A.Q. Miller School professor selected for international workshop on education abroad

Nov. 27, 2023

Andrew Smith, assistant director for the news and sports media program and professor of practice in the A.Q. Miller School of Media and Communication, was chosen from applicants across the country to participate in a faculty and administrative education abroad workshop in Barcelona, Spain, in October.

The workshop, called “Los Cinco Sentidos,” focused on using the five senses to create university and faculty-led study abroad programs. Smith collaborated with faculty and administrators from across the country and the international study abroad community, as well as the staff and faculty of Barcelona SAE, the workshop sponsor, to discuss student learning objectives, ways to experience and view new cultures, and participate in activities modeling these principles. Smith says one of his biggest takeaways was “that we can always find ways to incorporate our five senses in our inter-cultural learning to truly experience what others experience.”

Smith has taught photography and digital storytelling in Orvieto, Italy, for KSU in Italy several summers since 2018 and has taken students to London to teach mobile journalism, including an upcoming trip in the spring of 2024.

During the trip, Smith also had the opportunity to do some activities such as visiting the iconic Sagrada Familia church, touring the Gaudi-designed architecture, sitting in on an inter-cultural psychology class with study abroad students, and walking “La Rambla” from the city center to the Mediterranean, a pedestrian road full of street performers and market stalls.