Custom Faculty-Led Semesters
Build a Semester Around Your Academic Goals
Bring your students abroad as a cohort, and we’ll build a semester around a course you teach, your department, or an academic focus.
With a minimum group of 8 students, we can build a custom semester in Italy, Costa Rica, Peru, or Japan. Your faculty member teaches their course abroad, while students complete the rest of their semester coursework through a local university partner.
We complement the academics with intentionally designed experiential learning, including excursions, guest speakers, site visits, hands-on learning, labs, clinics, internships, and community-based experiences aligned with your academic goals. We manage the logistics, safety, and on-site support, allowing faculty to focus on teaching and students to fully engage in the experience.
What can a custom semester look like?
Your Academic Focus. A Semester Built Around It.
YOUR FACULTY COURSE
Your faculty teaches a course abroad, creating an academic anchor for the cohort and destination.
LOCAL UNIVERSITY COURSES
Students complete the rest of their semester coursework alongside local and international students at a partner university.
EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING
Connect classroom learning to a destination through field experiences, excursions, workshops, and hands-on learning.
PROFESSIONAL ENGAGEMENT
Meet local professionals, researchers, entrepreneurs, healthcare providers, artists, and community leaders.
INTERNSHIPS & APPLIED LEARNING
Where appropriate, incorporate internships, labs, clinical observation, research, or project-based experiences.
CULTURAL IMMERSION
Build language, cultural learning, local community engagement, and travel into the semester experience.
Programs can be designed for approximately 8–25+ students, depending on destination, academic requirements, and available university partnerships.
Example of What we could build
Start with your discipline
SUSTAINABILITY & ENVIRONMENT SEMESTER
Costa Rica or Peru
Combine environmental coursework with field-based learning focused on biodiversity, conservation, sustainable agriculture, climate, natural resource management, and community-based sustainability.
Potential Areas:
Environmental Science • Biology • Sustainability • Ecology
GLOBAL HEALTH SEMESTER
Costa Rica or Peru
Combine coursework in public health, biology, nursing, or health sciences with clinical observation, community health, healthcare system comparisons, simulations, site visits, and cultural immersion.
Potential Areas:
Nursing • Public Health • Pre-Med • Health Sciences • PT/OT
BUSINESS & INNOVATION SEMESTER
Japan or Italy
Pair business coursework with company visits, entrepreneurship, global markets, consumer behavior, innovation, local business culture, and professional networking.
Potential Areas:
Business • Marketing • Entrepreneurship • Finance • International Business
SUSTAINABILITY & ENVIRONMENT SEMESTER
Costa Rica or Peru
Combine environmental coursework with field-based learning focused on biodiversity, conservation, sustainable agriculture, climate, natural resource management, and community-based sustainability.
Potential Areas:
Environmental Science • Biology • Sustainability • Ecology
ART, DESIGN & CULTURE SEMESTER
Italy or Japan
Build a semester around art, design, media, architecture, or cultural studies through museum visits, artist workshops, creative industries, site-based learning, and cultural immersion.
Potential Areas:
Art History • Design • Architecture • Media • Communications • Cultural Studies
Our semester hubs
Choose the right home base
Health • Sustainability • Biology • Business • Spanish • Education
Health • Engineering • Sustainability • Business • Spanish • Latin American Studies
Art • Architecture • Business • Design • Humanities • Health & Wellness
Business • Engineering • Media • Culture • Japanese Studies
How it works
From Academic Idea to Semester Abroad
1. Tell Us What You Want Students to Learn
Share your academic focus, target student population, preferred term, and institutional requirements. We’ll use these priorities to understand what the program needs to accomplish.
2. We Build the Academic & Program Model
We identify the right university partner, course options, housing, experiential learning, excursions, and academic enhancements, then shape them into a semester that fits your goals.
3. Your Institution Reviews & Approves
We work with faculty, study abroad staff, the registrar, and other stakeholders to align academics, credit, logistics, health and safety, and budget.
4. We Deliver the Semester
EdOdyssey coordinates the on-the-ground experience, student support, logistics, cultural programming, and partner management throughout the semester.
Have a Cohort or Academic Idea in Mind?
You don’t need to have the semester fully designed to start a conversation.
Tell us your academic area, approximate cohort size, preferred destination or region, and what you want students to gain from the experience. We’ll help identify the right university partner and shape the semester around your academic and institutional goals.
Minimum cohort: approximately 8 students
Looking for an open enrollment semester instead?