Study Abroad in Gaming Austria
This is a dual enrollment course for which students will receive one high school elective credit as well as three college credits from Saint Francis University. Students may apply for the program during their sophomore or junior year, with participation and travel taking place the succeeding June.
The former monastery that serves as dormitory and home base, the Kartause Maria Thronus Iesu (above), is an international historical landmark which serves as an elegant hotel during summer months. It is located in central Austria in the foothills of the Alps.
This study abroad program invites the student to experience an integration of the intellectual, cultural, and spiritual life. Students will be presented the opportunity to grow, develop and be formed into a more mature student while deepening their love for and experience of different cultures, creation, God and the Catholic Church.
This Saint Francis University Professor-in-Residence course, RLST400: Special Topics in Religion: The Sacred Journey, uses the religious concept of “the sacred journey” as a tool for contextualizing and interpreting a study-abroad trip to Gaming, Austria. Students will first examine how “the hero’s journey” has been a defining feature of the world’s religious traditions (East and West), and will further explore how themes associate with this metanarrative have informed the framework of contemporary films and literature. Finally, students will use these insights to make sense of their own journey to Austria specifically and through life more generally.
Students will submit a portfolio with their journal entries, artifacts from their experience (images, videos, travel literature, etc.), and an essay/un-essay* summarizing their “sacred journey” to Austria.
* An “un-essay” is where students have the flexibility to address a question in whatever way they please. Art, music, digital design, and photography are all options. As with a traditional essay, students will be graded based on how their chosen form of expression addresses the question.
This study abroad program invites the student to experience an integration of the intellectual, cultural, and spiritual life. Students will be presented the opportunity to grow, develop and be formed into a more mature student while deepening their love for and experience of different cultures, creation, God and the Catholic Church.
This Saint Francis University Professor-in-Residence course, RLST400: Special Topics in Religion: The Sacred Journey, uses the religious concept of “the sacred journey” as a tool for contextualizing and interpreting a study-abroad trip to Gaming, Austria. Students will first examine how “the hero’s journey” has been a defining feature of the world’s religious traditions (East and West), and will further explore how themes associate with this metanarrative have informed the framework of contemporary films and literature. Finally, students will use these insights to make sense of their own journey to Austria specifically and through life more generally.
Students will submit a portfolio with their journal entries, artifacts from their experience (images, videos, travel literature, etc.), and an essay/un-essay* summarizing their “sacred journey” to Austria.
* An “un-essay” is where students have the flexibility to address a question in whatever way they please. Art, music, digital design, and photography are all options. As with a traditional essay, students will be graded based on how their chosen form of expression addresses the question.