I. Introduction

Our departmental mission stems from the Lewis & Clark College objective of knowing the traditions of the liberal arts, testing boundaries through ongoing exploration, and handing on the tools and discoveries of this quest to successive generations. To this end, Overseas & Off-Campus Programs are provided as an extension of LC on-campus academic offerings.

LC Overseas & Off-Campus Programs place students in the global classroom where history, culture, and contemporary issues are studied firsthand. Direct interactions give students the opportunity to better understand host country institutions and values, which they can then compare and contrast with those of the U.S. Students become dynamic global citizens who recognize and appreciate the cultural influences underpinning some of the world’s most pressing and persistent problems as well as their proposed solutions.

Lewis & Clark mounts these programs as both separately valid and mutually supportive enterprises. In all its endeavors it seeks to be a community of scholars who are alive to inquiry, open to diversity, and disciplined to work in an interdependent world.

By producing this manual, the Lewis & Clark College Overseas & Off-Campus Programs Office seeks to increase awareness, both on and off campus, of how our programs work to nurture and sustain an increasingly internationalized academic community that engages in active dialogue between cultures and concepts. This leader manual, while primarily an information source for prospective and current overseas and off campus program leaders, also contains information useful to students, alumni, overseas partner faculty and institutions and LC community members.

Information from each of these quarters appears throughout the manual and we hope that its inclusion will spawn discussions on best practices and new approaches for leaders of Overseas & Off-Campus Programs. In this way, we can maintain this manual as a dynamic document, constantly improving upon supporting information for our programs. One important area that requires effort on everyone’s part is that of student support needs throughout the study abroad experience, including pre-trip orientation, educational travel and readjustment to life in the U.S. and at Lewis & Clark.