Taking historical tours of areas such as Madrid, Barcelona and Lisbon, experiencing cultural performances and media visits are just the few of the adventures that students in Point Park’s International Media course will have this spring. 

For the past seven years, students taking the course have had the opportunity to go on a 12 to 13 day trip abroad after the spring semester. This year’s stops are Spain and Portugal.

“If you even have the slightest feeling that you might want to go, just do it,” Melanie Vadney, a mass communications major, said at an informational meeting on Oct. 22. “If you go into it with an open mind about the culture and the people, you will have a great time.”

Vadney had the time of her life traveling to London with her class.

“You make really good friendships through your travelling experiences together,” Vadney said. 

Brenda McGrath, a psychology major, told students that she felt the same way about her trip to London.

“You’re with each other all day for two weeks so you get to be really close with them,” McGrath said.

McGrath nervously went into the trip with no background in the communications field because of her major in psychology.

“I’m so glad I did it. I feel like it gave me a cool edge on my completely unrelated major,” McGrath said.

Students do some assignments ahead of time while some do them on the trip such as writing a blog, a research paper, or a reflective essay. 

“We bring in a lot of guest speakers to the class throughout the semester and try to go on the trip already having a body of knowledge about the country,” Professor Helen Fallon said at the meeting.

Fallon is the main chaperone for the trip. It is offered to sophomores, juniors, seniors and grad students. The price will be $3,350 to $3,450 and students may be eligible for financial awards. This year’s trip will go from May 11-23 and has an action-packed itinerary. 

“You make the most of the entire time that you’re there,” McGrath said. “We kept an extremely busy schedule in order to pack as much as possible into the trip.”

“We picked Spain because we’ve never gone there in the past, and there’s a lot of media there,” Fallon said. “We plan to learn about the media, culture, history, political system and how it relates to our area.”

The class will take place in the spring semester on Thursdays from 2:40 to 4:10 p.m. For more information on International Media, visit Helen Fallon’s office on the fourth floor of Lawrence Hall.