, UNA, at media@una.edu, 256.765.4392 or 256.606.2033

FLORENCE, Ala. - The University of North Alabama Department of Foreign Languages is currently accepting applications from interested students for numerous study abroad opportunities in Costa Rica, Spain, Paris and Peru next year. The department, which is designed to help students gain communication skills through the instruction of foreign languages and foreign language commerce, offers $800 scholarships to qualified students who have been accepted into the study abroad program. Dr. Claudia Vance, associate professor of foreign languages, will take about 15 students to Costa Rica from July 2-22, where they will study Spanish at the beginning, intermediate and advanced levels at the Centro Panamericano de Idiomas, a SACS-accredited Spanish language school. The students will earn college credit, stay with host families and take weekend excursions to the Arenal Volcano, La Fortuna waterfall and the beach at Manuel Antonio National Park. The total cost of the trip is $2,850, which includes round-trip airfare, lodging, most meals and tuition for the language school. The deadline to apply for the Costa Rica trip is Dec. 1. "Traveling abroad gives you an increased global awareness and shows you that other cultures are just as important and rich as your own," Vance said. Students will have the opportunity to travel to Salamanca, Spain, for a six-week program next June in which they will study Spanish at Academia Mester, a Spanish-instruction school. The students will stay with Spanish families, experience two weekend excursions and take a nine-day tour where they will see the coffin of Christopher Columbus, the inn where Don Quixote was knighted and a Spanish bullfight. The Spain trip is divided into two parts. The total cost for the six-week trip is $2,100 plus airfare, and the cost for the two-week trip is $1,100 plus airfare. Associate professor Dr. Robert Adler will take applications through March. Dr. Keith Lindley, assistant professor of foreign languages, will bring selected students to Paris, France, March 25-April 2. Students will have the chance to see the Louvre museum and the Royal Palace of Versailles and will take a Bateau-Mouche cruise on the Seine. Students can earn up to six college credits after traveling to Paris. The total cost of the trip is $2,600, which includes hotel accommodations, round-trip airfare, breakfast, transportation and more. UNA students who are interested in visiting Lima, Peru, and earning college credit will have a more unusual traveling experience May 20-June 3. Associate professor Dr. Scott Infanger described the trip as designed like the television show "Amazing Race," where students will not attend language courses but will, instead, complete tasks in small groups of Spanish and non-Spanish speakers. Students will gain a rich study abroad experience by visiting universities and archeological sites in Peruvian cities like Nazca, Juliaca, Cusco City and more. The total cost of the trip is $1,800. "Studying abroad expands your world view and helps you see things beyond what you've always seen," Infanger said. "A lot of students at UNA have never really left Alabama, so experiences like this make them aware of more global opportunities for work, fun and social life." For more information about the trips, visit www.una.edu/foreign-languages and click Travel-Study, or call 256-765-4390.

About The University of North Alabama

The University of North Alabama is an accredited, comprehensive regional state university offering undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral degree programs through the colleges of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering; the Sanders College of Business and Technology; Education and Human Sciences; and the Anderson College of Nursing and Health Professions. Occupying a 130-acre campus in a residential section of Florence, Alabama, UNA is located within a four-city area that also includes Muscle Shoals, Sheffield, and Tuscumbia. UNA Athletics, a renowned collegiate athletics program with seven (7) Division II National Championships, is now a proud member of NCAA Division I as part of the Atlantic Sun and United Athletic conferences. The University of North Alabama is an equal opportunity institution and does not discriminate in the admission policy on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, disability, age, or national origin. For more: una.edu and una.edu/unaworks/.