Study Argentina’s social movements and the country’s past and current struggles to guarantee human rights for its diverse populations.
Program Highlights
- Visit grassroots organizations fighting for human rights and social welfare.
- Hone your Spanish speaking, reading, and writing skills through homestays and classroom and field instruction.
- Participate in community service work.
- Get a firsthand look at Argentina’s prolific and dynamic social movements from your base in the vibrant capital city of Buenos Aires.
- Talk with workers taking on factory bosses, peasants fighting to maintain their livelihood, and indigenous communities organizing to retain their land, identity, and natural resources.
- Study at one of the top think tanks in Latin America, the Centro de Estudios de Estado y Sociedad (CEDES).
- Travel for three weeks throughout Argentina, including trips to Patagonia, the northwestern region, and the vibrant city of Rosario in the province of Santa Fe.
- Choose to intern with a local organization, social movement, university, research organization or NGO or conduct independent research.
Please visit the SIT Study Abroad website for details on program courses (including syllabi), educational excursions, and housing.
Independent Study
During the final four weeks of the program, you can choose to use your new language and cultural skills and the academic knowledge you have acquired to complete an Independent Study Project (ISP) on a topic of interest to you.
The ISP is conducted in Buenos Aires or another approved location. You will integrate different components of the program as you conduct an in-depth investigation of a social movement or organization. The ISP is an opportunity to build a solid foundation for further research for a senior thesis, Fulbright fellowship, or graduate school.
Sample Topics:
- Labor rights
- Environmental rights and neo-extractivism
- Memory and memorialization
- Indigenous rights and community
- Art as a tool for social transformation
- Issues of identity
- Women’s rights
- LGBTQI and human rights in Argentina
SIT internships are hands on and reflective. In addition to completing the internship, you will submit a paper processing your learning experience on the job and analyzing an issue important to the organization you worked with, and/or you will design a socially responsible solution to a problem identified by the organization.
The organizations that partner with the program are well known in the fields of human rights, politics and social work. They have agreed to host interns because they know that SIT students, who bring an external point of view, can contribute to a better understanding of the internal and social issues that affect the organization.
Sample Internship Sites:
- Collaborating with NGO Human Rights projects
- Participating in local Human Rights campaigns
- Assisting in public institutions or NGO related to gender, environmental problems, indigenous communities, migration, discrimination, racism, education, social economy, etc.
Key Topics of Study
- Pressing issues caused by rapid urbanization related to the Doi Moi "Renovation" economic reform
- Challenges of sustainable development and current strategies for new rural development in the Mekong Delta and Da Lat Central Highlands and different livelihood models in each region
- Balancing efforts between economic development, job creation, and environmental protection and natural resource management
- The effects of war, development, and tourism on Vietnam's rich but increasingly fragile cultural heritage
- Changing gender relations and development pressures among K'ho, Hmong, Giay, and Red Dao ethnic minority groups in the Sapa mountains
Money Matters
Be sure to discuss how study abroad costs are handled at your school with your study abroad advisor.
SIT tuition and room and board fees include the following:
All educational costs, including educational excursions
- All accommodations and meals for the full program duration
- Transportation to and from the airport, and on all educational excursions
- Health and accident insurance
Scholarships:
- SIT awards nearly $1.6 million in scholarships and grants annually.
- All scholarships and grants are need-based.
- Awards generally range from $500 to $5,000.
- The SIT Pell Grant Match provides matching grants to all students receiving Federal Pell Grant funding when it is applied to an SIT Study Abroad semester program.
- Contact the financial aid and/or study abroad office(s) at your college or university to learn if your school’s scholarships and grants and federal and state aid programs can be applied to an SIT Study Abroad program.
Contact SIT Study Abroad
Application Process for Other Approved Programs
This program is offered through one of our approved program partners. In order to participate you must apply through, and be approved, by both St. Thomas and the program.
Application Process
- Attend a first-step session. Dates posted online at stthomas.edu/studyabroad.
- Schedule an advising meeting. This meeting will review:
- any questions you have about studying abroad, including program selection if you are considering multiple programs.
- the course approval process
- how to apply to Other Approved Programs
- Notify your study abroad advisor of final program selection.
- Complete all St. Thomas application materials by the St. Thomas application deadline.
- Complete program application via the program’s website by their deadline.
University of St. Thomas application deadlines:
October 1 for January Term and spring semester programs
March 15 for summer, fall semester and year-long programs.
Please note that some programs have deadlines earlier than St. Thomas.
St Thomas Criteria for Participation
- Minimum grade point average of 2.5.
- Students may not apply for, maintain an approved application, nor participate in a Study Abroad program while on academic or conduct probation. Any disciplinary records may be a consideration for approval to participate in an off-campus programs.
- View all eligibility requirements for study abroad through St. Thomas: stthomas.edu/studyabroad > Explore & Plan > Student Policies.
- Some programs have additional criteria.
Financial Aid/Scholarships
Financial Aid Awards (grants, loans and scholarships) typically apply to semester study abroad. Visit stthomas.edu/financialaid for instructions.
The Office of Study Abroad, and other approved program partners, offers scholarships. Visit stthomas.edu/studyabroad, and the program’s website, for details.
Program Information
For additional program information, contact the program partner.
For application procedures contact Study Abroad:
Office of Study Abroad
University of St. Thomas
MHC 212 (Mail 5026)
2115 Summit Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55105-1096 USA
Tel: 1.651.962.6450
Fax: 1.651.962.5199
Email: studyabroad@stthomas.edu
www.stthomas.edu/studyabroad