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Penn State students spent six weeks immersing themselves in Italian language, culture and traditions during the faculty-led program in Todi, which celebrated its 40th anniversary this year.

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During a three-week faculty-led program, students attended lectures, met with advocacy organizations, designed research projects and explored South African culture.

A group of 24 Penn State students traveled to Ireland this summer for the faculty-led program, “The Culture of Democratic Deliberation in Ireland.”

Ava Veith doesn’t understand why more athletes, when they finish playing collegiate sports on turfgrass, don’t pursue careers related to taking care of the playing surface that supported their exploits. To her, it’s a natural progression.

Kaylin Lamaute has been spending the summer finding answers to her fascinations in materials science and engineering through the Adopting Sustainable Partnerships for Innovative Research Ecosystem (ASPIRE) program, an international initiative primarily driven by the Japan Science and Technology Agency.

Penn State students from University Park and Lehigh Valley had the opportunity to travel to Italy this summer and learn firsthand for a three-week course, "Organized Crime in Film and Society."

A longstanding relationship between Pennsylvania and the Baltic nation of Lithuania is expanding through a newly formalized partnership between Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences and Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, Lithuania.

Penn State Global has removed the suspension of University-affiliated travel to the Middle East for faculty and staff. However, faculty and staff who are traveling will still be required to undergo strict review of their travel plans. Student travel remains suspended throughout the Middle East.

The current Global Safety Network system will remain open until close of business on July 31. The system will then be unavailable between Aug. 1 and Aug.16. During this period, new travel records cannot be created or submitted, so all University-affiliated travel occurring during the month of August will need to be entered in the current system by July 31.

Thirty students traveled to Ireland with Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences in May, as part of the three-credit course, ANSC 499: Ireland's Equine Industry, to see how horses are used in the country.

A group of Penn State students recently traveled to Seoul, South Korea, for a course, where they immersed themselves in the country’s rich culture. The course was one of 14 faculty-led education abroad programs offered by the College of the Liberal Arts this summer.

The Penn State faculty-led program in San José, Costa Rica, engaged students in cross-cultural psychology through classroom learning, community engagement and homestay experiences over three weeks.

Penn State Liberal Arts students traveled to Spain and Italy in May to gain hands-on experience with different cultures.

Over the course of eight years, Penn State students enrolled in the “Bicycling Culture and Urban Design” study abroad course have spent two weeks during the summer navigating Copenhagen. This year students also explored the biking culture in Berlin.

Project ECHO at Penn State has partnered with the Dominican Republic’s Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance. Together, they have launched a new 14-session telementoring program: “Comprehensive Care at the Primary Care Level: Prevention and Management of Cardiometabolic and Renal Diseases.”

A semester in France helped Jenna Guarrera combine her studies in French and advertising while building professional connections that led to a summer internship.

As part of our regular “We Are!” feature, we recognize 19 Penn Staters who have gone above and beyond what’s asked of them in their work at the University.

Ketan Dighe, a fourth-year doctoral candidate in biomedical engineering at Penn State, was recently awarded a two-year predoctoral fellowship in translational medicine by the PhRMA Foundation, a nonprofit organization that supports innovative biopharmaceutical research. The award will support Dighe’s research on developing an affordable rapid companion diagnostic test for gonorrhea, which would help patients get matched to the therapies that are most likely to benefit them.

On July 1, Penn State’s Alliance for Education, Science, Engineering, and Design with Africa will host a joint symposium with the African-led Partnership for Skills in Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology (PASET) to strengthen and expand the Penn State-PASET partnership and collaboration.

Penn State is tied at No. 23 in the U.S. out of 184 nationally ranked institutions in the 2027 QS World University Rankings. Penn State also tied at No. 7 among U.S. public institutions, and at No. 5 among Big Ten universities, and is once again the top-ranked public university in Pennsylvania. Internationally, Penn State is tied at No. 92, placing the University in the top 6% worldwide among the 1,504 institutions ranked overall by QS.

Penn State Global and the Chinese Language Club jointly held “Chinese Language Night” in April at Penn State Abington. Organizers invited Joe Sam, president of the Zhengdao Chinese Language Association (ZDCLA), along with Chinese calligraphy artists and instructors, to lead a cultural program featuring traditional philosophy, live calligraphy demonstrations and interactive workshops designed to deepen intercultural understanding on campus.

Sarah M. Assmann, Waller Professor of Biology at Penn State, is working to better understand how plants respond to environmental signals — and is applying that understanding to develop crops more resilient to environmental stress. In this Q&A, Assmann discussed how plants cope with environmental stress, as well as how more resilient crops could not only increase agricultural food security but also help cool the warming climate.

Additional details are now available for the transition to a new platform for Penn State’s Global Safety Network by the start of the fall 2026 semester. The GSN is a required step in the international travel process for all Penn State students, faculty, staff or authorized volunteers (except for those traveling on Education Abroad programs).

Penn State Extension webinars on animal health and dairy production now are available in Ukrainian, opening a new channel for agricultural education in a country where war has made travel and in-person training increasingly difficult.

Penn State materials science and engineering student Matias Moreno earned two of the nation's most competitive undergraduate scholarships — the Astronaut Scholarship and the Udall Scholarship — recognizing both his excellence in STEM research and his commitment to sustainability.

Six Penn Staters have received awards in the 2026-27 Fulbright U.S. Student Program — five finalists and an alternate.

Payton Smith will travel to Senegal to immerse herself in the French language and culture of the region with the support of a Boren Fellowship.

In this Q&A, Nita Bharti, associate professor of biology at Penn State, and postdoctoral scholar Kelsee Baranowski discuss what Ebola is, how it affects people and why this outbreak matters to people around the world.

As part of our regular “We Are!” feature, we recognize 20 Penn Staters who have gone above and beyond what’s asked of them in their work at the University.

Sabine Klahr, vice provost for Global at Penn State, has announced her transition to a phased retirement from the University, beginning July 1. During her phased retirement, Klahr will serve as special adviser in the Office of the Provost, supporting the advancement of key international initiatives and supporting the transition of leadership in Penn State Global.

Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences welcomed a delegation from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, or FAO, to University Park last week to mark the first anniversary of the World Food Forum Youth Food Lab North America at Penn State partnership and to explore opportunities to deepen collaboration on global agrifood systems, innovation and education.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming global health and infectious disease science, bringing new opportunities but could also exacerbate existing disparities, according to Matt Ferrari, professor of biology. In this Q&A, Ferrari spoke about the promises and pitfalls of AI and large language models in infectious disease modeling, and how intentional collaboration could reshape the future of infectious disease science.

Due to ongoing construction projects in Boucke Building on the University Park campus, Penn State Global staff normally assigned to the Boucke Building will be relocating for the summer. This will impact students, faculty and staff who are planning in-person interactions with the office throughout the summer. The relocation will last from May 11 through Aug. 14.

Penn State Altoona held its annual Student Awards Ceremony on Monday, April 27, in the Wolf Kuhn Theatre of the Misciagna Family Center for Performing Arts. The event concluded with the presentation of the Eric A. and Josephine S. Walker Award to senior psychology student Layna Henry.

Every child can recall their first trip to a museum and the sense of wonder and excitement that comes from laying eyes on the real-life remnants of a dinosaur or the preserved artifacts of our ancestors. For a group of students taking a course on the impacts of colonization on science museums, that spark was ignited by all the work that went into the completion of those museum exhibits.

Penn State University and Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea continue to strengthen their long‑standing strategic partnership through an impactful staff exchange program that emphasizes professional development, global engagement, the sharing of best practices in international education and championing institutional partnerships.

Penn State Global is announcing that the Global Safety Network, or GSN, will transition to a new platform by the fall 2026 semester. The upgrade is intended to streamline the travel documentation process for Penn State-affiliated travelers while also improving the efficiency of internal review and processing.

Alexandra Persiko, director for global partnerships in Penn State Global, was recently awarded the DAAD Alumni Association Mid-Career Professional Award. The DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) recognizes exceptional contributions to advancing international exchange between Germany and the United States.

Jody Pritt, associate vice provost for Penn State Global, recently completed a Fulbright International Education Administrator experience in Taiwan. While there, she engaged with higher education leaders, visited academic institutions and explored opportunities for international collaboration.

Recent News

Faculty-led program in Todi, Italy, celebrates 40th anniversary

Students gain global perspective on reproductive justice in South Africa

Penn State students explore democracy, culture and community in Ireland

Penn State turfgrass science doctoral student interns with MetLife Stadium crew

Quest for research answers takes undergraduate student to Japan

Students learn about origins of organized crime during three-week course in Italy

College of Ag Sciences and Lithuania advance agriculture through partnership

Penn State Global lifts Middle East travel suspension for faculty and staff

Global Safety Network to be unavailable Aug. 1-16 for transition to new platform

Students experience Irish equine industry and culture with study-abroad trip

Students get up-close view of South Korean culture during faculty-led program

Penn State students explore cross-cultural psychology through Costa Rica program

Students dive into Spanish, Italian language and culture via embedded program