Custom University Travel to Colombia

Designing Your Custom Program

Our approach to faculty-led programs and short-term study abroad is in our name: custom. Like a fingerprint, each faculty-led custom program is unique, and our capabilities across 110+ countries are unmatched. By incorporating your curriculum goals, we source one-of-a-kind experiences that better prepare your students for future careers by exposing them to international culture, businesses, and academic engagements. From selecting your destination to identifying interactive engagements that bring your curriculum to life, our thematic approach ensures that your program is finetuned to the learning outcomes and unique needs of you and your students.

A Personal Partner

Once your program is developed, you’ll work directly with an account manager who will be your champion, working directly with our large team of logistical experts, curriculum specialists, and on-the-ground partners. Our long-time university partners see their account managers as an integral part of their own university teams, ensuring that your program is uniquely yours each and every year.

To begin customizing your program, give us a call at 1-800-422-2368.

Meet Jennifer Fisher

Jennifer Fisher leads our WorldStrides Custom Programs team, working directly with university partners to globalize their curriculum through short-term, faculty-led cultural immersions. Jen brings a passion for customized curriculum solutions to this role after more than 25 years working with institutions of higher learning.

In Colombia, you might choose to explore some of the following topics:

Oil

As Latin America’s fourth largest oil producer, Colombia has an economy that is dominated by its oil reserves. Oil comprises over 45% of exports, which can fuel both positive and negative fluctuations in the country’s economy. See how oil exploration is managed when existing reserves appear limited, and examine the commodity’s impact on trade both within Latin America and beyond.

Financial Services

Colombia is an especially ripe market for banks, as less than seventy five percent of its people have bank accounts and fewer than three percent have a mortgage. Despite this low penetration, analyze how the Colombian banking sector remained robust during the global financial crisis and helped form a stable backbone for the country’s economy.

Electronics

Ranking as South America’s 2^nd largest high tech market, Colombia is a major producer of electronics and appliances. Investigate how recent government efforts to promote the electronic sector have encouraged innovation and education. Explore what policies are required to ensure Colombia’s role in the global high tech industry of the future.

Colombia Now

After centuries under colonial rule, Colombia achieved its independence from Spain in 1819 as “Gran Colombia,” a short-lived state that occupied most of northern South America until its collapse in 1831, when Colombia and neighboring Ecuador and Venezuela emerged as separate nations. Colombia was the first to institute a constitutional government, making it the continent’s oldest democracy. Today, Colombia is known for its significant natural resources, modern cities, and a diverse culture that reflects the indigenous Indian, Spanish and African origins of its people.

Despite long-running struggles with anti-government insurgent groups and drug-related security issues, the government has made great strides in recent years to secure peace with revolutionaries, minimize crime, and protect its strong democratic institutions. This movement towards internal stability is also mirrored in Colombia’s swelling economy, which has been a growth leader among the biggest Latin American economies for the last several years.

Colombia is a free market economy with major commercial and investment ties to countries around the world, including the United States. It depends heavily on exports of oil, coffee, and cut flowers, and it has consistently seen significant GDP growth of late. Economists have especially praised the country’s strength in both the stock and bond markets and a skilled labor force, though concern still lies in the fact that most of Colombia’s exports are commodity-based, making the country especially vulnerable to commodity price dips. Other worries include high unemployment, income inequality, and poverty rates, which have been falling. The world continues to watch in hopes that Colombia will continues its positive evolution.