Immersive, faculty-led study trips
As an engaged major, Global Development encourages students to learn from and with communities both locally and globally. In addition to the required eight-week internship and required courses designed to prepare students to engage productively with communities and make sense of their experiences, Global Development offers immersive study courses led by our faculty.
How to apply
- Look for GDEV 3500/5500 (Fall-Winter) or GDEV 3502/5502 (Spring) on the roster when it is released.
- Apply through the Cornell Experience application pages.
- Upon acceptance, you will receive a permission code to enroll from the undergraduate coordinator in Global Development.
- Use this permission code to enroll in the course via Student Center ahead of the enrollment deadline.
- Enjoy the course and immersive faculty-led study abroad experience with your fellow students and professor!

Fall-Winter course format
GDEV 3500/5500 Development in Action: Fall Faculty-Led Study Trip Preparation
- 0.5 credits of classroom instruction
- Occurs in the second seven weeks of the Fall semester as a one-hour class that meets weekly
GDEV 3501/5501 Development in Action: Winter Faculty-Led Study Trip counts
- 2.5 credits of field-based practicum
- Occurs in January over Winter break with at least 62.5 practicum hours, which will be structured as an immersive, on-site learning experience over 8-14 days at an off-campus site
Spring course format
GDEV 3502/5502 Development in Action: Spring Break Faculty-Led Study Trip
- 1.5 credits of classroom instruction to occur through the entire Spring semester as a 75-minute class that meets weekly
- 1.5 credits of field-based practicum to occur over Spring break with at least 37.5 practicum hours, which will be structured as an immersive, on-site learning experience over 7 days at an off-campus site
Applications
The application period is currently closed. Applications for Fall '25-Winter '26 trips will be due in September 2025, and applications for Spring '26 trips will be due in October 2025. Stay tuned!
Note:
- Financial assistance from the Department of Global Development is available for GDEV students who are eligible for financial aid at Cornell.
- All faculty-led study trips will count toward elective requirements in the Global Development major concentrations.
Current course offerings
Agents of Change
Taught by Scott Peters and Mary Jo Dudley
This class is designed to support the growth and development of students as agents of change. It’s centered on the study of community organizing and development, a multidimensional craft with many situational and cultural variations. We’ll explore different theories, models, and practices of community organizing from many cultures and contexts through a mix of readings, discussions, skills-based workshops, guest speakers, and a week-long engaged learning field trip to Uruguay. The trip will include hands-on work with community partners and students from the Universidad de la República during Cornell’s spring break. Students from Cornell and the Universidad de la República will co-design the engaged learning experiences in collaboration with community partners. As we move through the semester, we’ll pose and answer two key questions that relate to the work of being an effective agent of change: What do we need to know? What do we need to know how to do? We’ll take these and other questions up together, using tools and processes from many disciplines and fields. In doing so we’ll join and contribute to a long history of debate about the theory and practice of democracy as a way of life.
Evolving Concepts of Food System Transformation and Rural Development in a Changing China
Taught by Terry Tucker
This faculty-led study trip is designed to acquaint students with major issues, challenges and promising innovations in agriculture and food systems in China, a country that has experienced profound social, economic, environmental and technological changes in the past quarter century. In partnership with China Agricultural University, students will learn about transforming food systems in ways that promote more equitable access, strengthen resilience to shocks, advance human nutrition, and/or mitigate negative environmental impacts. Conversations with farmers, entrepreneurs and innovators across the food system will provide insights into their views on the nature of food system change and challenges, the factors driving system change, and the social, economic, environmental and political consequences of change. Rural visits will expose students to China’s experiments and experiences related to rural development and agrarian change.
Climate Change and Socio-Environmental Transformation in the Mekong Delta
Taught by Jenny Goldstein and Thúy Tranviet
This course examines climate change adaptation and socio-environmental transformation in Vietnam's Mekong Delta through engaged learning and participatory international field research. Students analyze how environmental challenges—including flooding, subsidence, and saltwater intrusion—intersect with agricultural production, local livelihoods, and food security in this crucial rice-growing region. Through a two-week field experience in Vietnam hosted by Can Tho University in the Mekong Delta region, students interact with farmers, ethnic minority communities, and local experts to understand indigenous agricultural practices, renewable energy initiatives, and adaptation strategies. The course explores how climate change reshapes traditional agrarian systems and socio-economic development, with particular attention to marginalized communities. Students gain practical international experience while investigating the implications of Delta transformation for global food systems. Through hands-on research and community engagement, students enhance their global awareness and develop critical perspectives on climate adaptation in rapidly changing agricultural landscapes.
Chasing the Celtic Tiger: Development Challenges in Ireland
Taught by John Sipple
The “Celtic Tiger” was a period of rapid economic development across Ireland from 1995-2008. In this time, Ireland transformed from a poor (by western standards), rural nation that had experienced tremendous out-migration over the previous 150 years to a surprising hub of technology and growth. This course will examine the growth and infrastructure investment (e.g., transportation, schools, healthcare), including social and economic development activities. We will examine and experience the uneven development and residual hope that followed the global financial crisis of 2008. This course will examine the history of development in Ireland in pre-, mid-, and post Celtic Tiger, embedding our study in a small number of communities including Dublin, Galway, Gaeltacht islands (Inis Meain), and Kilbeggan.
Past course offerings
Social Inequalities in Africa
Taught by Parfait Eloundou-Enyegue
This course will explore the manifestations, depth, and reproduction of inequality in sub-Saharan Africa, a region that is becoming a global epicenter of inequality. Throughout the course and fieldwork in Cameroon, the students will examine the myriad of manifestations of inequality across various institutions across an individual’s life course, from cradle to grave. It will cover access to maternal health care (at birth), adequate nutrition (in early childhood), schooling and extracurricular cultivation (in childhood and adolescence), employment and adequate housing (in adulthood) and social security (in old-age). For each of these outcomes, students will visit and contrast people and institutions at both extremes of the distribution. More importantly, they will analyze the importance of discrete life experiences and various institutions in maintaining and reproducing inequality. The field experience will be facilitated by IFORD and PICHNET.
Agroecology: Theory and Practice
Taught by Rachel Bezner Kerr
Agroecology is a holistic approach to food systems that applies social and ecological principles and adapts to the local agroecosystem and cultural context. Students will be hosted by the non-profit, farmer-led organization Soils, Food and Healthy Communities organization (SFHC), who has long-term experience carrying out participatory research and training on agroecology, alongside gender, nutrition and climate change adaptation. Most of the time the students will stay at the SFHC Farmer Research and Training Centre, in northern Malawi. They will learn and collaborate with local farmers, communities, students and researchers to learn about agroecology in practice, including farmer experimentation, indigenous knowledge, and gender issues in agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa. Activities will include visiting a community seed bank, participating in implementing agroecological practices alongside farmers, helping to cook local recipes as part of community recipe days, attending agroecological farmers’ markets, and meeting with policy-makers, extension workers and academics involved in agroecology. They will, in conjunction with Malawian collaborators, reflect on their own relationships with food systems, and consider how agriculture and food systems can support food security, nutrition, rural livelihoods, community and ecosystem health.
Culture, Communities & Development: From Upstate NY to Quito, Ecuador
ECUADOR | SPRING 2024
Faculty: Julie Ficarrra and Sofia Villenas
Developed in partnership with Universidad San Francisco de Quito, this course invites students to explore the complexities of culture and community and their impact on the practice of development, with students and faculty from Universidad San Francisco de Quito, and community partners in Upstate New York and Quito, Ecuador. Together, we will apply theories of cultural change, intercultural communication, and community empowerment to the geographic contexts of Upstate New York and Quito, Ecuador. USFQ student and faculty collaborators will come to Cornell for in-person collaborative work and will learn from and with community partners off-campus in both Ithaca and Buffalo. We will then all travel together (USFQ and Cornell students) from Syracuse to Quito, to continue our collaborative learning.
In Quito, Cornell students will learn about community-based development in the areas of: poverty alleviation, food security, education, and elder inclusion from USFQ faculty and community experts. They’ll then spend time with community-based organizations that address these development challenges in and around Quito. Cornell students will return to NY and the remainder of the course will be focused on critical reflection of the community-based global learning experience and a final collaborative solution-focused project with our Ecuadorian partners.
Learn more about the Ecuador study trip and USFQ exchange in the CALS Newsroom.
Agriculture & Food Systems of Costa Rica
COSTA RICA | FALL 2023-WINTER 2024
Faculty: Marvin Pritts, Terry Tucker, Justine Vanden Heuvel
This course will expose students to the organizations, labor conditions, trade policies, and gender considerations that impact value chains in Costa Rica, with a focus on specialty crop production such as flowers, pineapples, bananas, and coffee.
Learn more about this trip in the Cornell Chronicle photo essay and Instagram reel.
Discover more about recent trips
Costa Rica
Students explore Costa Rica's agriculture and food systems
Students traveled throughout Costa Rica to engage with the organizations, labor conditions, trade policies and gender considerations that impact value chains. They focused on visiting farms that produce specialty crops from coffee to cacao, bananas and flowers.
Ecuador
Cornell-USFQ partnership forges equity in international classroom
The engaged course "Culture, Communities & Development: From Upstate NY to Quito, Ecuador" met online weekly while also allowing immersive international field experiences during spring breaks: Universidad de San Francisco Quito (USFQ) students traveled to upstate New York over their break in March, with Cornell students traveling to Quito in April. In both contexts, students met with community-based organizations to learn how they are confronting local challenges with culturally relevant approaches.


Photos from the field
In the inaugural Development In Action course, students traveled to Costa Rica with professors Marvin Pritts, Terry Tucker, and Justine Van Heuvel. Get a glimpse of their experience here.










The Global Development course "Development in Action" visits Costa Rica to learn about agriculture and food systems.
The Global Development course "Development in Action" visits Costa Rica to learn about agriculture and food systems.
The Global Development course "Development in Action" visits Costa Rica to learn about agriculture and food systems.
The Global Development course "Development in Action" visits Costa Rica to learn about agriculture and food systems.
The Global Development course "Development in Action" visits Costa Rica to learn about agriculture and food systems.
The Global Development course "Development in Action" visits Costa Rica to learn about agriculture and food systems.
The Global Development course "Development in Action" visits Costa Rica to learn about agriculture and food systems.
The Global Development course "Development in Action" visits Costa Rica to learn about agriculture and food systems.
The Global Development course "Development in Action" visits Costa Rica to learn about agriculture and food systems.
The Global Development course "Development in Action" visits Costa Rica to learn about agriculture and food systems.
The faculty perspective
What do faculty-led study trips mean for our faculty? What inspires them to take students into the field? Hear what engaged learning opportunities mean to Professor Marvin Pritts, who has traveled with students to India, Belize, and Costa Rica.