By Cydni Sloan —

The study abroad program is available to college students, and allows for amazing opportunities and experiences to be gained.

The program allows course credit while visiting another country.

Study abroad has been an option known to many students, however, there is another abroad opportunity available.

The International Service Learning Program, ISLP, is an abroad opportunity where you work as a part of an academic team and teach in local schools for a week.

The topics are related to your academic program, as well as selected by leaders of the host country’s local community.

Steve Sohn, communication associate professor, leads the Croatia trip in May. He said the trip provides a hands-on learning experience in a different culture — an invaluable and truly rewarding experience.

ISLP is designed for a variety of majors. The program is listed as a course for the specific disciplines.

After enrolling and paying the program fee, you must attend workshops every week up until the trip takes place. These orientations and workshops prepare you for the service project you will be doing, teaching you about the people of the country, their culture and history.

For spring 2018, ISLP plans to visit Belize, Botswana and Croatia.

The academic disciplines working with Belize ISLP are communication, criminal justice, dental, law and nursing. The trip dates for Belize are March 10 – 17, 2018.

For Botswana ISLP, the disciplines are engineering, geography/geosciences, public health, sports administration and social work, with trip dates April 29 – May 8, 2018.

Disciplines communication, engineering and nursing will be available to choose Croatia as well, with trip dates May 13 – May 23, 2018.

ISLP has other locations they visit every year, such as Trinidad and Tobago and the Philippines, however, no upcoming dates have been listed.

Kaiya English, a criminal justice student, attended the last Philippines trip and was thrilled. Having family from the Hawaii islands, she was excited to be able to travel to another island and be of service to the youth there. With her criminal justice team, she taught a class on violence.

Although fun and rewarding, ISLP trips have a price attached.

The cost for the ISLP trips range from $2,400 to $3,400. There are scholarship opportunities available every semester to assist with the cost of the trip.

The prices cannot compare to what may be the experience of a lifetime, though.

For more information on the International Service Learning Program, check out their website www.Louisville.edu/islp.