Through a new study-abroad program titled “Ancient Perspectives, Modern Eyes,” honors students can now travel to Greece for the summer in the University of Iowa’s first opportunity of this kind.

Based in Athens, Greece, the new UI honors study-abroad program allows students to travel to various ancient sites in Greece. The first trip will take place from early to mid-June in summer 2020, and students in attendance are required to take an honors course in which they gain knowledge to prepare them for the trip.

Limited to 25 students, the estimated costs for each individual on the trip is between $7,000 and $8,000 to cover all fees and purchases.

To apply for the program, the trip was set apart from others because interested students were required to answer questions explaining how the trip would affect them, as well as their previous academic experience with Greece, according to honors documents.

UI Honors Program Director Art Spisak said the first few spots on the trip are offered to students in the honors program, and the remainder are offered to students studying classical languages, ancient civilizations, history, art history, religion, or anthropology.

“This is not the first trip to Greece through the university, but this is the first honors study-abroad course,” Spisak said. “This trip will have a completely new itinerary and curriculum [compared with] any of the previous trips.”

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Spisak said it is important for students to travel and get in touch with ancient civilization, because it makes them more culturally literate.

UI Study Abroad Programs Senior Associate Director Elizabeth Wildenberg de Hernandez said students on the trip can learn about things that textbooks cannot teach them. Students can get real-world experiences in places they would otherwise only see in textbooks, she said.

“Students can actually look at and walk around ancient sites that they are reading about in texts,” Wildenberg de Hernandez said. “They will observe and touch ancient artifacts and talk to scholars based in the location, using a more holistic learning format.”

Students also learn a lot about themselves while studying overseas, Wildenberg de Hernandez added.

“They learn how to work with people that are different from themselves and how to slow down and appreciate different aspects of life that they may not have noticed before,” she said.

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UI Classics Department Undergraduate Studies Director Debra Trusty created the new study-abroad course. She said traveling has always been an important part of her life and has benefited her so much that it motivated her to create the course with students in mind.

While most of the tour is structured, the students will have a few free days in Athens throughout the trip. This will allow the group to safely explore the city at their leisure, Trusty said.

“I think it’s impossible to learn who you are as a person if you don’t travel. I want my students to feel the self-sufficiency and independence that a study-abroad experience brought to me,” Trusty said. “Traveling in any foreign country is an amazing experience because a student learns their limits and abilities.”