InterFuture (Intercultural Studies for the Future) presents an exciting and novel opportunity for undergraduate students at the University of Akron to perform cross-cultural research and live abroad while receiving up to two semesters of credit from their university.
As Director of Studies for InterFuture and IF Campus Co-ordinator for the University of Akron, I can advise you on how to co-ordinate this program with your college career and help you to apply to the program. If you would like to know more about InterFuture after reading about it below, return to my homepage and contact me by email.
InterFuture is the only study abroad program in the nation that allows students to design and execute their own research project comparing U.S. culture to that of Spain, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Ghana, South Africa, Nepal, Mexico, Belgium, Germany, Tanzania, Russia, England, Hungary, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Poland, or Zimbabwe. Costs are low and the quality of the experience is unparalleled. Students emerge from this program not only more sophisticated in their thinking about human culture and cultural difference, but also newly equipped with interpersonal and scholarly skills not normally associated with undergraduate education.
In the past 30 years, InterFuture scholars have conducted research on
a vast array of imaginative, fascinating subjects. A computer science major
is currently studying the cultural factors affecting the integration of
new Information Technology into the workplace in South Africa and the United
States. One IF candidate student, interested in going to medical school,
contrasted the body language of physicians and their patients in Nepal and
Spain with those of physicians here in the United States. Another candidate,
interested in attending law school, studied the defense strategies of public
defenders of juveniles in South Africa and the United States. A candidate
who was an English major researched the nature of audience participation
at poetry readings in Ireland, England and the United States. A political
science major studied attitudes toward popular leaders in the Czech Republic
and South Africa. A biology major compared environmental attitudes of fishers
in the Netherlands with those in the United States. Another student just
always wanted to learn about Buddhist practices in Nepal and compared them
with Buddhist practitioners in Germany and the United States.
Not all IF candidates link their InterFuture research with their college
majors or their career aspirations but for those who do the advantages of
having a rigorous and uniquely sensational component to their applications
for graduate school or employment are enormous. For others, the chance to
step out of the primary focus of their coursework represented an opportunity
to expand their horizons in new and unexpected ways which changed them forever.
In the spring of the sophomore year, students can apply or will be nominated for the program. Training begins in early to mid-June when nominated students attend an introductory conference where they will consider which country or countries they would like to visit and what topic they would like to investigate cross-culturally. (Students must be in good academic standing and be able to secure at least one faculty recommendation. )
Between this first conference in June and the second training conference in early August, IF candidates perform background research on their proposed topic and locales. At the August conference, they learn about research methods and design a research plan of action.
In the fall semester of their junior year, candidates help choose who in their university will comprise their primary advisor and the evaluator of their research. Candidates enroll at their home institution in language courses, if necessary, and other courses which relate to their topic or locale. They also perform an abbreviated version of their project plan (a "pilot study") in their local community to test its effectiveness. By November 1, candidates submit a final project plan guide for approval by IF staff.
In January, students attend a pre-departure conference emphasizing training in cross-cultural awareness. In early February, candidates individually depart for their (first) locale.
IF candidates are met in their foreign locale(s) by IF country coordinators, who help arrange housing and access to an in-country project advisor. Housing and flight costs and supplied by InterFuture. Apart from advice and suggestions, IF candidates perform their research independently.
At the end of April, IF candidates gather in Amsterdam for a wrap-up conference at which time they share with each other their results, tentative conclusions and experiences. Following this conference, IF candidates return home or travel to their next locale to begin their second cross-cultural comparison.
Upon return to the United States, IF candidates submit a thesis for consideration to their on-campus advisor in order to receive course credit for their research. Upon completion of their project thesis, a student can expect to receive the equivalent of one semester of full-time credit if one foreign locale was visited. If two locales were visited, two semesters of full-time credit will be accredited.
Link to see what IF 2000 scholars are doing!