Grants back study-abroad initiatives in Italy, Canada
Faculty members are planning immersive experiences abroad for Harvard College students — in Italy and in Canada’s far north — with the help of grants from the President’s Innovation Fund for International Experiences (PIFIE). The grants, established to provide seed funding to develop study-abroad opportunities for undergrads, will go to efforts to establish an Italian-language-immersion program in Italy for the first time since 2011 and to explore an outdoors-focused, indigenous culture-based program in Canada’s Northwest Territories. The programs are among four given development grants this year, with the other two covering renewal funding for programs that received planning grants last spring. One of those programs explores language, history, and culture in Tbilisi, Georgia. The second, in Singapore and Penang, Malaysia, is focused on the importance of port cities in Southeast Asian culture and society. The President’s Innovation Fund for International Experiences was established to support faculty members who need to visit potential course sites,...