Off-Campus Opportunities
Beyond campus, Swarthmore offers a wide variety of opportunities for helping students prepare for the world that lies ahead.
Swarthmore strongly encourages students to spend a semester or year studying abroad, as a key element of their degree programs. About 40 percent of all students take advantage of this opportunity.
Students participate in an array of opportunities in more than 60 countries. With more than 300 approved programs or universities, students can choose either a College program coordinated by Swarthmore faculty (in Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, Poland, or South Africa), a direct-enrollment program at a university abroad, or one of a broad range of other study-abroad programs.
Beyond study abroad, the College’s SwatWorks micro-intership program provides students with a variety of real-world, short-term projects (up to 40 hours) supervised by alumni across a variety of industries. Previous projects have included working on location in Mississippi for a feature length documentary, conducting affordable housing research for the city of Pittsburgh, translating documents for the Boston Immigration Justice Accompaniment Network, and analyzing published research and survey data for the NHS National Cancer Patient Experience.
Each year, a small number of courses are offered with an end-of-semester field/research component. Recent courses have traveled to Israel/Palestine, China/Hong Kong/Taiwan, Cuba, and Spain. Exchange programs also provide the opportunity for students from host institutions (e.g., Ashesi University College in Ghana, the University of Tokyo, Yale-National University of Singapore) to study at Swarthmore.
The Lang Center for Civic & Social Responsibility also stokes opportunity throughout the U.S. and the world with engaged scholarship opportunities like internships with social justice organizations, engaged research with faculty members, and projects with community partners. These beyond the classroom experiences can be a crucial bridge between students' academic pursuits and the people and issues they care about. For instance, in the Lang Opportunity Scholarship (LOS) Program, sophomores are chosen based upon distinguished academic and co-curricular achievement, leadership qualities, and demonstrated commitment to civic and social responsibility. The LOS Program offers an array of of benefits, including a $10,000 grant, a designated advisor, a core course, and networking opportunities to support the development of a project that creates social impact.
