UNB’s Global Learning and Engagement team facilitate strategic partnerships that provide students with the opportunity to roam the globe while receiving a world-class education and hands-on learning experiences.
With 89 partners in 35 countries, UNB students receive a wide variety of opportunities including study abroad programs, internships, co-op placements, field courses and practicums.
Staff on both campuses provide students with logistical and financial support, helping them every step of the way through online and face-to-face pre-departure programs, in-country support and reintegration sessions.
These mentorship programs ensure students have all the tools required to successfully complete an international experience specifically designed to enhance their individual academic program. As a result, they acquire skills, knowledge and experience required to be competitive in their field of expertise after graduation.
“We really want our students to learn to be open-minded,” says Dave Andrews, global academic programs and partnerships, Global Learning and Engagement. “If they are able to come back to Canada and see things from a different perspective, we’ve done a lot.”
Jessica Golding, a bachelor of arts student in Saint John, spent the winter 2016 term at the Washington Center in Washington, D.C., interning at a foreign embassy and attending weekly congressional hearings.
One of her favourite experiences was hearing U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry discuss foreign policy – a particular interest of hers. The experience reaffirmed that she would like to work in the diplomatic sector, she says, something she wasn’t certain of before.
This fall, she will be working in France with Veterans Affairs Canada as a student guide at the Vimy Ridge and Beaumont-Hamel memorial sites.
“With my major in French and political science, this semester off school ties in nicely with my degree and personal interests,” says Ms. Golding, who will return to campus this winter to complete the final semester for her degree.
For those who are wary of leaving home for a full semester, the travel study program offers a taste of international travel and learning for a shorter period of time.
Experiences like these provide students like Alysha-Rae Weekes, a bachelor of business administration student on the Fredericton campus, the confidence to pursue future opportunities. In the spring of 2015, she headed to Paris.
“Before the travel study, I had been considering going on an exchange,” Ms. Weekes says, “but never really gathered the courage to leave my family and friends to go abroad.”
That first travel study has led to a year of interactive learning in Germany. In the fall of 2015, she spent a semester at Heilbronn University in Germany participating in engaging and interactive classes, including a two-week intensive simulation where students ran fictitious companies. She has since been appointed Young Ambassador to UNB by the German Academic Exchange and received a six-month internship in Germany with Stern-Wywiol Gruppe where she performs market research.
“Overall, my year abroad has been such a valuable addition to my degree at UNB,” says Ms. Weekes. “I really would not have traded this year for anything else.”
Learn more about the various opportunities available to UNB students.
