Thanks to study abroad programs, students can fulfill six language units toward the Sacramento State language requirement in six weeks, without ever entering a campus classroom.

Undergraduate and graduate summer language travel programs are offered in Guadalajara, Mexico.

“This is not your average summer school,” said Sac State Spanish professor and undergraduate tour leader Kathy Moore.

The College of Continuing Education and the Spanish branch of the department of foreign languages prepared a six-week travel session for the summer semester break from mid-June through August.

Guadalajara travel programs immerse participants into the local Spanish-speaking culture. Student participants live with local host families during their weekday stays in Guadalajara, and attend weekly classes and travel excursions.

Tour leaders, who are generally Sac State faculty, are available to students during their stay and lead several of the weekend trips.

Moore has been a tour leader for eight years. She said that, generally, one language unit can be earned per week of travel study in Mexico.

The language units are applicable toward the Sac State language requirement and are transferable to other universities.

A travel-study package price of around $3,000 includes six units and additional units can be obtained by further study and fees.

Included in the price is the participant’s round-trip airfare, ground transportation, housing with a Mexican family, three day-long excursions, two overnight excursions and two final days with an open agenda in Puerto Vallarta.Some students, like communications junior Josephine Tjen-A-Looi, think the program is worth the money.

“That sounds like a lot of fun,” said Tjen-A-Looi about the Spanish travel study programs. “If I had known that I could get language over with so quickly I probably wouldn’t have wasted my time with another language.”

Spanish professor Jorge Santana has been working with language travel groups for 30 years and led the Peru travel study last summer.

Last year, the undergraduate program had 33 students and the graduate program had 45 students who participated in travel study.

Students, faculty and other individuals are all eligible to apply to the undergraduate programs.

Santana said the Spanish immersion programs encourages students to speak Spanish during all activities and is not recommended for students without any Spanish experience.

He said students should have some language behind them before living and studying in a foreign country.

“Students come back from these programs all pumped up from the experience of living with host families and experiencing a culture first hand,” Santana said. “Many students continue to study the language, especially because they live in California and find it helpful in their careers.”

Other undergraduate study programs are available through California State University International Programs and the CSUS Office of Global Education. Trips to central Europe, South America, Cuba and many other places are offered and units applicable to other subjects can be earned.

International Programs has exchange programs, separate from tour-led travel programs, with nine different countries for students looking for a more settled less travel oriented environment.

These programs, incorporated with foreign universities, have more demanding requirements and usually require at least a full semester stay.History senior Jay Croft earned six language units in six weeks during his studies in Germany last year. Croft found the program through International Programs.

“I had a fabulous time, the work was hard but it was definitely worth it,” Croft said. “You learn so much more about the language, and the country, and the people when you are actually involved first hand.”