Participating in various co-curricular activities, in Boston or elsewhere in the US, is often part of an undergraduate trajectory. Harvard College students should also be aware of the international co-curricular opportunities for research, study, and personal-growth experiences available to them.
While an internationally-based project will add additional layers of challenge (ex: passports, sometimes visas, language barriers, new cultural norms, etc.), it also offers additional rewards in the form of learning methodologies not commonly practiced in the US, accessing resources not available locally, establishing links with a broader research community, or experiencing the world in a new setting.
Opportunities for travel fall into five categories: academic, research, teaching, service, and purposeful travel. Depending on the opportunity, you may apply for funding to cover tuition, travel, living expenses, and more. These opportunities are meant to build off of your undergraduate training, to prepare you to transition to the next phase of your life with a greater sense of commitment and direction.
Academic opportunities:
- Support you as you undertake a degree program at a university abroad
- Are tethered to a specific location/country or institution
Research opportunities:
- Allow you to define your own research to perform independent of a degree program
- May or may not be attached to a specific institution/location
Teaching opportunities:
- Involve working in a classroom environment or in a tutoring capacity, and often draw from your fluency in English or other areas of expertise
Service opportunities:
- Are intended to provide you with professional experience while providing a service to a local community
Purposeful travel opportunities:
- Ask you to immerse yourself in an unfamiliar culture in order to explore personal interests (as opposed to academic interests), questions and issues
You can identify URAF-sponsored international opportunities via our Browse URAF Opportunities page. Be sure to note that there are many more opportunities beyond what you will find on our website. Check out the Resources for Your Search page for more on non-URAF opportunities. At the same time, don’t hesitate to ask URAF staff, as well as mentors and advisors in your networks about further options.