RELEASED: December 11, 2008

DANVILLE, KY—Centre students are no strangers to the world. In fact, 85 percent of Centre students study abroad—that's the highest percentage in the state and the sixth-highest percentage among any of the 4,000-plus colleges in the nation.

While traditional exchange programs exist at Centre, the core component of the study abroad programming at Centre includes the distinctive Centre-in-London, Centre-in-Strasbourg, and Centre-in-Mexico programs. Each spring and fall term, Centre professors with a specific knowledge of these locations travel and live with students on site, coordinating special trips and other activities.

Of course, there are more options. Students may choose a Centre exchange program, which operates in a more traditional manner. Each year, students travel to Yamaguchi Prefectural University in Japan, Reading University in England, and one of three sister universities in Belfast Ireland: Queen's University, University of Ulster, or the Belfast Institute of Further and Higher Education.

To extend the possibilities even further, Centre is a part of the Kentucky Institute for International Studies (KIIS), a consortium of Kentucky universities and colleges that sponsor affordable summer programs to Athens/Rome, Austria, Brazil, China, Costa Rica, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Thailand/Burma (Myanmar), and other locations. KIIS also offers a fall and spring program in Segovia, Spain, and a fall program in Regensburg, Germany. To participate in a KIIS semester program, students take a temporary leave of absence from Centre.

In addition, Centre's three-week intensive term—CentreTerm—offers a host of three-week travel opportunities that focus on specific aspects of a region's culture, geography, or history. Past courses have included Barbados: Research in Primate Behavior; Cameroon: Political History of an Evolving Nation; and Australia: The Construction of National Identity.

Centre students have also traveled to many other exciting destinations, such as India, China, Morocco, Indonesia, New Zealand, Vietnam, Peru, Bolivia, and Turkey, to name only a few. What's more, many have blogged about their journeys in Centre's Travel Journals. Many of these programs are at no additional cost to students with the exception of airfare.

To learn more about Centre's various study abroad options, click here.

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Founded in 1819, Centre College is ranked among the U.S. News top 50 national liberal arts colleges. Consumers Digest ranks Centre No. 1 in educational value among all U.S. liberal arts colleges. Centre alumni, known for their nation-leading loyalty in annual financial support, include two U.S. vice presidents and two Supreme Court justices. For more, visit http://www.centre.edu/web/elevatorspeech/

For news archives go to http://www.centre.edu/web/news/newsarchive.html.