Global Programs

Our Global Initiatives curriculum is devised — and continually reviewed and revised — to ensure our students are getting the most out of their travel experiences, whether it is a week-long tour of Civil War battlefields or year-long course of study in Madrid.

Exeter Terms Off Campus

Become fluent in French, take a walk in Shakespeare’s shoes, ski in the Alps with your German classmates or tend a working farm in Vermont.

Our off-campus term programs allow Exonians a new experience away from the Harkness table. Spend three months abroad in Germany, England, Italy, Japan, Spain or the Bahamas, or stay a little closer to Exeter with opportunities at the Mountain School in Vershire, Vermont, or our Washington Intern Program on Capitol Hill.

Experiential Learning

Our fall, spring and summer breaks provide myriad opportunities to take our education on the road, redefining the term “field trip.” Week-long trips, led by Exeter faculty, offer programming a variety subjects and interests:

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Visit Ellis Island and discover how immigration has shaped the city of New York and its collective culture. Study blues and jazz in New Orleans, while also delving into the genres’ complicated past rooted in slavery and segregation. Head to Philadelphia and investigate the history and economics of private prisons. Our Harkness pedagogy is grounded in the belief that we are better equipped to learn and to lead when our thoughts are tested by others, particularly by those whose thoughts or identities are different from our own.

History, Literature and the Arts

Study Shakespeare, dig into classical archeology or tour with the music department on a cultural exchange and performance program. The Classical Languages Department partners with The Gabii Project to spend part of summer on a dig in Central Italy. Our History Department makes regular trips to Alabama to be near the origins of the Civil Rights movement. And 2024, our jazz ensemble toured and performed in the birthplace of jazz, New Orleans.

Environment and Sustainability

Exeter students might venture to Yellowstone National Park to study wolf reintroduction and the effects of climate change; or travel to Costa Rica contribute to pollinator research in the mountains Puntarenas province. Our programs provide students with opportunities to explore environmental issues and develop a sense of connection with and stewardship for the natural world.

Business and Entrepreneurship

Using startup-friendly Berlin, Germany, as their classroom, students learn to leverage their business skills to create sustainable solutions to community challenges. Closer to home, students spend Thanksgiving break in Boston exploring the intersection of ethics and engineering. Other opportunities include a summer of study at Penn’s Wharton School and attending the annual Future Business Leaders of America conference (upcoming destinations include Anaheim, San Antonio and Salt Lake City).

Community Engagement

Spend a school break putting our non sibi values into action in communities beyond Exeter. Our students venture to New Orleans annually to help rebuild communities, including repairing homes, planting gardens, restoring community parks and contributing to other neighborhood revitalization projects.

Other Study Abroad Opportunities

Spend a year immersed in a foreign culture — refining your language skills, living with a host family, and traveling with students from other schools. Chartered collaboratively by Exeter, Phillips Academy and St. Paul’s School in 1964 and now serving hundreds of high schools, School Year Abroad offers students a yearlong, immersive, and international cultural experience. Students live with host families, learn alongside other foreign students, and go deep into a country’s culture, history, literature, art, politics and more.

School Year Abroad

Internships & Fellowships

Exeter has ambitiously expanded its offerings over the past two years for internships for rising seniors. Open by application, the internships place students in diverse professional settings, predominantly mentored by an Exeter alum or parent. Recent opportunities have included shadowing plastic and reconstructive surgeons, research roles in an investment management firm and serving as an assistant for a Bay Area interior designer. These new internships broaden a program that has included a long-running partnership with Dr. Seung Kim ’81, director of the Stanford Diabetes Research Center.

Beyond the table

Best summer ever? Dozens of Exonians carved time out of their summer break to explore the world, from a soak in the geothermal pools of Iceland to an archaeological dig in the sanctuary of Zeus.

There is research that suggests that experience awe can be beneficial for our health and well-being, and I would argue that it also enhances our learning. Discussing the majesty and wonder of the world's first national park around the Harkness table can be a beautiful thing, but it is profoundly enriching to have the full sensory experience IN the park.
Meg Blitzshaw, instructor in biology, on exploring Yellowstone.