05/15/2025
By Katharine Webster

 Education and Honors College students are studying abroad in Belize, England and Greece this year, thanks to School of Education faculty who are leading new programs to expand their students’ educational and cultural horizons.

Amya Ortiz, a junior education major from Dracut, Massachusetts, called her experience at Placencia Elementary School in Belize during spring break “life-changing.”

The UMass Lowell education students created classroom lessons, helped to clean up a coral reef and organized field day activities for Election Day, a national holiday in Belize, so the students’ parents could drop off their children before voting.

“It was definitely fantastic,” Ortiz says. “It was really cool learning about a different culture, and it will help me be more culturally responsive in the classroom.”

Image by Colleen Tapley

Giannina Bauer, a junior education major from Costa Mesa, California, had never traveled outside the United States before. She not only learned about a different culture; she also learned a lot about herself, she says. Now she’s considering teaching abroad after graduation.

“I adapted really well and I made meaningful connections with the kids,” she says. “By being so open, I was able to learn so much.”

The Belize study abroad program was designed and led by Education Assistant Teaching Professor Colleen Tapley, who was part of an education research team in Belize, and co-led by Associate Professor Phitsamay Uy. A nonprofit that supports education in Belize has sponsored Tapley to lead teacher trainings in both public and private schools there, including at Placencia Elementary School.

Tapley first offered the Belize program last spring. That’s also when UTeach Director and Education Associate Clinical Professor Sumudu Lewis launched a new study abroad program in England for students in the UTeach program, an education minor designed for students who are majoring in math, science or engineering.

Tapley also worked with former Education Associate Professor Johanna Tighert to debut a study abroad program to Greece two years ago. That program is open to students in any major, but is led by School of Education faculty.

Students going to Greece are generously supported by anonymous donors, including some from Greater Lowell’s Greek American community, says Demetra Gys, senior director of development. Connie Lanseigne-Case ’53 set up an endowment to help education students study abroad, which benefited several students going to Belize. And another donor is aiding the UTeach program for the second year in a row.

Image by Colleen Tapley

Students in the College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences who plan to study abroad also can apply to the college dean for a World Ready Scholarship, which will be matched by the department in which they major. The Honors College, which co-sponsors the Belize and Greece programs, also offers modest study abroad scholarships to honors students in any major.

“Without support from the dean’s offices and our generous donors, many barriers exist that would not allow for students to participate in study abroad,” Gys says.

Later this month, six education majors, two Honors College students and two more students in other majors (mechanical engineering and criminal justice) will travel to Greece, where they will learn about the country’s history and culture. The program is run in partnership with the American College of Athens, where the students will stay.

Molly Buczynski, an honors history major, can’t wait to visit the ancient sites she’s been studying. A transfer student, she struck a deal with her parents to live at home in Tewksbury so that she can afford to take advantage of UML’s study abroad opportunities. She’s already been to Paris with an Honors College program.

“I just really like connecting what I’ve read to real life,” Buczynski says. “And almost everything in our lives can be connected back to something in ancient Greece.”

This year, the Greece program is being led by Education Clinical Professor Pat Fontaine, who teaches history and social studies education. Ancient civilizations are part of the sixth-grade social studies curriculum in Massachusetts, and the UML education students will create lessons, activities and photo illustrations for a workbook to be used by sixth graders at the Bartlett School in Lowell, she says.

“It’s a good bridge between theory and practice,” Fontaine says.

Buczynski and the other Honors College student created slide shows about the history, architecture and technologies involved in three places they will visit. Buczynski recently presented hers – on the Colossus of Rhodes, the Temple of Artemis and the statue of Zeus at Olympia – to fellow students.

Image by Courtesy

The mechanical engineering and criminal justice students will complete projects related to their majors, Fontaine says. And all of the students will collaborate to write a Greek-style comedy or tragedy to perform on their final night in Athens.

“They’re going to choose their theme, write the script while they’re there, and they’re going to produce it,” she says.

The students also hope to meet with some of UMass Lowell’s Greek alumni. In the meantime, Gys spoke with them about her own childhood growing up Greek American in Lowell and going to Greek school. Fontaine brought in food from a local Greek deli for the students to try.

The study abroad program in England for future math and science teachers is also running again this month.

The students take workshops on the British education system from education faculty at Lewis’s alma mater, the University of Sussex, and observe and teach lessons in math and science at local public schools to better understand differences in curriculum and teaching methods.

They also tour historical sites in London, Arundel Castle and two UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Stonehenge and the city of Bath, renowned for its Roman baths and Georgian architecture.