Professor Kevin Mack, who teaches history and philosophy at GCC, has recently been appointed as the new director of the Study Abroad program at the college. Prior to becoming director, Mack had led around five trips for students. He had worked as a co-director before under Darren Leaver, who had been the program director prior to Mack, and said he had also learned how to work with study abroad from Italian instructor Flavio Frontini, who has also planned student trips to countries abroad. 

“We have a strong reputation in Glendale for a study abroad program, so we’re hoping to build on that,” said Mack. Flavio Frontini, who is Mack’s co-director, mentioned that GCC was the number one community college in the US for study abroad before COVID, and they’re hoping to climb up to that position again.

The process of planning a study abroad trip for students is a long one. First, the faculty has to state where they want to take students and what they want to do on the trip. Once the program directors get their proposal, they work on refining it, finding accommodations, and working out logistics; and once everything is planned out, they start to spread the word of the trip. The directors give students lists of possible places they would go to, and students are asked to pick which destination they deem most desirable. Once the directors have these opinions, they try to plan the trips around the cities the students would most like to visit, if possible.

This winter, the program will take students to France for two weeks. There, they will visit multiple historical sites and take classes on French literature and the French language. Mack says that for this coming summer, there will be a two-week program in Armenia, a five-week program to Bali, and a five-week program to Greece. Next winter, in 2026, the directors are planning a five-week program to multiple countries, three of which offer cooking classes during their stay in Italy, and students will be able to take cooking classes with a demonstrator. Mack said that the Study Abroad program wants to broaden their offered countries. He explained that most programs take place in popular cities like Paris, Rome, and London, but they also have a regular program in Bali. They’ve had a program that took students to New Zealand and Australia, and right now they’re hoping to broaden out the program towards East Asia. 

While the program is less costly at a community college than it would be at a university, it still may be too expensive for some students. However, organizers want students to know that there are scholarship opportunities available for study abroad programs. Mack talked about the Benjamin Gilman scholarship, which is a national scholarship that they often direct GCC students to. The Glendale College Foundation also gives the program thousands of dollars that are specifically meant for students who want to participate in study abroad trips. Most of the time, there aren’t enough applicants for all the money they receive, so there is an almost certainty of getting anywhere from $750 to $1,500 that will help pay for the program for qualifying students. 

Margarita Avagyan can be reached at [email protected].