Belmont University’s Office of Study Abroad sends more students abroad than the average university, giving students a unique experience to immerse themselves in other cultures.
“Belmont has a much bigger program than most universities, with a stronger emphasis on study abroad,” said Jennifer Steinfeld, Belmont’s study abroad adviser. “That is largely due to the short-term faculty-led programs in the summer.”
Belmont University sends students to six out of seven continents with programs ranging from a week to a semester.
There will also be about 50 new destinations offered during the 2025 spring break and summer semester, said Steinfeld.
Over 1,000 students study abroad in some way each year, according to Belmont University's website.
Belmont University ranked No. 17 among other universities for undergraduate participation in study abroad, according to the Institute of International Education’s 2019 report.
“There is something for pretty much every type of student or major,” Steinfeld said.
Dr. Judy Bullington has been a professor to study abroad students since 2007 and has seen the impact of study abroad first-hand.
Her own experiences of studying abroad in Germany during college made her want to share this with students, Bullington said.
“You put yourself in a new context where it is not familiar and you learn about yourself that way,” Bullington said.
Students have also felt the impact of studying abroad.
“Here it feels like school is your whole life. There it felt like school was something you got to do,” said Madi Price, who spent the 2024 spring semester in Perugia, Italy.
While in Perugia, Italy, Price traveled with both other Belmont University professors and eight other students and stayed in a town where students from many other countries went to college.
“I just learned to be so much more appreciative of other cultures and how imperative it is to immerse yourself in other cultures,” she said.
Summer and Maymester programs also schedule time for students to take excursions that align with their classes and places unique to the country they are studying in.
“We went to a lot of museums and tours that I wouldn’t have done if I was with my family,” said Emma Hermanson, a senior who traveled to Iceland, Sweden and Denmark on a Maymester for music business in the summer of 2024.
The connections these students formed with each other and people local to their study abroad countries also impacted their experience.
“We had a small group of people, but we came out with a lot of friends after,” Hermanson said “It’s so important to build connections with people that aren’t like you, and I think that was the coolest opportunity that I got to have.”
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This article was written by Madi Garrett
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