May 2026 Travel Courses
Overview
The deadline to apply is TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2025. Late applications might be accepted, but only after on-time applications are considered; late applications are not eligible for scholarships.
IL Travel Course Application: Click Here to Apply
Applications open with the start of the Fall Semester; we recommend waiting to apply until September.
Submiting an application carries no guarantee of acceptance. We recommend applying for three courses to increase the chance of success. Use the essay prompt(s) provided and read the selection criteria carefully. Travel courses are Roanoke College classes and are not chaperoned vacations. Your application essay(s) should clearly address the prompt for the specific course; for many courses, it is the primary means of selection.
Those applying by the September 30 deadline should be notified of their status in mid-October. Accepted students must complete an acceptance form and then an enrollment form and pay a non-refundable $500 deposit by December 1 to reserve a spot. You will be notified regarding availability of scholarship funding before Thanksgiving Break.
IL Travel Course Application Process
Step One: Application (this form)
Step Two: Acceptance Form (due immediately upon notification of acceptance)
Step Two, second part: Scholarship Acceptance form (if applicable)
Step Three: Enrollment Form & $500 Non-refundable Deposit due December 1, 2025
Step Four: Final payment in full due January 29, 2026
If there are questions or concerns at any point, a student should contact the office of Academic Affairs and/or follow the policies with regards to the College's process regarding student complaints (for the latter, note that complaints must come directly from our students).
Additional Financial Considerations
* Roanoke College cannot pro-rate the program fee. Every participating student must pay the listed program fee in its entirety, with no exceptions. This includes students who are studying away and are already in-country, thus not using the provided airfare.
* There are no refunds.
* Listed travel dates are tentative. Students are responsible for attendance at all pre-departure meetings and every date of the travel course. These are intensive courses and every hour of every day is a larger part of the overall course than during the regular semester. Please be aware that travel dates may move forward or backward in response to market changes up to the point where faculty purchase flights and accommodations.
* Out-of-pocket expenses are the student's responsibility and represent the required amount of funds to bring on the course as spending money to cover transportation and meal costs not covered by the program fee. We provide an estimated out-of-pocket amount.
* Timely receipt of payment is expected; failure to pay by deadline may result in removal from the course and forfeit of all previous payment.
* Students are covered by EIIA Travel Risk Insurance, which offers the ability to recoup some lost expenses (up to $2,500 per student) in the case of a medical emergency preventing your travel in May 2026. Such claims require a physician's note explaining why the student is unfit to travel.
2026 IL Travel Courses
INQ 177 Irish and British Theatre
Instructor: Dr. Nelson Barre
Prerequisites: None
Program Fee: $5,800
Estimated Out-of-pocket Expenses: $1,000
Course Dates: May 11 - May 28, 2026
Essay Prompt:
What aspects of theatre are you most interested in exploring within the Irish and British context? What unique experiences might you expect to gain that are unique to those places?
Brief Description:
How are cultural values of Ireland and England reflected in their art, specifically through theatre? This on-site course seeks to answer this question through travels between Ireland and England, focusing primarily on the experiences of theatre and art. All levels are welcome: for some it could be an introduction while others will deepen their understanding of theatre and its artistic forms. You will be expected to attend shows and explore the places where we are traveling. We will respond to plays on the page, through some analysis and discussion. Then we will attend performances, after there will be discussion of various aspects (from acting and design to content and the audience experience). The goal of the course is to cultivate your ability to write and speak critically about this art form and the many aspects that go into its production.
Selection Criteria:
We look for students with an interest in theatre, from past experience either in viewing or participating in productions. Students who want to explore Irish and British culture through theatrical and artistic expression and analysis. Some previous travel experience is recommended but not required.
INQ/FREN 277 Language, Taste, and Tradition in Southern France
Contingent on final faculty approval
Instructor: Dr. Alison Clifton
Prerequisites: Applicants should have foundational French skills (French 102 or higher recommended).
Program Fee: $5,400
Estimated Out-of-pocket Expenses: $500
Course Dates: May 10 - May 30, 2026
Essay Prompt:
Southern France is a region where landscape, language, and tradition intertwine to shape cultural identity. Reflect on a time when you stepped outside your comfort zone – whether through travel, learning a new language, or encountering unfamiliar customs. How did that experience shape your perspective, and how do you hope this course will challenge or expand your understanding of culture and identity?
Brief Description:
What makes a culture come alive? Is it the language spoken in cafés, the stories etched into ancient stone, or the flavors passed down through generations? This three-week immersive travel course invites you to southern France – not as a tourist, but as a temporary local. Wander Roman amphitheaters, cook regional specialties, and speak French in bustling markets and quiet villages. From medieval streets to Mediterranean shores, explore how place, language, and tradition shape identity and reflect on your own role as a global citizen.
Selection Criteria:
I am looking for students who demonstrate (1) curiosity and openness to unfamiliar cultures, languages, and perspectives, (2) adaptability in immersive, real-world settings, (3) thoughtful reflection on identity, place, and global citizenship, and (4) a willingness to engage actively with local communities and course themes.
Notes for applicants: Applicants should have foundational French skills (French 102 or higher recommended).
INQ 277 Basic Leadership: Hawaii
Instructor: Dr. Michelle Hagadorn
Prerequisites: None
Program Fee: $6,000
Estimated Out-of-pocket Expenses: $1,000
Course Dates: May 12 - May 22, 2026
Essay Prompt:
Describe why you are interested in joining the Basic Leadership course in Hawaii. What do you hope to gain from this immersive experience, and how do you see it helping you grow as a leader both personally and academically? Reflect on a past experience where you demonstrated or observed leadership—what did you learn from it, and how do you hope this course will help you grow as a leader in the future?
Brief Description:
Discover what it takes to be a leader in our Basic Leadership course! Through engaging readings, hands-on activities, and visits to two Hawaiian islands, students will explore leadership in action—learning from experts in fields like disaster response, tourism, and the military. This immersive experience helps students identify key leadership traits and begin developing their own leadership potential.
Selection Criteria:
No additional selection criteria beyond application.
INQ/ENST 277 Sustainability and Spirituality in the Pacific Northwest
Instructor: Dr. Laura Hartman
Prerequisites: None
Program Fee: $3,600
Estimated Out-of-pocket Expenses: $500
Course Dates: May 12 - June 1, 2026
Essay Prompt:
This course takes place in two locations: The first is a big city (Seattle) where we will stay in a hostel and eat out in restaurants and be surrounded by tourists, residents, and a pretty large number of homeless people (we’ll talk about that). The second (Holden Village) is a small mining village converted to a Lutheran retreat center in the remote mountains where there is no cell reception or wi-fi and all meals are eaten collectively and they have daily prayers which we are to attend (you can just watch from the side, no need to actually participate). What do you expect to be most challenging for you, about each location, and how would you approach those challenges?
Brief Description:
Explore Seattle, the “Emerald City” known for its green, sustainable infrastructure and vibrant city life. Then, spend two weeks at Holden Village, a much smaller-scale encounter with greenery and sustainability. In both locations, we explore concepts like community, compassion, renewal, and repair – concepts with resonance in spirituality as well as sustainability. The Holden Village component brings students to a place apart from technological connections, and together with one another and with nature. Holden means not using cell phone connections for two weeks (no reception and no wi-fi) and being embraced by a community that has a specific religious identity (with no requirement to be spiritual or religious oneself). Please join us in the Pacific Northwest for a new perspective in a place apart!
Selection Criteria:
The successful applicant will demonstrate that they: care about the environment and/or spirituality; are generally responsible and kind and have some patience and interest in including others; that they have previous wilderness or leadership experience.
Additional Advice: Students need to be able to tolerate 2 weeks without a phone, staying in dorm-style living, sharing a bedroom that’s maybe one step up from a summer camp in terms of amenities. Students need to be able to carry their own luggage, and to be able to walk at least 4 miles with water and a notebook. Everywhere we go will be hilly and some days will be walking-heavy. Holden Village is remote, and medical care requires a helicopter ride, so please be aware. Also, Holden Village is a Lutheran institution (of the most open and welcoming type you can imagine); students need not be religious necessarily, but need to be able to tolerate others who are: there will be daily prayers and you will attend (as an observer).
INQ/HIST 277 Pausanias' Tour of Greece
Instructor: Dr. Jason Hawke
Prerequisites: None
Program Fee: $6,000
Estimated Out-of-pocket Expenses: $600
Course Dates: May 14 - May 28
Specific Essay Prompt:
What does Greece mean to you? Please describe why some aspect of Greece – its culture, its people, its history, or something else – fascinates or intrigues you in such a way that you want to spend sixteen days learning intensively about it, and discuss how you see this course fitting into your education as a student of Roanoke College?
Brief Description:
Pausanias, a 2nd-century AD Greek living under Roman rule, visited sites of past glory and wrote an informative travelogue and cultural history of ancient Greece. Students will travel in his footsteps, a journey that will take them to Athens, Sparta, Corinth, and Delphi, among other sites. Students will experience firsthand the monuments of ancient Greece and their modern presentation and confront the landscapes that Pausanias describes. In reflecting upon their own reactions and Pausanias’ account of the ancient Greek past and its remains, students will interpret their responses to Greece ancient and modern. By immersing ourselves in Pausanias’ account, and relevant modern scholarship, and visiting the landscapes Pausanias once beheld, we will be able to consider the interplay among the physical and imagined pasts and think about the ways we construct identities through the conversations we choose to have with those pasts and how we conduct them.
Selection Criteria:
All students are encouraged to apply; applications are considered primarily based on the strength of essay, general academic performance, and lack of disciplinary problems and with a goal of achieving a balance of interests and personalities. Students are expected to walk multiple miles each day under the Greek sun.
INQ 177 National Parks: Explore Your America
Instructor: Dr. Chris Lassiter
Prerequisites: None
Program Fee: $3,500
Estimated Out-of-pocket Expenses: $400
Course Dates: May 11-12 meeting online, May 13-29 traveling
Essay Prompt:
Share your experiences visiting national parks, whether they are numerous or none at all. Discuss any concerns about hiking or desert conditions. Describe how you can contribute to positive group dynamics and showcase a "zest" for trying new things either from past examples or with this course in mind.
Brief Description:
This domestic travel course explores the National Park Service (NPS) and will explore units of the NPS that focus on biological, historical, and cultural sites of importance in New Mexico, Texas, and Colorado. Biological diversity from deserts to alpine ecosystems will be explored along with historical and cultural areas. The course includes discussion of important events in NPS history (Roosevelt, Muir, and the Civilian Conservation Corps) as well.
Selection Criteria:
The successful applicant should be able to hike at least a few miles and be comfortable with riding in a van over long distances. In the past, students from a variety of majors and backgrounds, with a range of travel/hiking experience from none at all to very experienced have enjoyed this travel course.
INQ/ARTH 277 The Grand Tour of Italy
Instructor: Dr. Julia Sienkewicz
Prerequisites: None
Program Fee: $6,000
Estimated Out-of-pocket Expenses: $1,600
Course Dates: May 5 - May 19, 2026
Essay Prompt:
It has been said that “the past is a foreign country”. During the Grand Tour experience, you will not only be travelling in an actual foreign country but also immersing yourself in the strange, sometimes uncomfortable, and often perplexing worlds of history and art history. Please describe your approach to learning, especially in new or challenging circumstances, and what inspires you to want to dig into the subject of this class?
Brief Description:
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, artists, scholars, and socialites set out on “the Grand Tour,” which was often a crucial stage in their educations. This intensive learning course is designed to immerse students in the experience of the Tour, both by visiting sites central to the historical tour and also by inviting students to enter into the role of grand tourists. In May 2026, our class plans to travel to Italy, visiting locations at the heart of the Grand Tour: Florence, Rome, and beyond! We will visit key locations to which the Grand Tourists themselves flocked—storied collections of ancient sculpture and Renaissance Art (such as the Vatican Museums), ancient ruins, and places where Tourists lived and gathered. Students will complete individual projects and participate in on-site learning critical to the experience of the Grand Tour.
Selection Criteria:
The successful applicant will have evidence of academic engagement in their record at Roanoke College, the course will be relevant to their major/minor or stated professional path, and will produce an essay that suggests engagement with the topic and/or intellectual or cultural curiosity. Students with a clear interest in art history, museums, art, and history will be given priority, assuming they meet the other criteria.
INQ 277 Walking the Camino
Instructor: Professors Christine Stanley and Sarah Hord
Prerequisites: None
Program Fee: $3,900
Estimated Out-of-pocket Expenses: $500
Course Dates: May 5 - May 26, 2026
Essay Prompt:
Pilgrimage is about more than reaching a destination. It involves challenge, curiosity, and reflection. In two or three paragraphs, explain why you want to walk the Camino de Santiago and what you hope to gain intellectually, physically, or personally from this journey.
Brief Description:
Explore the Camino de Santiago on foot, following its historic path through Portugal and northern Spain. Along the way, you'll study the history, art, and religious traditions that shaped this medieval pilgrimage and continue to draw thousands each year. Visit shrines, reflect on centuries-old questions, and share meals and hostel stays with travelers from around the world. This travel course takes you out of the classroom and into a real-world experience that blends culture, community, and reflection. No hiking experience is required. Just curiosity, an open mind, a backpack, and a willingness to learn while walking.
Selection Criteria:
The successful applicant will demonstrate curiousity, flexibility, and an openness to new experiences. Other positive criteria to showcase are a positive attitude, a respect for group dynamics, and a readiness for physical activity. Hiking experience is not required, but students will walk long distances every day (roughly ten to fifteen miles every day with a backpack). Students will live simply and respect the culture of the Camino and the communities along the way.
Additional Advice: Some travel experience is helpful but not required. This course involves physical activity and shared lodging. There is no language requirement and the course is only open to sophomores and above.
INQ 177 Scotland in Scottish Arts
Instructor: Dr. Dana-Linn Whiteside
Prerequisites: None
Program Fee: $5,400
Estimated Out-of-pocket Expenses: $1,000
Course Dates: May 11 - May 29, 2026
Essay Prompt:
We are looking for an engaged and eager group of twelve students to become members of this class. Please explain using specifics why you think we should select you to become one of our cohort. What specifically draws you to our course and why? How do you think you'll connect our course to your own interests?
Brief Description:
How have Scottish literary and visual artists helped create a unique identity for Scotland throughout the centuries? What does art possess that resonates so deeply as to help define what it means to be Scottish in the land of Scotland? We’ll explore the art and sites represented in it from misty highlands, craggy coastlines, and ancient castles, to modern, bustling, vibrant cities of granite spires and architectural innovation, as we seek to understand a distinctly Scottish national identity. By the end of our exploration, we will have much to compare with our own country’s artistic representations.
Selection Criteria:
The successful applicant will demonstrate previous travel experience and comfort with extensive walking (several miles each day) and trail hiking.
INQ/HIST 277 Japan in the Long Twentieth Century
Instructor: Dr. Stella Xu & Dr. Mary Henold
Prerequisites: None
Program Fee: $5,800
Estimated Out-of-pocket Expenses: $1,000
Course Dates: May 4 - May 18, 2026
Essay Prompt:
Please answer these three questions:
- Why are you interested in participating in this IL Travel Course?
- What do you hope to learn and achieve through this experience?
- What and how will you contribute to this intensive learning environment and sharing experiences during the trip?
Brief Description:
Japan experienced a long twentieth century, beginning with its rise to power in the early 1900s. It participated in World War I and became one of the primary aggressors in World War II, especially in Asia. After its surrender in 1945, Japan, with U.S. assistance, underwent rapid postwar reconstruction and emerged as an economic giant by the 1970s. The country enjoyed relatively peaceful and steady development through the 1980s, but the century closed with a decade of economic stagnation in the 1990s.
How did the Japanese people live through these turbulent events? How have they remembered and commemorated their experiences? This course invites students to explore Japanese history and culture by visiting museums, historical sites, and engaging in conversations with local people to learn how they remember the past century. We will visit four major cities: Hiroshima, Kyoto, Nara, and Tokyo.
Selection Criteria:
The successful applicant will demonstrate: interest in Japan and East Asia; the ability to walk up to 7 miles a day and navigate public transportation; an open-mindedness toward different foods and cultural experiences; a willingness to cooperate with others and contribute to the success of the group; and past academic success.