STEM and Foreign Languages: K-16: Study Abroad, Service Opportunities & STEM

The University of Rhode Island International Engineering Program (IEP) offers an unparalleled experience for students looking to become truly global engineers. IEP graduates earn two degrees simultaneously: a B.S. in an engineering discipline and a B.A. in Chinese, French, German, Italian or Spanish. By combining the power of a strong engineering program, immersion in a foreign language and culture and a year abroad, the five-year program graduates students prepared for rewarding careers in a diverse array of fields around the world.

"Your global career starts here. NAU’s award-winning Interdisciplinary Global Programs combine your degree in a STEM field, business, or hospitality with language and culture studies to give you a truly revolutionary education. You’ll graduate with two degrees in five years, including a year abroad completely immersed in a culture. By incorporating an international element to your studies, you’ll bring an important perspective to everything you do." (NAU)

Diagram of program structure

VIEP is a five-year program that combines a major in one of the four engineering fields with a major or minor in either German, French or Spanish (VIEP-German, VIEP-French, VIEP-Spanish) or a minor in Chinese (VIEP in China). The program allows students to gain multicultural experience and language proficiency, along with technical engineering skills, and prepares them for careers with one of many international research and manufacturing firms located in the United States or abroad.

Recognizing a growing demand for internationally-experienced engineering graduates, a group of leading universities around the world established the Global E3 in 1995. Global E3 allows engineering students at member universities to enjoy a fulfilling study abroad experience.

by Helga G. Braunbeck. Die Unterrichtspraxis/Teaching German, Volume 44, Issue 2, pages 146–153, Fall 2011

Designing a curriculum that encourages students, especially those from the science and technology disciplines, to double major in German Studies and achieve a high level of proficiency, includes components such as flexible groups of electives, mandatory study abroad or internship abroad, and courses tailored to a student audience interested in science and technology. This includes cultural studies courses that follow a model of interdisciplinarity with the potential for connections with other disciplines. In this article these are explored and illustrated with examples from a course on "Green Germany." Finally, measures of success are addressed, including ways that even a small German Studies program can establish and maintain its relevance and value in a range of institutional contexts.

by Elizabeth Redden. Inside Higher Ed, February 18, 2014.

WASHINGTON – The theme of this year’s Association of International Education Administrators conference is “Universalizing Global Learning in the 21st Century Academy,” and a session on Monday focused on broadening, if not universalizing, global learning experiences for students who have historically been underrepresented in study abroad: those in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.

Inside Higher Ed, October 7, 2013, By Elizabeth Redden.

I. Trends in Science and Technology Study Abroad from Open Doors 2008 by Patricia Chow and Rajika Bhandari
II. Expanding Study Abroad in the STEM Fields: A Case Study of U.S. and German Programs by Peggy Blumenthal and Ulrich Grothus
III. Developing Evaluation Approaches to International Collaborative Science and Engineering Activities by Elizabeth Kirk
IV. Evaluation Case Study: The RISE Program by Robert Gutierrez

Biotechnology & Russian
A Summer Science and Language Program for Undergraduates at Moscow State University

Integrating STEM content with advanced foreign language instruction provides a unique way for students to gain foreign language capacities directly related to promising career pathways. Content and language integrated learning (CLIL), also referred to as content-based language teaching, simultaneously promotes skills in the target language and advances content knowledge, making this a promising approach for students to gain STEM skills in a foreign language classroom (Brewster, 2004; Mehisto, Marsh, & Frigols, 2008; Smala, 2009).
Nekrasova, T. & Becker, A. (2012). Integrating STEM Topics in the Foreign Language Classroom Promising Practices for Foreign Language Instruction 1. Washington, DC: National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition (NCELA)

NAU News, November 18, 2013.

Go Overseas. Blog.

German High School Credit Program: STEM-D Four-Week High School Credit Program | Grades 9-12. Concordia Language Villages

VIF International Education builds global education programs that prepare students for success in an interconnected world. For more than 25 years, educators have leveraged VIF’s professional development and curriculum, language acquisition and teacher exchange programs to generate engaging learning environments where students can excel in core curriculum as well as develop valuable critical and creative thinking skills.