The Office of International Education and Programs oversees two distinct campus services: Education Abroad and International Student & Scholar Services.
OIEP also supports globalization initiatives within the academic departments of the university, fostering a dynamic and vibrant international campus culture.
The Education Abroad Office at SUNY Oswego sends more than 400 students per year on more than 80 overseas academic programs to more than 20 countries. Roughly 20% of SUNY Oswego students participate in an education abroad program at some point during their college studies, making SUNY Oswego one of the leading campuses for study abroad in the SUNY system.
SUNY Oswego offers a wide variety of study abroad opportunities, allowing students to immerse themselves in diverse cultures and gain global perspectives. With programs spanning more than 20 countries, students can choose from short-term, semester-long or year-long experiences, enriching their academic and personal growth.
SUNY Oswego’s strength comes from a collaborative effort to think strategically, a shared dedication to excellence and a collective focus to achieve our vision together.
Oswego Abroad is still accepting faculty-led program proposal submissions for the 2025-2026 academic year.
Education Abroad
Phone: 315-312-2118
Email: intled@oswego.edu
Office of International Education and Programs
Phone: 315-312-2118
Email: intled@oswego.edu
100 Sheldon Hall
International Student & Scholar Services
Phone: 315-312-5775
Email: isss@oswego.edu
Getting a Taste of Italy
By Stefan Yablonski
Sandy Bargainnier is a full professor in the Department of Health Promotion and Wellness at SUNY Oswego. She served as the department chair for six years.
“In the past I developed a course called ‘Wellness in Italy.’ And it was sort of the first of its kind coming out of the SUNY system,” Bargainnier explained. “In 2018 I was invited to go over there by an educational study aboard company [whose president was a SUNY Oswego alum].
“I went over; I think there was 20 of us that were invited. We had to submit proposals about what we might do. It was in Florence; they showed us the ropes, what to do and see and how they would help us develop a course.”
Most people who go there are coming out of art, history, religion, architecture, she said.
“I’m in health and wellness. OK, I don’t know much about art, don’t know much about history. I said we can basically look at Italy and its culture through the lens of wellness. I proposed it to the company. They accepted my idea and I said, ‘Well, we gotta go to Italy.’”
In 2018-19 Bargainnier offered it as a six-credit course in the first summer session, which starts the day after graduation.
“I didn’t want to do it on my own, so I invited a colleague and friend from SUNY Cortland who is a health professor,” she said. “She recruited SUNY Cortland students and I recruited SUNY Oswego students — it was open to anybody and it was six credits, upper division liberal arts credits. So everybody needs those.
“We took 20 students to Italy and we were there for three weeks. You become immersed. It’s really neat because, unlike when a lot of students do study abroad, they have to go for a whole semester. I think that can be kind of scary for a lot of students. A lot of students can’t afford it. So this just basically was six credits and tuition and program money and stuff. But because it was six credits they were able to use financial aid and it was early enough in the summer. We had them back by end of May beginning of June so they could start their summer jobs. SUNY Oswego students need to work; they are not a privileged group of people, they are hard-working students.”
Bargainnier said she was really pleased with the students.
“I think 50% were Pell recipients. It was a diverse group,” she said.
“It was great. We basically would have some classroom time and have topics around the different dimensions of wellness and then go out and explore the environment — everything from why Italians are typically living longer than Americans, comparing the health care system, comparing Mediterranean diets. We looked at churches and art. We looked at how strong social ties are, the family, the community and food and social gatherings.”
Come on, get healthy
[“Italy] causes you to walk more and climb a lot of stairs. You have to be in good shape to take this course because you are going to live a healthy lifestyle while you’re there,” she said. “We are not lying on the beach and sitting around — we are moving!”
At the end the students have to do a multi-media presentation.
“We did it in 2019 and we were supposed to go again but COVID hit.”
Living and Learning in Germany
By Stefan Yablonski
With the exception of an academic year spent in Munich, professor Patrick Schultz has been teaching at SUNY Oswego since 2017.
He particularly enjoys working with students at the beginning of their language discovery.
From his own experience, he knows that study abroad brings not only greater language ability but also cultural awareness, self-growth and interpersonal skills.
He returned this summer after taking another group of students to Deutschland.
“Kempten [University of Applied Sciences] is our partner university. It’s located in a beautiful Bavarian city near Austria and Switzerland. On a clear day you can see into the Alps. It’s a very beautiful place to spend the summer,” Schultz said. “They are wonderful to us. They give us the use of a couple of rooms, the cafeteria, internet and things like that, makes it easy and relatively in expensive.”
Students immerse themselves in European culture and society in two courses taught in English or in two courses taught in German [or one of each], he explained. It is open to students [in English], but there seems to be less interest in that, he added.
“We have had students with five, six, seven semesters of German. We’ve also had students that have had one semester of German and they’ve gone and had a great time,” he said. “So it is going very well for everybody involved. It’s more enjoyable if you can understand the language.”
The students have class from 9 a.m. to noon almost every day — in Kempten. But they have plenty of activities in the afternoon and evening as well as some excursions.
“We work on their language skills during the class — then they get out the door and go learn it,” Schultz said. “This is our second year doing this. The first year we had eight students. This year we had 12. I have already submitted to do it again next year. I hope to do it, but it really depends on the minimum number of students to go. It is six credits. It counts as two courses. It is a great opportunity for the students really.”
Cheese, ruins, castles and more
“The activities based in Kempten that we have done in the past include a trip to a small place that makes cheese, don’t know if you’d call it a factory. Some farmers created their own bio-organic cheese,” he said. “I thought that was fantastic. It was very, very interesting to me and of course the samples were wonderful. We all enjoyed it except for the one or two that really didn’t want cheese.
“We went on a tour of the Roman ruins there. Kempten is actually about 2,000 years old. It was established around zero BC, AD, however you like. The Roman ruins that are there are limited, but they are still quite interesting. There is an archeological park there that we have done. We did walking tours of the city of Kempten so the students could get an idea of what the downtown looks like and why it is the way it is. We did some of the religious sites there. There is a Protestant church there and a Catholic church there. Students learned about the Reformation and the history of Germany in that sense.”
The stereotype is that every German city has a castle — and that holds true for Kempten.
“They have a lovely castle there that now functions as the regional court. It has 500 rooms that handles all of the bureaucrats and all of the people working in there. It’s like a county office building, but it is much more beautiful, of course,” Schultz said. “They have a set of rooms from the original castle that really impresses the visitors. There are Baroque paintings and sculpture and things like that. It’s really a beautiful taste of Baroque architecture in southern Germany.”
Students also have a few meetings with the international students through the international office.
“Kempten does a wonderful job of hosting us and they involve us with the international students from around the world. The students learn from students from other countries that they really don’t know — like where is Madagascar? Where is Malaysia? Americans are always a little weak on their geography. So it never hurts to meet these students and get a little more exposure to the world. It’s not really a big, exciting thing to see, but it is great for students to meet up with the local international club there that has students from all over the world,” he said.
They go on a couple excursions. The first one this year was to Lake Constance. Between Germany and Austria in Switzerland there is a very large lake named after the city there.
“We take a ferry across the lake into Austria and then we take a cable car up to the top of the mountain there,” he said. “The students have a great view — 20, 30 miles — into Switzerland and Austria and Germany from the top of the mountain. You can see hundreds of Alpine peaks up there at about 3,000 feet.
“The biggest trip that we took this year was to Innsbruck and Munich. In Innsbruck we stayed at what you might call a backpacker hotel, relatively inexpensive. From there we were able to view the city. Then we took another cable car — this time up to 7,500 feet. It was a clear day so you could see 100 miles or more. The students thought that was absolutely wonderful and, of course, it is!”
“It’s a beautiful little Austrian town and the students enjoyed their two and a half days there. We do do a couple of walking tours. We let the students have lot of free time. They are required to research ahead of time where they are going and what they are going to see and they have to report on that afterwards. It’s not just tourism, it’s academics,” he continued.
Explore Tanzania, One of the Most Biodiverse Countries in the World
Faculty members Karen Sime and Susan Hammerly of the Biological Sciences Department brought Oswego students to Tanzania for two weeks, as part of their Tanzania: Biodiversity & Conservation course.
Students learned about the complex topic of conserving species while also partaking in an exciting adventure, according to Hammerly.
“We went a year ago and we just got back from this year’s trip,” Hammerly said in early July. “We came home on the 18th or 19th — I didn’t get home until the 20th.”
Why Tanzania? What makes it so special?
“Tanzania is biodiverseful — it is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world,” she said. “We actually go there because of Dr. Kamal Mohamed — he set up this trip with Dr. Sime before the pandemic and started taking students. When he was ready to step back a little bit,–he’s retiring this year;–they were looking for somebody else to co-lead the trip. And so I was able to step in and help with that.”
Hammerly said the learning objectives for the class include knowledge of flora and fauna in Tanzania; understanding issues and conflicts that present challenges to conservation anywhere, but particularly in Africa; appreciation of the diversity of human cultures and experiences and grasping the complicated and interconnected nature of issues involving the preservation of species.
“Before we go to Tanzania the students have already done presentations on different aspects of biodiversity, learned animal identification skills, plant identification,” she continued. “We prepare them to travel before we go. Once we are in the country we partner with the College of African Wildlife Management — one of the best wildlife schools for wildlife management. Our course partners with the College of African Wildlife Management (often referred to as Mweka) which is located in Moshi, Tanzania.”
They spend two days at the university and the students get lectures from all of the experts in Tanzania conservation efforts. They learn about the history of the parks and conservation in the country.
“They get all this great background and then we go out on safari. We get to see the animals up close. When we go out we are all in this very large vehicle. We are all together all the time with two of their professors. We are traveling with the experts. Their professors have trained all of the park rangers and conservation specialists; so everywhere we go we encountered their past students and that allows for really special field experiences,” she explained.
It is a four-credit program
Before they leave, students have to write a paper on conservation, biodiversity issues and then in the country the students have to do a field notebook. The program immerses students in the environment and gets them out of their comfort zone.
“It’s not necessarily easy work and can take a lot of patience, but the rewards are worth it. We keep the students busy. This year we stayed at the field station for the college. We did some small animal trapping — we caught a rat, so it wasn’t that exciting,” she said. “We got to see a black rhino. They are highly endangered. They are protected full-time by the rangers. We saw hyenas. We saw three servals. It’s a smaller African cat species. They are very pretty, I want to say they almost look like a miniature cheetah, but that’s not really accurate.”
The serval is a wild small cat native to Africa. It is widespread in sub-Saharan countries, where it inhabits grasslands, wetlands, moorlands and bamboo thickets. Hunting it is prohibited.
“It was really fortunate that we got to see three of them,” she added. “We even had a small owlet in our campground this year which delighted me. They were calling all night long and in the morning I was able to find it.”
They actually camped in the Serengeti ecosystem — a geographical region in Africa, spanning the Mara and Arusha regions of Tanzania.
“We took the students to see the great migration and that is definitely a highlight of the year. This year we had a small group. We only had eight students. Last year we had our biggest group which was 15,” she said. “International travel is always expensive. What the students get to experience on this trip really is a bargain.”
They don’t stay in hotels, they stay in tents.
“This year we stayed at the field station and they had a classroom where we could charge our devices. The field was our classroom — all of our lectures were outdoors,” she said. “A zebra wandered around in our camp. We have a very nice photo of one of our students sticking her head out of her tent with the zebra right next to the tent.”
Every trip is a little bit different. They get to see and experience new things, she added.
“Every student that goes has had at least one really magical experience. Most students are biology and zoology majors, but it is open to all majors,” she said. “Every year we have one or two students from other majors who come on the trip because they are interested in going to Tanzania and experiencing Africa seeing the animals. They learn about the conversation issues on a global scale, not just here (in America).
“Most of them are juniors and seniors. But this year and a couple years ago, we had a freshman on the trip — they are really rising sophomores because they are finishing their freshman year. They do really great and it is awesome for us because then they promote the trip by telling all of their friends about their experience in Tanzania.”
Students Collar a Lion in Tanzania
Faculty members Karen Sime and Susan Hammerly of SUNY Oswego’s Biological Sciences Department brought Oswego students to Tanzania for two weeks, as part of their Tanzania: Biodiversity & Conservation course.
The group camped their way across northern Tanzania with faculty members from Tanzania’s College of African Wildlife Management, visiting Serengeti, Tarangire and Manyara National Parks and the Ngorongoro Crater, among other sites, learning about conservation strategies and challenges first-hand from park personnel and local wildlife biologists.
They got back from this year’s trip earlier this summer.
“We had eight Oswego students this time. Most of them were zoology majors. We had a great time over there. This was a very good group of students. They made everything easy for us. We had some amazing sightings,” Sime said. “That is one reason I keep doing this trip. This was my sixth time doing the trip. There is always something new and super cool.
“There is often a new twist — and we did have some excitement this time!
“The real highlight was at the last minute we got this opportunity to observe and assist in collaring a lion. That was really exciting because normally you can’t touch the animals when you are on safari; you stay in the truck and keep your distance. To actually be able to touch a lion was incredible. It was a profound and amazing moment. The students all got to participate in that.”
“I kind of feel bad for the lion; it was a little bit invasive,” she added. “They shot it with a [tranquilizer] dart. It was kind of funny. It fell asleep and curled up like your house cat. They put a collar on it. They took a look at its toes. They pulled ticks off of it. They took blood samples. They stuck a thermometer up its butt. Then they gave it the antidote so it would start waking up.”
They were working on it for about a half hour or so.
Oswego students met up with a group of students from a Tanzanian university.
“Our group was lead by a couple faculty members from the College of African Wildlife Management. They were our hosts; they are the ones who have been arranging the trips for us,” she said. “This college trains park rangers and wildlife biologists. They are safari tour guides also.
One of the professors, who was one of our guides, knew one of the rangers — this was in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. He called up to see if we could get a look at one of the rhinos and the guy said ‘well we can do that. But we are going to be collaring a lion tonight and maybe you want to join us.’ So we said yes!”
Up close and personal with a lion
“Ngorongoro has this crater that you can go into. Tourists have to leave the crater by 4 or 5 p.m. So we actually did this in the early evening when the lions get active. That was kind of neat because no other tourists were in the area, just us in this huge crater,” she said. “We met up with a team that consisted of some rangers, a wildlife veterinarian and some ecologists. The vet gave us a little mini lecture right there in the field. He showed us the drugs they used, the rifle and darts they use. They use different sizes of charges depending on the how far away the lion is.”
And then they drove out and found the lions, which isn’t too hard because they are a lot in that area, she added.
“It took about 10 minutes for the lion to go down. One guy had to go up and make sure it was down and then the vet waved the group over.
“The students got to touch the lion — with gloves on. That was kind of neat. Being an entomologist, I was very excited to be able to help pull ticks off its neck. Before they let it go, they gave it a treatment of Frontline, the anti-tick stuff you get for cats and dogs. They actually sprayed it down to help it out with the ticks. They thought it was a lot of ticks so they thought they’d give it a few months relief from that,” she said.
The collar is a GPS collar with a little solar collector on it to run the batteries. They can track the animal. They’re using the collar to help them get data on the cats, whether they migrate in and out of the crater, really what their daily habits are. They use the blood samples to check for diseases and they also study the population genetics of the lions.
The collaring of the lion was conducted by Ngorongoro Conservation Area Veterinary officers as part of a study to monitor lion movements in conservation areas. This event was part of the training for students in a Wildlife Veterinary course at Sokoine University of Tanzania.
“We sent in a proposal to run the trip again next year. We are trying to run it every year more or less because there is quite a bit of interest in it,” she said. “I don’t know if we can beat this last one. You never know, there is always something special to happen.
“The nice thing is we work with the College of African Wildlife Management and their professors. It gives us a lot of access to behind the scenes things at the national parks. In the past we have been guided out to get close looks at some of the rhinos — which is very difficult because they are rare and shy. We have had lectures from rangers on various topics. They talk to us about their work and what kind of research is going on in the national parks that they are supervising. I think that is a really nice thing about this trip. We have that behind the scenes angle — the students don’t just get to go on safari, they actually get to meet the people who work in these areas and learn from them. That is a really nice experience for students considering those careers themselves.”
The program was three credits the first few times they ran it.
“We raised it last year to four credits because it is a pretty intensive class. We don’t really get any time off. We often get up at 6 or 7 a.m. and then go out looking for animals. Maybe get a break during the day; but we go out again in the evening. We are camping at night,” she said. “It kind of never stops for those 10 or 12 days that we are in the field. Students have some assignments; they are expected to write papers, give presentations and keep a very detailed field journal. It’s a lot of work.”
