In this essay, my aim is to demonstrate that experiential education is a laudable and creditworthy endeavor in study abroad, and to discuss some approaches designed to reinforce the academic side of experiential study. To set a framework, the first section is devoted to a description of the place of experiential programming at the Institute for the International Education of Students (IES), where I am Director of Academic Programs. IES is “traditional” in the sense that the core of our instruction is classroom-based in university courses and courses taught by IES faculty. We are not “traditional” in our commitment to a holistic model of international education and our willingness to experiment with different academic approaches to achieve our mission of student intercultural competence. After a discussion of some of the theoretical background of experiential education in the second section, the third and fourth sections will review some of IES’s recent research on credit acceptance and on student learning in experiential programming. The final section of this paper discusses assessment and the nature of academic programming for students in field placements, internships and service-learning.
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