The Office of Global & Off-campus Education (OGOE) created a new off-campus study abroad program at University West on Oct. 3, affectionately called “the Mods” by the students participating in their cross-campus journey. This new “Study Across” program gives students the chance to live in mobile homes just on the other side of Route 15. There, members of the community can experience new adventures including seeing the primates housed for animal behavior majors, watching club, intramural, and school teams practice soccer, and frequenting the golf course.

Stacey Adeline, the chief advisor for “Study Across,” commented on how this travel experience will open students’ eyes to new perspectives and help them learn more about themselves.

“It is our goal,” Adeline said, “to help students learn time management as they struggle to get to class on time despite the long walk, develop a tolerance to large amounts of mold that grow in the facilities, and create an almost completely unsupervised community with few RAs or faculty members.”

Zack Davis ’20, one of the first to sign up for the “Study Across” program, remarked on the independence of this initiative outside of the traditional study abroad experience.

“We are expected to get to our program and back without the aid of the study abroad program,” Davis said. “There is no group flight or shuttle. We just come loaded with our own cars and good walking shoes. This abroad program has taught me a lot about depending on my own ability to get where I need to go.”

While students are not provided with transportation, they are still allowed food and access to campus facilities once they cross over the campus boundaries back into central Lewisburg.

Cynthia Cruz ’21, another participant studying at University West, was quick to illustrate how the experience has changed her as a person.

“Studying a-Mod has really transformed my view of the world. In the Mods, I’ve learned to get to places on time, even if it is a long walk. I do most of my own cooking, too, since the Bison is so far away. This experience has changed my perception on the way we live and what we take for granted,” Cruz said.