Travel and Field Learning Experiences

The IU Southeast School of Social Sciences offers travel and field experience opportunities that take learning beyond the classroom. These experiences deepen your understanding of cultures, communities, and societal systems through direct engagement. Whether studying history on location, exploring political institutions, or analyzing global social trends firsthand, you’ll gain practical insight and broaden your perspective, preparing you for meaningful careers in an interconnected world.

Several courses offer excursions, including Introduction to Psychology trips to the Louisville Zoo, where students get a behind-the-scenes tour to learn how an understanding of animal behavior and training is used to keep the animals healthy. Students in the International Studies major visit local nonprofit organizations to volunteer their time supporting refugees and area restaurants that serve authentic cuisine from different cultures. Several criminal justice courses include trips to local prisons.

The Political Science program takes a team of students to engage in the College Model United Nations simulation every fall semester. Students work with faculty prior to the conference to prepare information on selected topics for assigned countries whose positions they will represent during the conference. 

Past study abroad experiences have included trips to France and Sweden in connection with psychology courses.

Many courses offer opportunities to take learning experiences outside the classroom. Some of the course-based opportunities include community-based projects where students either create profiles of local counties or work together on a community-based project. A spring Sociology Senior Seminar class recently completed a community-based project for Washington Community Schools as their class capstone project. 

Students can pursue internships as part of their degree experience. Common internships involve students working with clients in applied behavioral analysis organizations such as Hopebridge, Bluegrass Center for Autism, and Little Star. Other internship sites include the Center for Women and Families, Youth Link, and Associates in Counseling and Psychotherapy. 

Students in all the Social Sciences conduct their own research as part of their degrees. The school provides funding for students to present their research at regional conferences such as the Indiana Academy of Social Sciences meeting, the Midwestern Psychological Association meeting, and the North Central Association for Counselor Education and Supervision conference. Many of our students also present their research at the IUS spring Student Conference and the IU Undergraduate Research Conference.  

Social Sciences students sometimes get paid positions at the Applied Research and Education Center (AREC) on campus where they apply their research skills to address the community needs. Sometimes these experiences lead to students being listed as authors on publications that result from this research.